The Many Routes to AGN Feedback Morganti, Raffaella
Frontiers in astronomy and space sciences,
11/2017, Letnik:
4
Journal Article
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Odprti dostop
The energy released by Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) in the form of radiation, winds, or radio plasma jets, is known to impact on the surrounding interstellar medium. The result of these processes, ...known as AGN (negative) feedback, is suggested to prevent gas, in and around galaxies, from cooling, and to remove, or at least redistribute, gas by driving massive and fast outflows, hence playing a key role in galaxy evolution. Given its importance, a large effort is devoted by the astronomical community to trace the effects of AGN on the surrounding gaseous medium and to quantify their impact for different types of AGN. This review briefly summarizes some of the recent observational results obtained in different wavebands, tracing different phases of the gas. I also summarize the new insights they have brought, and the constraints they provide to numerical simulations of galaxy formation and evolution. The recent addition of deep observations of cold gas and, in particular, of cold molecular gas, has brought some interesting surprises and has expanded our understanding of AGN and AGN feedback.
This review summarises what we have learnt in the last two decades based on H
i
21 cm absorption observations about the cold interstellar medium (ISM) in the central regions of active galaxies and ...about the interplay between this gas and the active nucleus (AGN). H
i
absorption is a powerful tracer on all scales, from the parsec-scales close to the central black hole to structures of many tens of kpc tracing interactions and mergers of galaxies. Given the strong radio continuum emission often associated with the central activity, H
i
absorption observations can be used to study the H
i
near an active nucleus out to much higher redshifts than is possible using H
i
emission. In this way, H
i
absorption has been used to characterise in detail the general ISM in active galaxies, to trace the fuelling of radio-loud AGN, to study the feedback occurring between the energy released by the active nucleus and the ISM, and the impact of such interactions on the evolution of galaxies and of their AGN. In the last two decades, significant progress has been made in all these areas. It is now well established that many radio loud AGN are surrounded by small, regularly rotating gas disks that contain a significant fraction of H
i
. The structure of these disks has been traced down to parsec scales by very long baseline interferometry observations. Some groups of objects, and in particular young and recently restarted radio galaxies, appear to have a particularly high detection rate of H
i
. This is interesting in connection with the evolution of these AGN and their impact on the surrounding ISM. This is further confirmed by an important discovery, made thanks to technical upgrades of radio telescopes, namely the presence of fast, AGN-driven outflows of cold gas which give a direct view of the impact of the energy released by AGN on the evolution of galaxies (AGN feedback). In addition, evidence has been collected that clouds of cold gas can play a role in fuelling the nuclear activity. This review ends by briefly describing the upcoming large, blind H
i
absorption surveys planned for the new radio telescopes which will soon become operational. These surveys will allow to significantly expand existing work, but will also allow to explore new topics, in particular, the evolution of the cold ISM in AGN.
The recurrent activity of radio AGN, with phases of activity alternating with periods of quiescence, has been known since the early studies of these objects. The full relevance of this cycle is ...emphasised by the requirement, from the AGN feedback scenario, of a recurrent impact of the energy released by the SMBH during the lifetime of the host galaxy: only in this way can AGN feedback influence galaxy evolution. Radio AGN in different evolutionary phases can be identified by their properties, like morphology and spectral indices. Dying/remnant and restarted sources have been the most elusive to select and characterise, but they are crucial to quantify the full life cycle. Thanks to the availability of new, large radio surveys (particularly at low frequencies), it is finally possible to make a more complete census of these rare sources and start building larger samples. This paper gives an overview of the recent work conducted using a variety of radio telescopes and surveys, highlighting some of the new results characterising the properties of dying/remnant and restarted radio sources and what has been learned about the life cycle of radio AGN. The comparison with the predictions from numerical simulations is also discussed. The results so far show that remnant and restarted radio AGN have a variety of properties which make these objects more complex than previously thought.
We present the detection, performed with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) and the Karl Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), of a fast H I 21 cm outflow in the ultra-luminous infrared galaxy ...Mrk 231. The outflow is observed as shallow H I absorption blueshifted ~1300 km s-1 with respect to the systemic velocity and located against the inner kpc of the radio source. The outflowing gas has an estimated column density between 5 and 15 × 1018Tspin cm-2. We derive the Tspin to lie in the range 400−2000 K and the corresponding H I densities are nHI ~ 10−100 cm-3. Our results complement previous findings and confirm the multiphase nature of the outflow in Mrk 231. Although effects of the interaction between the radio plasma and the surrounding medium cannot be ruled out, the energetics and the lack of a clear kpc-scale jet suggest that the most likely origin of the H I outflow is a wide-angle nuclear wind, as earlier proposed to explain the neutral outflow traced by Na I and molecular gas in this source. Our results suggest that an H I component is present in fast outflows regardless of the acceleration mechanism (wind vs. jet driven) and that it must be connected with common properties of the pre-interaction gas involved. Considering the observed similarity of their column densities, the H I outflow likely represents the inner part of the broad wind identified on larger scales in atomic Na I. The mass outflow rate of the H I outflow (between 8 and 18 M⊙ yr-1) does not appear to be as large as that observed in molecular gas, partly owing to the smaller sizes of the outflowing region sampled by the H I absorption. These characteristics are commonly seen in other cases of outflows driven by the active galactic nucleus (AGN) suggesting that the H I may represent a short intermediate phase in the rapid cooling of the gas. The results further confirm H I as a good tracer for AGN-driven outflows not only in powerful radio sources. We also obtained deeper continuum images than previously available. They confirm the complex structure of the radio continuum originating both from the AGN and star formation. At the resolution obtained with the VLA (~1′′) we do not see a kpc-scale jet. Instead, we detect a plateau of emission, likely due to star formation, surrounding the bright nuclear region. We also detect a poorly collimated bridge which may represent the channel feeding the southern lobe. The unprecedented depth of the low-resolution WSRT image reveals radio emission extending 50′′ (43 kpc) to the south and 20′′ (17 kpc) to the north.
We use high-resolution (0.5 arcsec) CO(2−1) observations performed with the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array to trace the kinematics of the molecular gas in the Seyfert 2 galaxy IC 5063. ...The data reveal that the kinematics of the gas is very complex. A fast outflow of molecular gas extends along the entire radio jet (~1 kpc), with the highest outflow velocities about 0.5 kpc from the nucleus, at the location of the brighter hot spot in the western lobe. The ALMA data show that a massive, fast outflow with velocities up to 650kms-1 of cold molecular gas is present, in addition to the outflow detected earlier in warm H2, H i and ionized gas. All phases of the gas outflow show similar kinematics. IC 5063 appears to be one of the best examples of the multi-phase nature of AGN-driven outflows. Both the central AGN and the radio jet could energetically drive the outflow, however, the characteristics of the outflowing gas point to the radio jet being the main driver. This is an important result because IC 5063, although one of the most powerful Seyfert galaxies, is a relatively weak radio source (P1.4 GHz = 3 × 1023 W Hz-1). All the observed characteristics can be described by a scenario of a radio plasma jet expanding into a clumpy medium, interacting directly with the clouds and inflating a cocoon that drives a lateral outflow into the interstellar medium. This model is consistent with results obtained by recent simulations. A stronger, direct interaction between the jet and a gas cloud is present at the location of the brighter western lobe. This interaction may also be responsible for the asymmetry in the radio brightness of the two lobes. Even assuming the most conservative values for the conversion factor CO-to-H2, we find that the mass of the outflowing gas is between 1.9 and 4.8 × 107 M⊙, of which between 0.5 and 1.3 × 107 M⊙ is associated with the fast outflow at the location of the western lobe. These amounts are much larger than those of the outflow of warm gas (molecular and ionized) and somewhat larger than of the H i outflow. This suggests that most of the observed cold molecular outflow is due to fast cooling after being shocked. This gas is the end product of the cooling process, although some of it could be the result of only partly dissociated clouds. Our CO observations demonstrate that fast outflows of substantial masses of molecular gas can be driven by relativistic jets, although in the case of IC 5063 the outflows are not fast enough to remove significant amounts of gas from the galaxy and the effects are limited to the central ~0.5 kpc from the centre.
We present high angular resolution (0.13–0.4 arcsec) ALMA CO(2–1) and 1.7 mm continuum observations of the far-infrared-bright galaxy PKS 0023−26 (
z
= 0.32), which hosts a young radio source as ...well as a luminous optical active galactic nucleus (AGN). Although young, the powerful radio source has already grown to a size of a few kiloparsec, making it potentially capable of affecting the interstellar medium (ISM) of the host galaxy. We detect a very extended distribution of molecular gas with a mass between 0.3 and 3 × 10
10
M
⊙
, depending on the
X
CO
conversion factor. The gas has a maximum radial extent of ∼5 arcsec (24 kpc) from the nucleus and is distributed in an asymmetric structure offset from the radio galaxy and with a fairly smooth velocity gradient. At large radii, tails of gas are observed in the direction of companion galaxies, suggesting that tidal interactions may be responsible for the origin of the gas. Overall, the observed properties are reminiscent of the molecular structures observed in some galaxy clusters. However, in the inner few kiloparsec, across the entire extent of the radio continuum, the kinematics of the gas appears to be affected by the radio source. In the central, sub-kiloparsec region, we observe the brightest emission from the molecular gas and the broadest velocity profiles with a full width at zero intensity (FWZI) of ∼500 km s
−1
, which indicate that in this region a direct interaction of the jet with dense clouds and outflowing molecular gas is happening. On larger, kiloparsec-scales, the molecular gas appears to avoid the radio lobes, while gas with a somewhat smaller velocity dispersion (FWZI of ∼350 km s
−1
) is observed around the radio lobes. Thus, in these regions, the gas appears to be affected by the expanding cocoon surrounding the radio source, likely dispersing and heating preexisting molecular clouds. The observations suggest that the mode of coupling between radio jets and the ISM changes from an outflowing phase limited to the sub-kiloparsec region to a maintenance phase, excavating cavities devoid of dense gas, at larger radii. This reveals that, already on galaxy scales, the impact of the AGN is not limited to outflows. This is in accordance with predictions from numerical simulations. With a star-formation rate of 25
M
⊙
yr
−1
, PKS 0023−26 is located on the SFR-
M
*
relation for star forming galaxies. Thus, the AGN does not appear to have, at present, a major impact on the host galaxy in terms of the overall level of star-formation activity. However, as the jet and lobes expand throughout the galaxy in the coming few ×10
7
yr, they will carry enough energy to be able to prevent further gas cooling and/or to inject turbulence and thus affect future star formation.
ABSTRACT
Feedback from radio jets associated with active galactic nuclei (AGNs) plays a profound role in the evolution of galaxies. Kinetic power of these radio jets appears to show temporal ...variation, but the mechanism(s) responsible for this process are not yet clear. Recently, the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) has uncovered large populations of active, remnant, and restarted radio jet populations. By focusing on LOFAR data in the Lockman Hole, in this work we use the Radio AGNs in Semi-Analytic Environments (RAiSE) dynamical model to present the first self-consistent modelling analysis of active, remnant, and restarted radio source populations. Consistent with other recent work, our models predict that remnant radio lobes fade quickly. Any high (>10 per cent) observed fraction of remnant and restarted sources therefore requires a dominant population of short-lived jets. We speculate that this could plausibly be provided by feedback-regulated accretion.
We present a detailed study of the properties of the molecular gas in the fast outflow driven by the active galactic nucleus (AGN) in the nearby radio-loud Seyfert galaxy IC 5063. By using ALMA ...observations of a number of tracers of the molecular gas (12CO(1–0), 12CO(2–1), 12CO(3–2), 13CO(2–1) and HCO+(4–3)), we map the differences in excitation, density and temperature of the gas as function of position and kinematics. The results show that in the immediate vicinity of the radio jet, a fast outflow, with velocities up to 800 km s-1, is occurring of which the gas has high excitation with excitation temperatures in the range 30–55 K, demonstrating the direct impact of the jet on the ISM. The relative brightness of the 12CO lines, as well as that of 13CO(2–1) vs. 12CO(2–1), show that the outflow is optically thin. We estimate the mass of the molecular outflow to be at least 1.2 × 106 M⊙ and likely to be a factor between two and three larger than this value. This is similar to that of the outflow of atomic gas, but much larger than that of the ionised outflow, showing that the outflow in IC 5063 is dominated by cold gas. The total mass outflow rate we estimated to be ~12 M⊙ yr-1. The mass of the outflow is much smaller than the total gas mass of the ISM of IC 5063. Therefore, although the influence of the AGN and its radio jet is very significant in the inner regions of IC 5063, globally speaking the impact will be very modest. We used RADEX non-LTE modelling to explore the physical conditions of the molecular gas in the outflow. Models with the outflowing gas being quite clumpy give the most consistent results and our preferred solutions have kinetic temperatures in the range 20–100 K and densities between 105 and 106 cm-3. The resulting pressures are 106–107.5 K cm-3, about two orders of magnitude higher than in the outer quiescent disk. The highest densities and temperatures are found in the regions with the fastest outflow. The results strongly suggest that the outflow in IC 5063 is driven by the radio plasma jet expanding into a clumpy gaseous medium and creating a cocoon of (shocked) gas which is pushed away from the jet axis resulting in a lateral outflow, very similar to what is predicted by numerical simulations.
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