Detection of a triple nucleus in the Wolf-Rayet composite Sy 2 galaxy NGC 6764
Abstract
We report adaptive-optics Ks-band imaging of the composite Seyfert 2 and Wolf-Rayet galaxy NGC 6764 (D = 32 Mpc), obtained with LUCI/SOUL at the Large Binocular Telescope. The nucleus resolves into three compact sources with pairwise projected separations of 0.07-0.20 arcsec, corresponding to 11.0-30.9 pc. All three have indistinguishable H, Ks, H2, and Br-gamma colours, so photometry alone cannot separate accretion from star formation. The system is consistent with a Seyfert nucleus and two star-forming regions, but a dual or triple AGN cannot be excluded. In the latter case, the separations would be two orders of magnitude smaller than in any confirmed or candidate AGN triplet reported to date. Diffraction-limited near-infrared integral-field spectroscopy is required to establish the nature of each component.
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BibTeX
@misc{heidt2026detection,
title = {{Detection of a triple nucleus in the Wolf-Rayet composite Sy 2 galaxy NGC 6764}},
author = {Jochen Heidt and Francisco Pozo Nuñez and Nina Mackensen and Magdalena Vukojevic and David Thompson},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.00496},
eprint = {2609.00496},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.00496},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Detection of a triple nucleus in the Wolf-Rayet composite Sy 2 galaxy NGC 6764
AU - Jochen Heidt
AU - Francisco Pozo Nuñez
AU - Nina Mackensen
AU - Magdalena Vukojevic
AU - David Thompson
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.00496
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.00496
AB - We report adaptive-optics Ks-band imaging of the composite Seyfert 2 and Wolf-Rayet galaxy NGC 6764 (D = 32 Mpc), obtained with LUCI/SOUL at the Large Binocular Telescope. The nucleus resolves into three compact sources with pairwise projected separations of 0.07-0.20 arcsec, corresponding to 11.0-30.9 pc. All three have indistinguishable H, Ks, H2, and Br-gamma colours, so photometry alone cannot separate accretion from star formation. The system is consistent with a Seyfert nucleus and two star-forming regions, but a dual or triple AGN cannot be excluded. In the latter case, the separations would be two orders of magnitude smaller than in any confirmed or candidate AGN triplet reported to date. Diffraction-limited near-infrared integral-field spectroscopy is required to establish the nature of each component.
ER -