UCSB Astrophysics

§ 01People · Emeriti

Robert Antonucci

Professor Emeritus

Robert Antonucci studies active galactic nuclei: Seyfert galaxies, radio galaxies and quasars. His main tool is spectropolarimetry. Gas along the axis of the dusty torus around a nucleus scatters and polarizes its light, so the polarized spectrum reveals a nucleus hidden from direct view.

In 1985, with Joseph Miller, he found broad Balmer lines in the polarized spectrum of NGC 1068, a Seyfert 2 galaxy, showing a Seyfert 1 nucleus hidden behind the torus. The result became a foundation of unified models, in which the type of nucleus we see depends on viewing angle. He reviewed these models in the Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics in 1993.

His group has also detected infrared emission from dust heated by hidden quasars. Many lower luminosity radio galaxies lack this emission, which indicates they have no hidden quasar.

§ 02Publications

Recent papers

The newest papers with Robert Antonucci as an author, from NASA ADS. Group members are in gold.

  1. 01Jul 2025ApJ
    The Central Engine of Low-luminosity Radio Galaxy 3C 270 (NGC 4261)C. Jiang, R. Antonucci, J. A. Acosta-Pulido, P. OgleBlack holes & GW
    arXiv:2412.10591
  2. 02Apr 2025ApJ
    The JWST View of Cygnus A: Jet-driven Coronal Outflow with a TwistP. M. Ogle, B. Sebastian, A. Aravindan, M. McDonald, G. Canalizo, M. L. N. Ashby, M. Azadi, R. Antonucci et al. (32 authors)Black holes & GW
    arXiv:2502.06603
  3. 03Mar 2025A&A
    Scattered synchrotron emission and a giant torus revealed in polarized light in the nearest radio galaxy Centaurus AF. Marin, D. Hutsemékers, C. Jiang, R. Antonucci, P. M. Ogle, A. Bagul, C. Ramos Almeida, M. BertonBlack holes & GW
    arXiv:2502.05002
  4. 04Jan 2024MNRAS
    Cygnus A obscuring torus: ionized, atomic, or molecular?A. Bagul, P. Ogle, R. Antonucci, P. Maloney, E. Lopez RodriguezBlack holes & GW
    arXiv:2310.19401
  5. 05Sep 2023Galaxies
    A Walk through AGN Country—For the Somewhat Initiated!R. R. J. AntonucciBlack holes & GW
    arXiv:2308.04621
  6. 06Jul 2023ApJ
    On the Origin of Radio-loudness in Active Galactic Nuclei Using Far-infrared Polarimetric ObservationsE. Lopez-Rodriguez, M. Kishimoto, R. Antonucci, M. C. Begelman, N. Globus, R. BlandfordBlack holes & GW
    arXiv:2207.09466
  7. 07May 2023A&A
    Polarimetry of the potential binary supermassive black hole system in J1430+2303F. Marin, D. Hutsemékers, I. Liodakis, R. Antonucci, N. Mandarakas, E. Lindfors, D. Blinov, T. Barnouin et al. (9 authors)Black holes & GW
    arXiv:2304.05003
  8. 08Nov 2022ApJ
    The Dust Sublimation Region of the Type 1 AGN NGC 4151 at a Hundred Microarcsecond Scale as Resolved by the CHARA Array InterferometerM. Kishimoto, M. Anderson, T. ten Brummelaar, C. Farrington, R. Antonucci, S. Hönig, F. Millour, K. R. W. Tristram et al. (13 authors)Black holes & GW
    arXiv:2209.06061
  9. 09Nov 2022MNRAS
    NGC 3147: a prototypical low-luminosity active galactic nucleus with double-peaked optical and ultraviolet linesS. Bianchi, M. Chiaberge, A. Laor, R. Antonucci, A. Bagul, A. CapettiBlack holes & GW
    arXiv:2209.01807
  10. 10Feb 2022A&A
    Unravelling the origin of extended radio emission in narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies with the JVLAE. Järvelä, R. Dahale, L. Crepaldi, M. Berton, E. Congiu, R. AntonucciBlack holes & GW
    arXiv:2109.07841

All papers by Robert Antonucci

Everyone in the group