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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

ReveaLLAGN 3: Revealing the Infrared Spectral Energy Distributions of Low Luminosity AGN

  • David Ohlson1
  • Anil C Seth1
  • Kameron Goold1
  • Nischal Acharya2
  • Torsten Böker3
  • Antoine Dumont4
  • Ruby Duncan5,6
  • Michael Eracleous7
  • Anja Feldmeier-Krause8
  • Juan Antonio Fernández-Ontiveros2
  • Elena Gallo9
  • Andy D Goulding10
9 more authors
  • Jenny E Greene10
  • Luis C Ho11,12
  • Sera B Markoff5,6,13
  • Mallory Molina14
  • Richard M Plotkin15,16
  • Almudena Prieto17,18,19
  • Shobita Satyapal20
  • Glenn van de Ven8
  • Jonelle L Walsh21
21 affiliations
  1. 1University of Utah Department of Physics, and Astronomy, , E2108 Stewart Building 270 S 1400 E, Salt Lake City, UT 84112 ,
  2. 2Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón (CEFCA) , Plaza San Juan 1, E-44001, Teruel ,
  3. 3European Space Agency , c/o STScI, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218 ,
  4. 4Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie , Königstuhl 17, D-69117, Heidelberg ,
  5. 5Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy & Gravitation Astroparticle Physics Amsterdam (GRAPPA)Institute
  6. 6University of Amsterdam , Science Park 904, 1098XH Amsterdam ,
  7. 7Penn State University Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics and Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, , 525 Davey Lab, 251 Pollock Road, University Park, PA 16802 ,
  8. 8University of Vienna Department of Astrophysics, , Türkenschanzstraße 17, 1180 Vienna ,
  9. 9University of Michigan Department of Astronomy, , 1085 S. University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 ,
  10. 10Princeton University Department of Astrophysical Sciences, , Princeton, NJ 08544 ,
  11. 11Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics , Peking University, Beijing 100871 ,
  12. 12School of Physics Department of Astronomy, , Peking University, Beijing 100871 ,
  13. 13Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge , Madingley Road, CB3 0HA ,
  14. 14Vanderbilt University Department of Physics & Astronomy, , Nashville, TN 37235 ,
  15. 15University of Nevada Department of Physics, , Reno, NV 89557 ,
  16. 16Nevada Center for Astrophysics, University of Nevada , Las Vegas, NV 89154 ,
  17. 17Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), Dpto. Astrofísica , Avd. Astrofísico Fco. Sánchez s/n, 38206 La Laguna, Tenerife ,
  18. 18Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) , C/Vía Láctea s/n, 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife ,
  19. 19Universitäts-Sternwarte, Fakultät für Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München , 81679 München ,
  20. 20George Mason University , Department of Physics and Astronomy, MS3F3, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030 ,
  21. 21Texas A&M University George P. and Cynthia W. Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, Department of Physics & Astronomy, , 4242 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843 ,
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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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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{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},
  journal = {Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1093/mnras/stag2076},
  url = {https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag2076/9005627},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
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  - 2026/10/30
JO  - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
DO  - 10.1093/mnras/stag2076
UR  - https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag2076/9005627
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.
SN  - 0035-8711
SN  - 1365-2966
ER  -