scholarly journals A CO molecular gas wind 340 pc away from the Seyfert 2 nucleus in ESO 420-G13 probes an elusive radio jet

2020 ◽  
Vol 633 ◽  
pp. A127 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Fernández-Ontiveros ◽  
K. M. Dasyra ◽  
E. Hatziminaoglou ◽  
M. A. Malkan ◽  
M. Pereira-Santaella ◽  
...  

A prominent jet-driven outflow of CO(2–1) molecular gas is found along the kinematic minor axis of the Seyfert 2 galaxy ESO 420-G13, at a distance of 340–600 pc from the nucleus. The wind morphology resembles the characteristic funnel shape, formed by a highly collimated filamentary emission at the base, and likely traces the jet propagation through a tenuous medium, until a bifurcation point at 440 pc. Here the jet hits a dense molecular core and shatters, dispersing the molecular gas into several clumps and filaments within the expansion cone. We also trace the jet in ionised gas within the inner ≲340 pc using the [Ne II]12.8 μm line emission, where the molecular gas follows a circular rotation pattern. The wind outflow carries a mass of ∼8 × 106 M⊙ at an average wind projected speed of ∼160 km s−1, which implies a mass outflow rate of ∼14 M⊙ yr−1. Based on the structure of the outflow and the budget of energy and momentum, we discard radiation pressure from the active nucleus, star formation, and supernovae as possible launching mechanisms. ESO 420-G13 is the second case after NGC 1377 where a previously unknown jet is revealed through its interaction with the interstellar medium, suggesting that unknown jets in feeble radio nuclei might be more common than expected. Two possible jet-cloud configurations are discussed to explain an outflow at this distance from the AGN. The outflowing gas will likely not escape, thus a delay in the star formation rather than quenching is expected from this interaction, while the feedback effect would be confined within the central few hundred parsecs of the galaxy.

2019 ◽  
Vol 632 ◽  
pp. A66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Oosterloo ◽  
Raffaella Morganti ◽  
Clive Tadhunter ◽  
J. B. Raymond Oonk ◽  
Hayley E. Bignall ◽  
...  

We present CO(1−0) and CO(3−2) Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations of the molecular gas in PKS 1549−79, as well as mm and very long baseline interferometry 2.3-GHz continuum observations of its radio jet. PKS 1549−79 is one of the closest young, radio-loud quasars caught in an on-going merger in which the active galactic nucleus (AGN) is in the first phases of its evolution. We detect three structures tracing the accretion and the outflow of molecular gas: kpc-scale tails of gas accreting onto PKS 1549−79 from a merger, a circumnuclear disc in the inner few hundred parsec, and a very broad (> 2300 km s−1) component detected in CO(1−0) at the position of the AGN. Thus, in PKS 1549−79 we see the co-existence of accretion and the ejection of gas. The line ratio CO(3−2)/CO(1−0) suggests that the gas in the circumnuclear-disc has both high densities and high kinetic temperatures. We estimate a mass outflow rate of at least 650 M⊙ yr−1. This massive outflow is confined to the inner region (r <  120 pc) of the galaxy, which suggests that the AGN drives the outflow. Considering the amount of molecular gas available in the central nuclear disc and the observed outflow rate, we estimate a time scale of ∼105 yr over which the AGN would be able to destroy the circumnuclear disc, although gas from the merger may come in from larger radii, rebuilding this disc at the same time. The AGN appears to self-regulate gas accretion to the centre and onto the super-massive black hole. Surprisingly, from a comparison with Hubble Space Telescope data, we find that the ionised gas outflow is more extended. Nevertheless, the warm outflow is about two orders of magnitude less massive than the molecular outflow. PKS 1549−79 does not seem to follow the scaling relation between bolometric luminosity and the relative importance of warm ionised and molecular outflows claimed to exist for other AGN. We argue that, although PKS 1549−79 hosts a powerful quasar nucleus and an ultra-fast outflow, the radio jet plays a significant role in producing the outflow, which creates a cocoon of disturbed gas that expands into the circumnuclear disc.


2021 ◽  
Vol 923 (1) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Alberto D. Bolatto ◽  
Adam K. Leroy ◽  
Rebecca C. Levy ◽  
David S. Meier ◽  
Elisabeth A. C. Mills ◽  
...  

Abstract We present the ALMA detection of molecular outflowing gas in the central regions of NGC 4945, one of the nearest starbursts and also one of the nearest hosts of an active galactic nucleus (AGN). We detect four outflow plumes in CO J = 3 − 2 at ∼0.″3 resolution that appear to correspond to molecular gas located near the edges of the known ionized outflow cone and its (unobserved) counterpart behind the disk. The fastest and brightest of these plumes has emission reaching observed line-of-sight projected velocities of over 450 km s−1 beyond systemic, equivalent to an estimated physical outflow velocity v ≳ 600 km s−1 for the fastest emission. Most of these plumes have corresponding emission in HCN or HCO+ J = 4 − 3. We discuss a kinematic model for the outflow emission where the molecular gas has the geometry of the ionized gas cone and shares the rotation velocity of the galaxy when ejected. We use this model to explain the velocities we observe, constrain the physical speed of the ejected material, and account for the fraction of outflowing gas that is not detected due to confusion with the galaxy disk. We estimate a total molecular mass outflow rate M ̇ mol ∼ 20 M ⊙ yr−1 flowing through a surface within 100 pc of the disk midplane, likely driven by a combination of the central starburst and AGN.


2020 ◽  
Vol 635 ◽  
pp. A47 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Herrera-Camus ◽  
A. Janssen ◽  
E. Sturm ◽  
D. Lutz ◽  
S. Veilleux ◽  
...  

To understand the role that active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback plays in galaxy evolution, we need in-depth studies of the multi-phase structure and energetics of galaxy-wide outflows. In this work, we present new, deep (∼50 h) NOEMA CO(1-0) line observations of the molecular gas in the powerful outflow driven by the AGN in the ultra-luminous infrared galaxy IRAS F08572+3915. We spatially resolve the outflow, finding that its most likely configuration is a wide-angle bicone aligned with the kinematic major axis of the rotation disk. The molecular gas in the wind reaches velocities up to approximately ±1200 km s−1 and transports nearly 20% of the molecular gas mass in the system. We detect a second outflow component located ∼6 kpc northwest from the galaxy moving away at ∼900 km s−1, which could be the result of a previous episode of AGN activity. The total mass and energetics of the outflow, which includes contributions from the ionized, neutral, and warm and cold molecular gas phases, is strongly dominated by the cold molecular gas. In fact, the molecular mass outflow rate is higher than the star formation rate, even if we only consider the gas in the outflow that is fast enough to escape the galaxy, which accounts for ∼40% of the total mass of the outflow. This results in an outflow depletion time for the molecular gas in the central ∼1.5 kpc region of only ∼3 Myr, a factor of ∼2 shorter than the depletion time by star formation activity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 503 (2) ◽  
pp. 1568-1585
Author(s):  
Alexander J Richings ◽  
Claude-André Faucher-Giguère ◽  
Jonathan Stern

ABSTRACT Observations of emission lines in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) often find fast (∼1000 km s−1) outflows extending to kiloparsec scales, seen in ionized, neutral atomic and molecular gas. In this work we present radiative transfer calculations of emission lines in hydrodynamic simulations of AGN outflows driven by a hot wind bubble, including non-equilibrium chemistry, to explore how these lines trace the physical properties of the multiphase outflow. We find that the hot bubble compresses the line-emitting gas, resulting in higher pressures than in the ambient interstellar medium or that would be produced by the AGN radiation pressure. This implies that observed emission line ratios such as [O iv]$_{25 \, \rm {\mu m}}$ / [Ne ii]$_{12 \, \rm {\mu m}}$, [Ne v]$_{14 \, \rm {\mu m}}$ / [Ne ii]$_{12 \, \rm {\mu m}}$, and [N iii]$_{57 \, \rm {\mu m}}$ / [N ii]$_{122 \, \rm {\mu m}}$ constrain the presence of the bubble and hence the outflow driving mechanism. However, the line-emitting gas is under-pressurized compared to the hot bubble itself, and much of the line emission arises from gas that is out of pressure, thermal and/or chemical equilibrium. Our results thus suggest that assuming equilibrium conditions, as commonly done in AGN line emission models, is not justified if a hot wind bubble is present. We also find that ≳50 per cent of the mass outflow rate, momentum flux, and kinetic energy flux of the outflow are traced by lines such as [N ii]$_{122 \, \rm {\mu m}}$ and [Ne iii]$_{15 \, \rm {\mu m}}$ (produced in the 10$^{4} \, \rm {K}$ phase) and [C ii]$_{158 \, \rm {\mu m}}$ (produced in the transition from 10$^{4} \, \rm {K}$ to 100 K).


2019 ◽  
Vol 488 (3) ◽  
pp. 3904-3928 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Leaman ◽  
Francesca Fragkoudi ◽  
Miguel Querejeta ◽  
Gigi Y C Leung ◽  
Dimitri A Gadotti ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Stellar feedback plays a significant role in modulating star formation, redistributing metals, and shaping the baryonic and dark structure of galaxies – however, the efficiency of its energy deposition to the interstellar medium is challenging to constrain observationally. Here we leverage HST and ALMA imaging of a molecular gas and dust shell ($M_{\mathrm{ H}_2} \sim 2\times 10^{5}\, {\rm M}_{\odot }$) in an outflow from the nuclear star-forming ring of the galaxy NGC 3351, to serve as a boundary condition for a dynamical and energetic analysis of the outflowing ionized gas seen in our MUSE TIMER survey. We use starburst99 models and prescriptions for feedback from simulations to demonstrate that the observed star formation energetics can reproduce the ionized and molecular gas dynamics – provided a dominant component of the momentum injection comes from direct photon pressure from young stars, on top of supernovae, photoionization heating, and stellar winds. The mechanical energy budget from these sources is comparable to low luminosity active galactic neuclei, suggesting that stellar feedback can be a relevant driver of bulk gas motions in galaxy centres – although here ≲10−3 of the ionized gas mass is escaping the galaxy. We test several scenarios for the survival/formation of the cold gas in the outflow, including in situ condensation and cooling. Interestingly, the geometry of the molecular gas shell, observed magnetic field strengths and emission line diagnostics are consistent with a scenario where magnetic field lines aided survival of the dusty ISM as it was initially launched (with mass-loading factor ≲1) from the ring by stellar feedback. This system’s unique feedback-driven morphology can hopefully serve as a useful litmus test for feedback prescriptions in magnetohydrodynamical galaxy simulations.


2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (S237) ◽  
pp. 331-335
Author(s):  
Yu Gao

AbstractActive star formation (SF) is tightly related to the dense molecular gas in the giant molecular clouds' dense cores. Our HCN (measure of the dense molecular gas) survey in 65 galaxies (including 10 ultraluminous galaxies) reveals a tight linear correlation between HCN and IR (SF rate) luminosities, whereas the correlation between IR and CO (measure of the total molecular gas) luminosities is nonlinear. This suggests that the global SF rate depends more intimately upon the amount of dense molecular gas than the total molecular gas content. This linear relationship extends to both the dense cores in the Galaxy and the hyperluminous extreme starbursts at high-redshift. Therefore, the global SF law in dense gas appears to be linear all the way from dense cores to extreme starbursts, spanning over nine orders of magnitude in IR luminosity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 620 ◽  
pp. A60 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Cañameras ◽  
N. P. H. Nesvadba ◽  
M. Limousin ◽  
H. Dole ◽  
R. Kneissl ◽  
...  

We report the discovery of a molecular wind signature from a massive intensely star-forming clump of a few 109 M⊙, in the strongly gravitationally lensed submillimeter galaxy “the Emerald” (PLCK_G165.7+49.0) at z = 2.236. The Emerald is amongst the brightest high-redshift galaxies on the submillimeter sky, and was initially discovered with the Planck satellite. The system contains two magnificient structures with projected lengths of 28.5″ and 21″ formed by multiple, near-infrared arcs, falling behind a massive galaxy cluster at z = 0.35, as well as an adjacent filament that has so far escaped discovery in other wavebands. We used HST/WFC3 and CFHT optical and near-infrared imaging together with IRAM and SMA interferometry of the CO(4–3) line and 850 μm dust emission to characterize the foreground lensing mass distribution, construct a lens model with LENSTOOL, and calculate gravitational magnification factors between 20 and 50 in most of the source. The majority of the star formation takes place within two massive star-forming clumps which are marginally gravitationally bound and embedded in a 9 × 1010 M⊙, fragmented disk with 20% gas fraction. The stellar continuum morphology is much smoother and also well resolved perpendicular to the magnification axis. One of the clumps shows a pronounced blue wing in the CO(4–3) line profile, which we interpret as a wind signature. The mass outflow rates are high enough for us to suspect that the clump might become unbound within a few tens of Myr, unless the outflowing gas can be replenished by gas accretion from the surrounding disk. The velocity offset of –200 km s−1 is above the escape velocity of the clump, but not that of the galaxy overall, suggesting that much of this material might ultimately rain back onto the galaxy and contribute to fueling subsequent star formation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 608 ◽  
pp. A144 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Yang ◽  
A. Omont ◽  
A. Beelen ◽  
Y. Gao ◽  
P. van der Werf ◽  
...  

We present the IRAM-30 m observations of multiple-J CO (Jup mostly from 3 up to 8) and [C I](3P2 → 3P1) ([C I](2–1) hereafter) line emission in a sample of redshift ~2–4 submillimeter galaxies (SMGs). These SMGs are selected among the brightest-lensed galaxies discovered in the Herschel-Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS). Forty-seven CO lines and 7 [C I](2–1) lines have been detected in 15 lensed SMGs. A non-negligible effect of differential lensing is found for the CO emission lines, which could have caused significant underestimations of the linewidths, and hence of the dynamical masses. The CO spectral line energy distributions (SLEDs), peaking around Jup ~ 5–7, are found to be similar to those of the local starburst-dominated ultra-luminous infrared galaxies and of the previously studied SMGs. After correcting for lensing amplification, we derived the global properties of the bulk of molecular gas in the SMGs using non-LTE radiative transfer modelling, such as the molecular gas density nH2 ~ 102.5–104.1 cm-3 and the kinetic temperature Tk  ~ 20–750 K. The gas thermal pressure Pth ranging from~105 K cm-3 to 106 K cm-3 is found to be correlated with star formation efficiency. Further decomposing the CO SLEDs into two excitation components, we find a low-excitation component with nH2 ~ 102.8–104.6 cm-3 and Tk  ~ 20–30 K, which is less correlated with star formation, and a high-excitation one (nH2 ~ 102.7–104.2 cm-3, Tk  ~ 60–400 K) which is tightly related to the on-going star-forming activity. Additionally, tight linear correlations between the far-infrared and CO line luminosities have been confirmed for the Jup ≥ 5 CO lines of these SMGs, implying that these CO lines are good tracers of star formation. The [C I](2–1) lines follow the tight linear correlation between the luminosities of the [C I](2–1) and the CO(1–0) line found in local starbursts, indicating that [C I] lines could serve as good total molecular gas mass tracers for high-redshift SMGs as well. The total mass of the molecular gas reservoir, (1–30) × 1010M⊙, derived based on the CO(3–2) fluxes and αCO(1–0) = 0.8 M⊙ ( K km s-1 pc2)-1, suggests a typical molecular gas depletion time tdep ~ 20–100 Myr and a gas to dust mass ratio δGDR ~ 30–100 with ~20%–60% uncertainty for the SMGs. The ratio between CO line luminosity and the dust mass L′CO/Mdust appears to be slowly increasing with redshift for high-redshift SMGs, which need to be further confirmed by a more complete SMG sample at various redshifts. Finally, through comparing the linewidth of CO and H2O lines, we find that they agree well in almost all our SMGs, confirming that the emitting regions of the CO and H2O lines are co-spatially located.


2019 ◽  
Vol 487 (3) ◽  
pp. 4153-4168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua J D’Agostino ◽  
Lisa J Kewley ◽  
Brent A Groves ◽  
Anne M Medling ◽  
Enrico Di Teodoro ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT In the optical spectra of galaxies, the separation of line emission from gas ionized by star formation and an active galactic nucleus (AGN), or by star formation and shocks, are very well-understood problems. However, separating line emission between AGN and shocks has proven difficult. With the aid of a new three-dimensional diagnostic diagram, we show the simultaneous separation of line emission from star formation, shocks, and AGN in NGC 1068, and quantify the ratio of star formation, shocks, and AGN in each spaxel. The AGN, shock, and star formation luminosity distributions across the galaxy accurately align with X-ray, radio, and CO(3–2) observations, respectively. Comparisons with previous separation methods show that the shocked emission heavily mixes with the AGN emission. We also show that if the H α flux is to be used as a star formation rate indicator, separating line emission from as many sources as possible should be attempted to ensure accurate results.


1989 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 589-590
Author(s):  
A. Eckart ◽  
D. Downes ◽  
R. Genzel ◽  
A.I. Harris ◽  
D.T. Jaffe ◽  
...  

Using the IRAM 30m millimeter radio telescope we mapped the line emission of the J=1-0 and J=2-1 transitions of 12C0, 13C0, and C180 in the nuclear region of the spiral galaxy IC342. This study demonstrates the value of multi line studies to investigate the neutral interstellar medium in extragalactic sources. Our observations as well as calculations of simple models of CO excitation and radiative transport show that the molecular gas in the nucleus is warm and that physical conditions vary with position in the galaxy. The molecular gas in the central kiloparsec of IC342 has a kinetic temperature of at least 30K and a molecular hydrogen density of about 3xl03 cm”3. At distances more than 500pc north and south of the center the kinetic temperature is significantly less (≥13K). About 500 pc north east of the center we find evidence for optically thin CO emission originating in a component of warm gas with a temperature of at least 40 K. Our model calculations result in conversion factors between the H2 column density and the 12CO (1-0) line intensity close to the value of 3–4×1020 cm-2/K km s-1 derived for molecular clouds in the Galaxy. The molecular mass contained in the central two kpc of IC342 is of the order of 2×108 M⊙.


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