The Colloquium takes place every Wednesday at 11:15 AM - Warsaw Copernicus Astronomical Centre online by means of Zoom platform. The Colloquium is given in English and chaired by dr Stanisław Bajtlik (bajtlik@camk.edu.pl). People from outside of the Copernicus Center are very welcome to participate. For technical detailes please contact Dr. Stanislaw Bajtlik.
Dominika Król (Harvard Smithonian CfA)
One of the crucial parameters characterizing the interstellar medium (ISM) is its metallicity, which is associated with the chemical evolution of a galaxy’s stellar populations. However, stellar feedback is only part of the story. The extent to which active galactic nuclei (AGN) influence the chemical evolution of their hosts remains an open question. In my talk, I will present spatially resolved metallicity (log(O/H)) maps for Mrk 573, a Compton-thick AGN. By applying theoretical metallicity diagnostics tailored to AGN-driven emission to Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data, we probe the metallicity out to ~1 kpc scales, with tens-of-parsecs resolution across the ionization bicone. We find significant metallicity enhancement in AGN-dominated regions, with oxygen abundances reaching up to ~3xSolar, strongly correlated with the Seyfert/LINER Index, defined as the distance of a point from the Seyfert/LINER division line in the S-BPT diagram. Metallicity enrichment traces trace the VLA 6~cm jet/radio lobe emission. This, together with the lack of evidence for star formation in the bi-cone region, suggests that the enrichment originates from metals transported from the nuclear AGN region by winds, outflows, or jets. I will discuss the possible sources and implications of this metal enrichment.
Journal Club takes place on Mondays at 11:15 AM in the Seminar Room. The presentation is given in English and is chaired by Journal Club Coordinators. Anyone interested in giving a Journal Club talk is encouraged to contact the email: journalclub(@camk.edu.pl).
Paulina Karczmarek (NCAC, Warsaw)
Discussion paper link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-025-02770-w
