Abstract
Several models have predicted that stars could form inside galactic outflows and that this would be a new major mode of galaxy evolution. Observations of galactic outflows have revealed that ...they host large amounts of dense and clumpy molecular gas, which provide conditions suitable for star formation. We have investigated the properties of the outflows in a large sample of galaxies by exploiting the integral field spectroscopic data of the large MaNGA-SDSS4 galaxy survey. We find evidence for prominent star formation occurring inside at least 30 per cent of the galactic outflows in our sample, whilst signs of star formation are seen in up to half of the outflows. We also show that even if star formation is prominent inside many other galactic outflows, this may have not been revealed as the diagnostics are easily dominated by the presence of even faint active galactic nucleus and shocks. If very massive outflows typical of distant galaxies and quasars follow the same scaling relations observed locally, then the star formation inside high-z outflows can be up to several 100 $\rm M_{\odot }~yr^{-1}$ and could contribute substantially to the early formation of the spheroidal component of galaxies. Star formation in outflows can also potentially contribute to establishing the scaling relations between black holes and their host spheroids. Moreover, supernovae exploding on large orbits can chemically enrich in situ and heat the circumgalactic and intergalactic medium. Finally, young stars ejected on large orbits may also contribute to the reionization of the Universe.
ABSTRACT
We report on the determination of electron densities, and their impact on the outflow masses and rates, measured in the central few hundred parsecs of 11 local luminous active galaxies. We ...show that the peak of the integrated line emission in the active galactic nuclei (AGN) is significantly offset from the systemic velocity as traced by the stellar absorption features, indicating that the profiles are dominated by outflow. In contrast, matched inactive galaxies are characterized by a systemic peak and weaker outflow wing. We present three independent estimates of the electron density in these AGN, discussing the merits of the different methods. The electron density derived from the S ii doublet is significantly lower than that found with a method developed in the last decade using auroral and transauroral lines, as well as a recently introduced method based on the ionization parameter. The reason is that, for gas photoionized by an AGN, much of the S ii emission arises in an extended partially ionized zone where the implicit assumption that the electron density traces the hydrogen density is invalid. We propose ways to deal with this situation and we derive the associated outflow rates for ionized gas, which are in the range 0.001–0.5 M⊙ yr−1 for our AGN sample. We compare these outflow rates to the relation between $\dot{M}_{\rm out}$ and LAGN in the literature, and argue that it may need to be modified and rescaled towards lower mass outflow rates.
ABSTRACT
We report on our combined analysis of HST, VLT/MUSE, VLT/SINFONI, and ALMA observations of the local Seyfert 2 galaxy, NGC 5728 to investigate in detail the feeding and feedback of the ...active galactic nucleus (AGN). The data sets simultaneously probe the morphology, excitation, and kinematics of the stars, ionized gas, and molecular gas over a large range of spatial scales (10 pc to 10 kpc). NGC 5728 contains a large stellar bar that is driving gas along prominent dust lanes to the inner 1 kpc where the gas settles into a circumnuclear ring. The ring is strongly star forming and contains a substantial population of young stars as indicated by the lowered stellar velocity dispersion and gas excitation consistent with H ii regions. We model the kinematics of the ring using the velocity field of the CO (2–1) emission and stars and find it is consistent with a rotating disc. The outer regions of the disc, where the dust lanes meet the ring, show signatures of inflow at a rate of 1 M$\odot$ yr−1. Inside the ring, we observe three molecular gas components corresponding to the circular rotation of the outer ring, a warped disc, and the nuclear stellar bar. The AGN is driving an ionized gas outflow that reaches a radius of 250 pc with a mass outflow rate of 0.08 M$\odot$ yr−1 consistent with its luminosity and scaling relations from previous studies. While we observe distinct holes in CO emission which could be signs of molecular gas removal, we find that largely the AGN is not disrupting the structure of the circumnuclear region.
ABSTRACT
We use Gemini Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectrograph (NIFS) observations of the inner 3.5 × 3.5 kpc2 of the radio galaxy Cygnus A to map the gas excitation and kinematics at a spatial ...resolution of 200 pc. The emission of the ionized gas shows a biconical morphology, with half-opening angle of 45○ and oriented along the position angle of the radio jet. Coronal line emission is seen within the cone, up to 1.75 kpc from the nucleus, with higher ionization gas observed in the easterly side. The H2 and Fe ii emission lines are consistent with excitation by the central AGN, with some contribution of shocks to the south-west of the nucleus. The gas visual extinction and electron density are larger than those from optical-based measurements, consistent with the fact that near-IR observations penetrate deeply into the gas emission structure, probing denser and more obscured regions. The gas kinematics shows two components: (i) a rotating disc with kinematic position angle of Ψ0 = 21○ ± 2○, seen both in ionized and molecular gas, and (ii) outflows with velocities of up to 600 km s−1 observed within the ionization cone in ionized gas and restricted to inner 0.5 arcsec in molecular gas. The mass outflow rate in ionized gas is in the range $\sim \! 100\!-\!280\, {\rm M_\odot \, yr^{-1}}$ and the kinetic power of the outflow corresponds to 0.3–3.3 per cent of the AGN bolometric luminosity, indicating that the outflows in Cygnus A may be effective in suppressing star formation.
ABSTRACT
The gas metallicity distributions across individual galaxies and across galaxy samples can teach us much about how galaxies evolve. Massive galaxies typically possess negative metallicity ...gradients, and mass and metallicity are tightly correlated on local scales over a wide range of galaxy masses; however, the precise origins of such trends remain elusive. Here, we employ data from SDSS-IV MaNGA to explore how gas metallicity depends on the local stellar mass density and on galactocentric radius within individual galaxies. We also consider how the strengths of these dependencies vary across the galaxy mass-size plane. We find that radius is more predictive of local metallicity than stellar mass density in extended lower-mass galaxies, while we find density and radius to be almost equally predictive in higher-mass and more compact galaxies. Consistent with previous work, we find a mild connection between metallicity gradients and large-scale environment; however, this is insufficient to explain variations in gas metallicity behaviour across the mass-size plane. We argue our results to be consistent with a scenario in which extended galaxies have experienced smooth gas accretion histories, producing negative metallicity gradients over time. We further argue that more compact and more massive systems have experienced increased merging activity that disrupts this process, leading to flatter metallicity gradients and more dominant density-metallicity correlations within individual galaxies.
The relation between nuclear (≲50 pc) star formation and nuclear galactic activity is still elusive; theoretical models predict a link between the two, but it is unclear whether active galactic ...nuclei (AGNs) should appear at the same time, before, or after nuclear star formation activity. We present a study of this relation in a complete, volume-limited sample of nine of the most luminous (log
L
14 − 195 keV
> 10
42.5
erg s
−1
) local AGNs (the LLAMA sample), including a sample of 18 inactive control galaxies (six star-forming; 12 passive) that are matched by Hubble type, stellar mass (9.5 ≲ log
M
⋆
/
M
⊙
≲ 10.5), inclination, and distance. This allows us to calibrate our methods on the control sample and perform a differential analysis between the AGN and control samples. We performed stellar population synthesis on VLT/X-shooter spectra in an aperture corresponding to a physical radius of ≈150 pc. We find young (≲30 Myr) stellar populations in seven out of nine AGNs and in four out of six star-forming control galaxies. In the non-star-forming control population, in contrast, only two out of 12 galaxies show such a population. We further show that these young populations are not indicative of ongoing star formation, providing evidence for models that see AGN activity as a consequence of nuclear star formation. Based on the similar nuclear star formation histories of AGNs and star-forming control galaxies, we speculate that the latter may turn into the former for some fraction of their time. Under this assumption, and making use of the volume completeness of our sample, we infer that the AGN phase lasts for about 5% of the nuclear starburst phase.
Full text
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Abstract
We present and characterize a sample of 20 nearby Seyfert galaxies selected for having BAT 14–195 keV luminosities LX ≥ 1041.5 erg s−1, redshift z ≤ 0.015, being accessible for observations ...with the Gemini Near-Infrared Field Spectrograph (NIFS) and showing extended O iiiλ5007 emission. Our goal is to study Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) feeding and feedback processes from near-infrared integral-field spectra, which include both ionized (H ii) and hot molecular (H2) emission. This sample is complemented by other nine Seyfert galaxies previously observed with NIFS. We show that the host galaxy properties (absolute magnitudes MB, MH, central stellar velocity dispersion and axial ratio) show a similar distribution to those of the 69 BAT AGN. For the 20 galaxies already observed, we present surface mass density (Σ) profiles for H ii and H2 in their inner ∼500 pc, showing that H ii emission presents a steeper radial gradient than H2. This can be attributed to the different excitation mechanisms: ionization by AGN radiation for H ii and heating by X-rays for H2. The mean surface mass densities are in the range (0.2 ≤ ΣH ii ≤ 35.9) M⊙ pc−2, and (0.2 ≤ ΣH2 ≤ 13.9)× 10−3 M⊙ pc−2, while the ratios between the H ii and H2 masses range between ∼200 and 8000. The sample presented here will be used in future papers to map AGN gas excitation and kinematics, providing a census of the mass inflow and outflow rates and power as well as their relation with the AGN luminosity.
ABSTRACT We present spectra of the nuclear regions of 50 nearby (D = 1-92 Mpc, median = 20 Mpc) galaxies of morphological types E to Sm. The spectra, obtained with the Gemini Near-IR Spectrograph on ...the Gemini North telescope, cover a wavelength range of approximately 0.85-2.5 m at R ∼ 1300-1800. There is evidence that most of the galaxies host an active galactic nucleus (AGN), but the range of AGN luminosities (log (L erg s−1) = 37.0-43.2) in the sample means that the spectra display a wide variety of features. Some nuclei, especially the Seyferts, exhibit a rich emission-line spectrum. Other objects, in particular the type 2 Low Ionization Nuclear Emission Region galaxies, show just a few, weak emission lines, allowing a detailed view of the underlying stellar population. These spectra display numerous absorption features sensitive to the stellar initial mass function, as well as molecular bands arising in cool stars, and many other atomic absorption lines. We compare the spectra of subsets of galaxies known to be characterized by intermediate-age and old stellar populations, and find clear differences in their absorption lines and continuum shapes. We also examine the effect of atmospheric water vapor on the signal-to-noise ratio achieved in regions between the conventional NIR atmospheric windows, which are of potential interest to those planning observations of redshifted emission lines or other features affected by telluric H2O. Further exploitation of this data set is in progress, and the reduced spectra and data reduction tools are made available to the community.
ABSTRACT
Gas-phase metallicity gradients in galaxies provide important clues to those galaxies’ formation histories. Using SDSS-IV MaNGA data, we previously demonstrated that gas metallicity ...gradients vary systematically and significantly across the galaxy mass–size plane: at stellar masses beyond approximately $10^{10}\, \mathrm{M_\odot }$, more extended galaxies display steeper gradients (in units of dex/Re) at a given stellar mass. Here, we set out to develop a physical interpretation of these findings by examining the ability of local ∼kpc-scale relations to predict the gradient behaviour along the mass–size plane. We find that local stellar mass surface density, when combined with total stellar mass, is sufficient to reproduce the overall mass–size trend in a qualitative sense. We further find that we can improve the predictions by correcting for residual trends relating to the recent star formation histories of star-forming regions. However, we find as well that the most extended galaxies display steeper average gradients than predicted, even after correcting for residual metallicity trends with other local parameters. From these results, we argue that gas-phase metallicity gradients can largely be understood in terms of known local relations, but we also discuss some possible physical causes of discrepant gradients.
ABSTRACT
We study the gas distribution and kinematics of the inner kpc of six moderately luminous (43.43 ≤ log Lbol ≤ 44.83) nearby (0.004 ≤ z ≤ 0.014) Seyfert galaxies observed with the ...Near-infrared Integral Field Spectrograph (NIFS) in the J ($1.25\,\mu$m) and K ($2.2\,\mu$m) bands. We analyse the most intense emission lines detected on these spectral wavebands: Fe ii $1.2570\, \mu$m and Paβ, which trace the ionized gas in the partially and fully ionized regions, and $\mathrm{ H}_2 \ 2.1218\, \mu$m, which traces the hot (∼2000 K) molecular gas. The dominant kinematic component is rotation in the disc of the galaxies, except for the ionized gas in NGC 5899 that shows only weak signatures of a disc component. We find ionized gas outflow in four galaxies, while signatures of H2 outflows are seen in three galaxies. The ionized gas outflows display velocities of a few hundred km s−1, and their mass outflow rates are in the range 0.005–12.49 M⊙ yr−1. Their kinetic powers correspond to 0.005–0.7 per cent of the active galactic nuclei (AGN) bolometric luminosities. Besides rotation and outflows signatures in some cases, the H2 kinematics also reveals inflows in three galaxies. The inflow velocities are 50–80 km s−1 and the mass inflow rates are in the range 1–9 × 10−4 M⊙ yr−1 for hot molecular gas. These inflows might be only the hot skin of the total inflowing gas, which is expected to be dominated by colder gas. The mass inflow rates are lower than the current accretion rates to the AGN, and the ionized outflows are apparently disturbing the gas in the inner kpc.
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