ReveaLLAGN 3: Revealing the Infrared Spectral Energy Distributions of Low Luminosity AGN
Abstract
The spectral energy distributions of active galactic nuclei (AGN) provide valuable information on the emission mechanisms taking place in their inner regions. Here we use the James Webb Space Telescope to study the near and mid-infrared spectral energy distributions of seven nearby low-luminosity active galaxy nuclei from 1.7 to 24 μm. We cleanly separate the AGN spectrum by performing spatial fits of the two-dimensional images across all wavelengths. We then compare these clean unresolved spectra to aperture-based spectra and show that they effectively remove galaxy contamination. Comparing our infrared measurements to X-ray emission, we find that low-luminosity AGN have enhanced near-infrared emission relative to more luminous AGN, a trend that correlates with radio-loudness, while their mid-infrared-to-X-ray ratios are comparable. A majority of our targets show strong compact silicate emission suggesting the presence of warm dust on parsec scales in these systems. We also quantify the near- and mid-infrared power-law slopes and colors of low-luminosity AGN. In the near-infrared we find AGN of all luminosities have similar spectral slopes and colors, however in the mid-infrared, we find low-luminosity AGN typically have steeper slopes and redder colors than more luminous AGN. Both the strong silicate emission and steep mid-infrared slopes disagree with existing models for low-luminosity AGN spectral energy distributions.
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BibTeX
@misc{ohlson2026reveallagn,
title = {{ReveaLLAGN 3: Revealing the Infrared Spectral Energy Distributions of Low Luminosity AGN}},
author = {David Ohlson and Anil C. Seth and Kameron Goold and Nischal Acharya and Torsten Böker and Antoine Dumont and Ruby Duncan and Michael Eracleous and Anja Feldmeier-Krause and Juan Antonio Fernández-Ontiveros and Elena Gallo and Andy D. Goulding and Jenny E. Greene and Luis C. Ho and Sera B. Markoff and Mallory Molina and Richard M. Plotkin and Almudena Prieto and Shobita Satyapal and Glenn van de Ven and Jonelle L. Walsh},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.06916},
eprint = {2611.06916},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.06916},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - ReveaLLAGN 3: Revealing the Infrared Spectral Energy Distributions of Low Luminosity AGN
AU - David Ohlson
AU - Anil C. Seth
AU - Kameron Goold
AU - Nischal Acharya
AU - Torsten Böker
AU - Antoine Dumont
AU - Ruby Duncan
AU - Michael Eracleous
AU - Anja Feldmeier-Krause
AU - Juan Antonio Fernández-Ontiveros
AU - Elena Gallo
AU - Andy D. Goulding
AU - Jenny E. Greene
AU - Luis C. Ho
AU - Sera B. Markoff
AU - Mallory Molina
AU - Richard M. Plotkin
AU - Almudena Prieto
AU - Shobita Satyapal
AU - Glenn van de Ven
AU - Jonelle L. Walsh
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/04
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.06916
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.06916
AB - The spectral energy distributions of active galactic nuclei (AGN) provide valuable information on the emission mechanisms taking place in their inner regions. Here we use the James Webb Space Telescope to study the near and mid-infrared spectral energy distributions of seven nearby low-luminosity active galaxy nuclei from 1.7 to 24 μm. We cleanly separate the AGN spectrum by performing spatial fits of the two-dimensional images across all wavelengths. We then compare these clean unresolved spectra to aperture-based spectra and show that they effectively remove galaxy contamination. Comparing our infrared measurements to X-ray emission, we find that low-luminosity AGN have enhanced near-infrared emission relative to more luminous AGN, a trend that correlates with radio-loudness, while their mid-infrared-to-X-ray ratios are comparable. A majority of our targets show strong compact silicate emission suggesting the presence of warm dust on parsec scales in these systems. We also quantify the near- and mid-infrared power-law slopes and colors of low-luminosity AGN. In the near-infrared we find AGN of all luminosities have similar spectral slopes and colors, however in the mid-infrared, we find low-luminosity AGN typically have steeper slopes and redder colors than more luminous AGN. Both the strong silicate emission and steep mid-infrared slopes disagree with existing models for low-luminosity AGN spectral energy distributions.
ER -