Neutral hydrogen absorption observations of the central region of NGC 5929

We present 0.15-arcsec (25-pc) resolution MERLIN observations of neutral hydrogen absorption detected towards the nuclear region of the type 2 Seyfert galaxy NGC 5929. Absorption is detected only towards the north-eastern radio component with a column density of (6.5 ± 0.6) × 10²¹ cm^-2. Based on comparison with an HST WFPC2 continuum image, we propose that the absorption is caused by a 1.5-arcsec structure of neutral gas and dust offset 0.3 arcsec south-east of the nucleus and running NE-SW. A separate cloud of dust is apparent 1.5 arcsec to the south-west of the nucleus in the HST image. A comparison of the centroid velocity (2358 ± 5 km s^-1) and full width at half-maximum (43 ± 6 km s^-1) of the absorbing gas with previous [OIII] observations suggests that both the neutral and ionized gas are undergoing galactic rotation towards the observer in the north-east and away from the observer in the south-west. The main structure is consistent with an inclined ring of gas and dust encircling the active galactic nucleus (AGN); alternatively it may be a bar or inner spiral arm. We do not detect neutral hydrogen absorption or dust obscuration against the radio nucleus (column density < 3.1 × 10²¹ cm^-2) expected by a torus of neutral gas and dust in unified models of AGNs for a type 2 Seyfert galaxy.