Surprisingly Strong K-band Emission Found in Low Luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei

Understand

We examine the near-infrared (NIR) emission from low-luminosity AGNs (LLAGNs).

• Our galaxy sample includes 15 objects with detected 2-10 keV X-ray emission, dynamical black hole mass estimates from the literature, and available Gemini/NIFS integral field spectroscopy (IFU) data.
• We find evidence for red continuum components at the center of most galaxies, consistent with the hot dust emission seen in higher luminosity AGN.
• We decompose the spectral data cubes into a stellar and continuum component, assuming the continuum component comes from thermal emission from hot dust.