# Polarized Broad H𝛼 Emission from the LINER Nucleus of NGC 1052

## 1. Introduction

Low-ionization nuclear emission-line regions, or LINERs, are found in 38% of nearby emission-line galactic nuclei (Ho, Filippenko, & Sargent 1997a ), yet their physical origin remains controversial. Observational evidence has clearly demonstrated that some LINERs are genuine active galactic nuclei (AGNs) powered by nonstellar processes (Filippenko (1996); Ho (1998)), but the majority of LINERs do not show clear signatures of AGN activity. The interpretation of LINER spectra is confounded by the fact that the optical emission-line intensity ratios in these objects can often be reproduced reasonably well by models based on AGN-like nonstellar photoionization (Ferland & Netzer (1983); Halpern & Steiner (1983)), or photoionization by hot stars (Filippenko & Terlevich (1992); Shields (1992)), or fast shocks (Dopita & Sutherland (1995)). Furthermore, the weak level of the activity in these galaxies makes it difficult or impossible to isolate any nonstellar continuum emission that might be present in the optical spectrum.

In a spectroscopic survey of nearly 500 nearby galaxies, Ho et al. (1997a) found that $`15\%`$ of LINERs have a broad component of H$`\alpha `$, similar to that seen in Seyfert 1 nuclei. By analogy with the Seyfert population, it is convenient to define “LINER 1” and “LINER 2” subclasses based on the presence or absence, respectively, of detected broad-line emission. The broad-lined objects are likely to contain genuine AGNs, but the status of the LINER 2 class is less clear. While some objects of this class may be AGNs in which the central engine is either very faint or heavily obscured, in others the narrow emission lines may be excited by processes unrelated to AGN activity. Since LINER 2s are potentially the most abundant class of AGNs, it is worthwhile to determine which mechanisms are responsible for their emission properties.

The major breakthrough in understanding the connection between the Seyfert 1 and 2 classes was the discovery by Antonucci & Miller (1985) of a “hidden” broad-line region in the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 1068. Based on such evidence, unified models of AGNs interpret the differences between type 1 and type 2 Seyferts as the result of orientation-dependent obscuration by an optically thick, dusty torus surrounding the central engine. In order to determine whether unified models apply to LINERs, we have begun a spectropolarimetric survey of LINERs at the Keck Observatory, and complete results of the survey will be presented in future papers.

In this *Letter*, we present our Keck observations of NGC 1052, an elliptical galaxy at $`v_r=1470`$ km s<sup>-1</sup>. NGC 1052 has long been considered one of the prototypical LINERs, and its emission-line properties have been the subject of numerous studies (Fosbury et al. (1978), 1981; Péquignot (1984); Ho, Filippenko, & Sargent (1993)). NGC 1052 is classified by Ho, Filippenko, & Sargent (1997b) as a LINER 1.9; a faint broad component of H$`\alpha `$ is detected in the total flux spectrum, but only after careful starlight subtraction and line-profile fitting (Ho et al. 1997c ). Its X-ray spectrum is unusually flat, with an observed 2–10 keV photon index of $`0.1`$ and a high inferred absorbing column of $`N_H10^{23}`$ cm<sup>-2</sup> (Guainazzi & Antonelli (1999)). Additional evidence for an AGN in NGC 1052 comes from VLBI radio observations which reveal a double-sided jet emerging from the nucleus (Wrobel (1984); Jones, Wrobel, & Shaffer (1984); Kellermann et al. (1998)). It is also the only elliptical galaxy in which H<sub>2</sub>0 megamaser emission has been detected (Braatz, Wilson, & Henkel (1994)).

## 2. Observations and Reductions

The observations were obtained at the Keck-II telescope on 1997 December 20 UT, using the LRIS spectropolarimeter (Oke et al. (1995); Cohen (1996)). Conditions were photometric, with $`1\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}5`$ seeing. We used a 600 g mm<sup>-1</sup> grating blazed at 5000 Å and a slit width of 1″, yielding a spectral resolution of $`6`$ Å and a pixel scale of 1.2 Å pix<sup>-1</sup> over the range 4300–6830 Å. The exposure times were 900 s with the half-wave plate at 0° and at 45°, and 450 s with the waveplate at 22$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$5 and at 67$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$5, for a total of 2700 s. The spectrograph slit was oriented east-west (P.A. = 90°), while the parallactic angle was 35°; this offset should have only a minor effect on the spectral shape as the airmass was 1.2–1.3 during the observations.

The spectra were extracted with a width of 4″ along the slit, wavelength and flux-calibrated, corrected for continuum atmospheric extinction and telluric absorption bands, and rebinned to 2 Å pix<sup>-1</sup>. The large extraction width was chosen in order to minimize the noise in the continuum; in narrower extractions, noise features appeared in the continuum polarization spectrum with amplitudes comparable to that of the H$`\alpha `$ feature discussed below. Such noise features in $`p`$ can arise from uncertainties in interpolating counts in fractional pixels at the edges of the extraction aperture, due to the finite sampling (0$`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$43 pixel size) of the galaxy’s spatial profile. Polarimetric analysis was performed according to the methods outlined by by Miller, Robinson, & Goodrich (1988) and Cohen et al. (1997). Calibration of the polarization angle was done using the polarized standard star BD +64 106 (Turnshek et al. (1990)) as a reference. Observations of unpolarized standard stars showed a flat, well-behaved polarization response over the observed wavelength range. The results for NGC 1052 are shown in Figure Polarized Broad H$`\alpha `$ Emission from the LINER Nucleus of NGC 1052. The displayed spectrum of $`p`$ is the “rotated Stokes parameter,” calculated by rotating $`q`$ and $`u`$ to an angle in which all of the observed polarization signal falls in a single Stokes parameter. The “Stokes flux,” which shows the polarized component of the spectrum, is the product of total flux and the rotated Stokes parameter.

In order to measure accurate polarizations for the emission lines, starlight was subtracted from the total flux using a spectrum of the nucleus of NGC 3115 as an absorption-line template. We were able to achieve a satisfactory subtraction without the inclusion of a featureless continuum component, and we conclude that the featureless continuum, if present, can contribute no more than a few percent of the total observed flux. All emission-line and continuum measurements were performed on the $`q`$ and $`u`$ spectra, with the results converted to $`p`$ and the position angle of polarization ($`\theta `$) only as the final step.

## 3. Results and Discussion

### 3.1. Polarized Line Emission

As Figure Polarized Broad H$`\alpha `$ Emission from the LINER Nucleus of NGC 1052 shows, NGC 1052 displays the classic signature of a “hidden” broad-line region: $`p`$ rises above the continuum polarization level in the broad wings of H$`\alpha `$, and drops again in the core of the H$`\alpha `$+\[N II\] blend where the unpolarized narrow lines contribute most of the flux. Although $`p`$ only rises by $`0.2\%`$ above the continuum, the broad H$`\alpha `$ wings have relatively high intrinsic polarization because of their faintness in total flux. Overall, the H$`\alpha `$+\[N II\] blend has $`p=0.9\%\pm 0.1\%`$, while the H$`\alpha `$ wings have $`p=4.8\%\pm 1.0\%`$ over the range 6500-6530 Å (rest wavelength) and $`p=6.7\%\pm 1.2\%`$ over 6600-6630 Å. The line is significantly broadened in polarized light; in Stokes flux, the spectrum of NGC 1052 is clearly that of a broad-lined AGN.

To measure the polarization of the broad component of H$`\alpha `$, the H$`\alpha `$+\[N II\] blend was decomposed by fitting a set of Gaussian components. In total flux, fitting the blend with three narrow Gaussians and a broad H$`\alpha `$ component proved unsuccessful; the fit presented by Ho et al. (1997c) indicates that medium-width components of H$`\alpha `$ and \[N II\] lines are present as well. Following the method of Ho et al. (1997c), we fit the blend using seven Gaussians, representing narrow and medium-width components for each line plus broad H$`\alpha `$. The widths of the narrow (FWHM = 480 km s<sup>-1</sup>) and medium-width (FWHM = 1020 km s<sup>-1</sup>) components, as well as the wavelength separation between the narrow and medium-width components for each line, were set to match the values found by fitting the \[S II\] doublet. The wavelength separation and flux ratio between the \[N II\] $`\lambda `$6548 and $`\lambda `$6583 lines were fixed to match the known values, while the broad H$`\alpha `$ width was allowed to vary freely in the fit. The best fit to the H$`\alpha `$+\[N II\] blend closely matches that of Ho et al. (1997c), and we find that the broad H$`\alpha `$ component in total flux has FWHM = $`2120\pm 70`$ km s<sup>-1</sup> and $`f=(1.9\pm 0.5)\times 10^{13}`$ erg cm<sup>-2</sup> s<sup>-1</sup>. A small excess above the level of the best-fitting decomposition appears in the H$`\alpha `$ wings at velocities out to $`3400`$ km s<sup>-1</sup>, and may be the same broadened H$`\alpha `$ component that appears in the Stokes flux spectrum.

In polarized flux, the signal-to-noise ratio is too low to justify such a detailed fit, and we simply fit the profile with four Gaussians, representing the three narrow components and a broad H$`\alpha `$ line. The best fit indicates FWHM = $`4920\pm 450`$ km s<sup>-1</sup> and $`f=(4.5\pm 0.4)\times 10^{15}`$ erg cm<sup>-2</sup> s<sup>-1</sup> for broad H$`\alpha `$. Figure 2 shows the H$`\alpha `$+\[N II\] profiles and the fits in total and polarized flux. Taking the ratio of the broad-line fluxes in polarized and total light, the polarization of broad H$`\alpha `$ is $`2.3\%\pm 0.6\%`$.

If electron scattering is responsible for the polarization of broad H$`\alpha `$ and the broadening of the line in polarized light, the temperature of the scattering electrons can be estimated from the H$`\alpha `$ linewidth. Subtraction in quadrature of the linewidth in total flux from the linewidth in Stokes flux yields the quantity $`\mathrm{\Delta }u_{th}`$, an estimate of the thermal broadening, which can be related to the electron temperature by $`T_em_e\mathrm{\Delta }u_{th}^2/(16k\mathrm{ln}2)`$ (Miller, Goodrich, & Mathews (1991)). For the observed $`\mathrm{\Delta }u_{th}`$ of 4440 km s<sup>-1</sup> in NGC 1052, we find $`T_e1.2\times 10^5`$ K, a factor of $`23`$ lower than the temperature found for the scattering electrons in NGC 1068 (Miller et al. 1991).

One potential difficulty with the electron-scattering interpretation is that a medium of scattering electrons at T $`10^5`$ K cools rapidly; the cooling time for such a plasma is of order 0.8 $`n_3^1`$ yr, where $`n_3`$ is the electron density in units of $`10^3`$ cm<sup>-3</sup>. The power required to maintain the electrons at $`10^5`$ K is $`3\times 10^{40}n_3^2V`$ erg s<sup>-1</sup>, where $`V`$ is the volume of the scattering region in pc<sup>3</sup>. NGC 1052 has an unabsorbed 2–10 keV luminosity of $`5\times 10^{41}`$ erg s<sup>-1</sup> (Guainazzi & Antonelli (1999)), sufficient to heat the scattering region provided that the scattering medium is optically thin and confined to a small volume (within the opening cone of a parsec-scale torus, for example). Alternatively, scattering by dust grains in the obscuring torus (e.g., Kartje (1995); Dopita et al. (1998)) rather than by electrons would alleviate any energy budget problem, but it is not clear how dust scattering could cause the H$`\alpha `$ line to appear broader in polarized light than in total flux.

Polarization by scattering within the opening cone of an obscuring torus results in a polarization angle oriented perpendicular to the rotation axis of the torus. In NGC 1052, the best indication of the nuclear orientation is the radio axis at milliarcsecond resolution, which we assume is at least roughly oriented along the torus rotation axis. From the VLBI map of Kellermann et al. (1998), the jet axis is oriented at P.A. $`67\mathrm{°}`$, while the jet bends to a P.A. of 95° at kiloparsec scales (Wrobel (1984)). The H$`\alpha `$+\[N II\] emission blend is polarized at $`\theta =178\mathrm{°}\pm 2\mathrm{°}`$, which is offset by 69° from the VLBI jet axis and 83° from the kpc-scale radio axis, in fair agreement with expectations for the obscuring torus picture.

The only narrow line having $`p`$ significantly above that of the continuum is \[O I\] $`\lambda `$6300, with $`p=1.0\%\pm 0.1\%`$ at $`\theta =174\mathrm{°}\pm 5\mathrm{°}`$. The other narrow lines appear in the Stokes flux spectrum, but this is a likely result of foreground polarization in the Galaxy. The Galactic reddening along the line of sight to NGC 1052 is $`E(BV)=0.027`$ mag (Schlegel, Finkbeiner, & Davis (1998)), implying a maximum polarization by transmission through Galactic dust of 0.24% (Serkowski, Mathewson, & Ford (1975)). Since no feature at 5007 Å appears in $`p`$, the most likely explanation for the appearance of \[O III\] in Stokes flux is a foreground screen of aligned dust grains, either in NGC 1052 or in the Galaxy, affecting both the emission lines and continuum. Similarly, the \[N II\] and \[S II\] features appearing in the Stokes flux spectrum can be attributed to foreground polarization.

In Stokes flux, the \[O I\]/\[S II\] flux ratio is substantially greater than in total flux, as can be seen in Figure Polarized Broad H$`\alpha `$ Emission from the LINER Nucleus of NGC 1052, and this may be a consequence of the large difference between the critical densities of these two transitions. The higher polarization of \[O I\] could result from density stratification in the narrow-line region (NLR), combined with obscuration of the inner, high-density portion of the NLR. If the obscuring torus is large enough to surround the \[O I\]-emitting region of the NLR, then electron scattering within the opening angle of the torus would cause \[O I\] to appear polarized, while other lines emitted by more diffuse gas at larger radii would be unpolarized. However, the \[O I\] line is *narrower* in polarized light than in total flux, with FWHM = $`690\pm 130`$ km s<sup>-1</sup> and $`800\pm 20`$ km s<sup>-1</sup>, respectively. If the \[O I\] line were polarized in the same manner as H$`\alpha `$, then its profile should be similarly broadened in polarized light. A more likely explanation for the polarization of \[O I\] is transmission through a region of aligned dust grains within the inner NLR, possibly associated with the obscuring torus. Polarization by dust transmission on NLR scales has been observed in some Seyfert nuclei (Goodrich (1992)).

### 3.2. Continuum Properties

The measured level of continuum polarization is $`0.51\%\pm 0.01\%`$ over the range 4400–4800 Å, and $`0.43\%\pm 0.01\%`$ over 5100–6100 Å. The position angle of continuum polarization ($`5\mathrm{°}\pm 1\mathrm{°}`$ over 5100–6100 Å) is nearly aligned with that of the H$`\alpha `$+\[N II\] blend ($`178\mathrm{°}\pm 2\mathrm{°}`$); the offset of $`7\mathrm{°}`$ between the line and continuum polarizations may be a result of foreground polarization oriented at an unrelated angle. The intrinsic degree of polarization of the scattered continuum is unknown because of the strong dilution by unpolarized starlight and the uncertain contribution of interstellar polarization. However, even if foreground dust contributes $`p=0.24\%`$ to the continuum polarization, the nonstellar continuum must have $`p5\%`$; otherwise it would be detectable in the total flux spectrum.

A $`p`$ spectrum rising toward the blue is the typical signature of dust scattering, although the detailed calculations by Kartje (1995) demonstrate that multiple scattering by dust can lead to wavelength-independent polarization in the optical. However, in NGC 1052, the starlight fraction in total flux presumably drops toward the blue end of the spectrum, and a $`p`$ spectrum rising to the blue would occur even for wavelength-independent electron scattering.

Like many Seyfert 2 nuclei (e.g., Wilson, Ward, & Haniff (1988)), NGC 1052 suffers from an apparent deficit of ionizing photons relative to the number needed to ionize the NLR. Given the lower limit to the H$`\beta `$ flux of $`f1.6\times 10^{13}`$ erg cm<sup>-2</sup> s<sup>-1</sup> measured by Ho et al. (1997b) in a $`2\mathrm{}\times 4\mathrm{}`$ aperture, and assuming an $`f_\nu \nu ^1`$ ionizing continuum, it is easy to show (Ferland & Netzer (1983)) that the nonstellar continuum, if unobscured, should have $`f_\lambda 1.6\times 10^{15}`$ erg cm<sup>-2</sup> s<sup>-1</sup>Å<sup>-1</sup> at 4800 Å. This lower limit corresponds to $`20\%`$ of the total continuum flux at 4800 Å, a sufficiently large fraction that it would have been detected during the starlight subtraction procedure. If the NLR is photoionized by the AGN, then the optical continuum is evidently heavily obscured. We note that the nonstellar continuum has yet to be detected in the ultraviolet; *IUE* spectra did not reveal any nonstellar component (Fosbury et al. (1981)), and to date no *HST* ultraviolet data have been published for NGC 1052.

Rough estimates of the unobscured continuum strength can sometimes be made for hidden type 1 AGNs (e.g., NGC 4258: Wilkes et al. (1995); Cygnus A: Ogle et al. (1997)), but these require knowledge of the covering factor and optical depth of the scattering medium. Lacking such information, we are unable to determine the intrinsic continuum luminosity. High-resolution imaging polarimetry could improve this situation by revealing the size and morphology of the scattering region.

## 4. Conclusions

We have detected polarized continuum and broad-line emission from the nucleus of NGC 1052, the first such detection in a LINER. In polarized light the spectrum of NGC 1052 is that of a “Type 1” AGN. This result indicates that unified models of AGNs may be useful for understanding the differences between type 1 LINERs and some fraction of type 2 LINERs. Some narrow-lined radio galaxies are known to host obscured broad-lined AGNs (e.g., Antonucci & Barvainis (1990)), and NGC 1052 appears to be a local, low-luminosity example of this phenomenon. As we continue our survey, we hope to determine the fraction of LINERs which show polarized broad emission lines.

The W. M. Keck Observatory is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and NASA, and was made possible by the generous financial support of the W.M. Keck Foundation. This work was supported by NASA grant NAG 5-3556. Research by A. J. B. is supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.    

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