We present ALMA observations of the CO(1–0) and CO(3–2) line emission tracing filaments of cold molecular gas in the central galaxy of the cluster PKS 0745−191. The total molecular gas mass of
...$4.6\pm 0.3\times 10^{9} {\rm \, M_{{\odot}}}$
, assuming a Galactic X
CO factor, is divided roughly equally between three filaments each extending radially 3-5 kpc from the galaxy centre. The emission peak is located in the SE filament ∼ 1 arcsec (2 kpc) from the nucleus. The velocities of the molecular clouds in the filaments are low, lying within
$\pm 100 {\rm \, km \rm \, s^{-1}}$
of the galaxy's systemic velocity. Their full width at half-maximum (FWHM) are less than
$150 {\rm \, km \rm \, s^{-1},}$
which is significantly below the stellar velocity dispersion. Although the molecular mass of each filament is comparable to a rich spiral galaxy, such low velocities show that the filaments are transient and the clouds would disperse on < 107 yr time-scales unless supported, likely by the indirect effect of magnetic fields. The velocity structure is inconsistent with a merger origin or gravitational free-fall of cooling gas in this massive central galaxy. If the molecular clouds originated in gas cooling even a few kpc from their current locations their velocities would exceed those observed. Instead, the projection of the N and SE filaments underneath X-ray cavities suggests they formed in the updraft behind bubbles buoyantly rising through the cluster atmosphere. Direct uplift of the dense gas by the radio bubbles appears to require an implausibly high coupling efficiency. The filaments are coincident with low temperature X-ray gas, bright optical line emission and dust lanes indicating that the molecular gas could have formed from lifted warmer gas that cooled in situ.
We present a multiwavelength morphological analysis of star-forming clouds and filaments in the central (≲50 kpc) regions of 16 low-redshift (z < 0.3) cool core brightest cluster galaxies. New Hubble ...Space Telescope imaging of far-ultraviolet continuum emission from young (≲10 Myr), massive (≳5 M⊙) stars reveals filamentary and clumpy morphologies, which we quantify by means of structural indices. The FUV data are compared with X-ray, Lyα, narrow-band Hα, broad-band optical/IR, and radio maps, providing a high spatial resolution atlas of star formation locales relative to the ambient hot (∼107–8 K) and warm ionized (∼104 K) gas phases, as well as the old stellar population and radio-bright active galactic nucleus (AGN) outflows. Nearly half of the sample possesses kpc-scale filaments that, in projection, extend towards and around radio lobes and/or X-ray cavities. These filaments may have been uplifted by the propagating jet or buoyant X-ray bubble, or may have formed in situ by cloud collapse at the interface of a radio lobe or rapid cooling in a cavity's compressed shell. The morphological diversity of nearly the entire FUV sample is reproduced by recent hydrodynamical simulations in which the AGN powers a self-regulating rain of thermally unstable star-forming clouds that precipitate from the hot atmosphere. In this model, precipitation triggers where the cooling-to-free-fall time ratio is t
cool/t
ff ∼ 10. This condition is roughly met at the maximal projected FUV radius for more than half of our sample, and clustering about this ratio is stronger for sources with higher star formation rates.
Massive outflows driven by active galactic nuclei are widely recognized to have a key role in the evolution of galaxies, by heating the ambient gas, expelling it from the nuclear regions, and thereby ...affecting the star-formation histories of the galaxy bulges. It has been proposed that the powerful jets of relativistic particles (such as electrons) launched by some active nuclei can both accelerate and heat the molecular gas, which often dominates the mass budgets of the outflows. Clear evidence for this mechanism, in the form of detailed associations between the molecular gas kinematics and features in the radio-emitting jets, has however been lacking. Here we report that the warm molecular hydrogen gas in the western radio lobe of the Seyfert galaxy IC 5063 is moving at high velocities-up to about 600 kilometres per second-relative to the galaxy disk. This suggests that the molecules have been accelerated by fast shocks driven into the interstellar medium by the expanding radio jets. These results demonstrate the general feasibility of accelerating molecular outflows in fast shocks driven by active nuclei.
Abstract
To advance our understanding of the fuelling and feedback processes which power the Universe’s most massive black holes, we require a significant increase in our knowledge of the molecular ...gas which exists in their immediate surroundings. However, the behaviour of this gas is poorly understood due to the difficulties associated with observing it directly. We report on a survey of 18 brightest cluster galaxies lying in cool cores, from which we detect molecular gas in the core regions of eight via carbon monoxide (CO), cyanide (CN) and silicon monoxide (SiO) absorption lines. These absorption lines are produced by cold molecular gas clouds which lie along the line of sight to the bright continuum sources at the galaxy centres. As such, they can be used to determine many properties of the molecular gas which may go on to fuel supermassive black hole accretion and AGN feedback mechanisms. The absorption regions detected have velocities ranging from −45 to 283 km s−1 relative to the systemic velocity of the galaxy, and have a bias for motion towards the host supermassive black hole. We find that the CN N = 0 − 1 absorption lines are typically 10 times stronger than those of CO J = 0 − 1. This is due to the higher electric dipole moment of the CN molecule, which enhances its absorption strength. In terms of molecular number density CO remains the more prevalent molecule with a ratio of CO/CN ∼10, similar to that of nearby galaxies. Comparison of CO, CN, and H i observations for these systems shows many different combinations of these absorption lines being detected.
ABSTRACT
We present Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array observations of the brightest cluster galaxy Hydra-A, a nearby (z = 0.054) giant elliptical galaxy with powerful and extended radio ...jets. The observations reveal CO(1−0), CO(2–1), 13CO(2–1), CN(2–1), SiO(5–4), HCO+(1–0), HCO+(2–1), HCN(1–0), HCN(2–1), HNC(1–0), and H2CO(3–2) absorption lines against the galaxy’s bright and compact active galactic nucleus. These absorption features are due to at least 12 individual molecular clouds that lie close to the centre of the galaxy and have velocities of approximately −50 to +10 km s−1 relative to its recession velocity, where positive values correspond to inward motion. The absorption profiles are evidence of a clumpy interstellar medium within brightest cluster galaxies composed of clouds with similar column densities, velocity dispersions, and excitation temperatures to those found at radii of several kpc in the Milky Way. We also show potential variation in a ∼10 km s−1 wide section of the absorption profile over a 2 yr time-scale, most likely caused by relativistic motions in the hot spots of the continuum source that change the background illumination of the absorbing clouds.
We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array and Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer observations of the brightest cluster galaxy in Abell 2597, a nearby (z = 0.0821) cool core cluster of ...galaxies. The data map the kinematics of a three billion solar mass filamentary nebula that spans the innermost 30 kpc of the galaxy's core. Its warm ionized and cold molecular components are both cospatial and comoving, consistent with the hypothesis that the optical nebula traces the warm envelopes of many cold molecular clouds that drift in the velocity field of the hot X-ray atmosphere. The clouds are not in dynamical equilibrium, and instead show evidence for inflow toward the central supermassive black hole, outflow along the jets it launches, and uplift by the buoyant hot bubbles those jets inflate. The entire scenario is therefore consistent with a galaxy-spanning "fountain," wherein cold gas clouds drain into the black hole accretion reservoir, powering jets and bubbles that uplift a cooling plume of low-entropy multiphase gas, which may stimulate additional cooling and accretion as part of a self-regulating feedback loop. All velocities are below the escape speed from the galaxy, and so these clouds should rain back toward the galaxy center from which they came, keeping the fountain long lived. The data are consistent with major predictions of chaotic cold accretion, precipitation, and stimulated feedback models, and may trace processes fundamental to galaxy evolution at effectively all mass scales.
ABSTRACT
We present ALMA CO(1–0) and CO(3–2) observations of the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) in the 2A 0335+096 galaxy cluster (
z
= 0.0346). The total molecular gas mass of 1.13 ± 0.15 × 10
9
M
...⊙
is divided into two components: a nuclear region and a 7 kpc long dusty filament. The central molecular gas component accounts for 3.2 ± 0.4 × 10
8
M
⊙
of the total supply of cold gas. Instead of forming a rotationally supported ring or disk, it is composed of two distinct, blueshifted clumps south of the nucleus and a series of low-significance redshifted clumps extending toward a nearby companion galaxy. The velocity of the redshifted clouds increases with radius to a value consistent with the companion galaxy, suggesting that an interaction between these galaxies <20 Myr ago disrupted a pre-existing molecular gas reservoir within the BCG. Most of the molecular gas, 7.8 ± 0.9 × 10
8
M
⊙
, is located in the filament. The CO emission is co-spatial with a 10
4
K emission-line nebula and soft X-rays from 0.5 keV gas, indicating that the molecular gas has cooled out of the intracluster medium over a period of 25–100 Myr. The filament trails an X-ray cavity, suggesting that the gas has cooled from low-entropy gas that has been lifted out of the cluster core and become thermally unstable. We are unable to distinguish between inflow and outflow along the filament with the present data. Cloud velocities along the filament are consistent with gravitational free-fall near the plane of the sky, although their increasing blueshifts with radius are consistent with outflow.
Using CO (4−3) and (2−1) Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) data, we prove that the molecular gas in the jet-driven winds of the galaxy IC 5063 is more highly excited than the rest of the ...molecular gas in the disk of the same galaxy. On average, the CO(4 − 3) /CO(2 − 1) flux ratio is 1 for the disk and 5 for the jet accelerated or impacted gas. Spatially-resolved maps reveal that in regions associated with winds, the CO(4 − 3) /CO(2 − 1) flux ratio significantly exceeds the upper limit of 4 for optically thick gas. It frequently takes values between 5 and 11, and it occasionally further approaches the upper limit of 16 for optically thin gas. Excitation temperatures of 30−100 K are common for the molecules in these regions. If all of the outflowing molecular gas is optically thin, at 30−50 K, then its mass is 2 × 106 M⊙. This lower mass limit is an order of magnitude below the mass derived from the CO(2 − 1) flux in the case of optically thick gas. Molecular winds can thus be less massive, but more easily detectable at high z than they were previously thought to be.
Active galactic nuclei play a crucial role in the accretion and ejection of gas in galaxies. Although their outflows are well studied, finding direct evidence of accretion has proved very difficult ...and has so far been done for very few sources. A promising way to study the significance of cold accretion is by observing the absorption of an active galactic nucleus's extremely bright radio emission by the cold gas lying along the line of sight. As such, we present ALMA CO(1-0) and CO(2-1) observations of the Hydra-A brightest cluster galaxy (z = 0.054) which reveal the existence of cold, molecular gas clouds along the line of sight to the galaxy's extremely bright and compact mm-continuum source. They have apparent motions relative to the central supermassive black hole of between -43 and -4 km s-1 and are most likely moving along stable, low ellipticity orbits. The identified clouds form part of a ˜109 M⊙, approximately edge-on disc of cold molecular gas. With peak CO(2-1) optical depths of τ = 0.88 ^{+0.06}_{-0.06}, they include the narrowest and by far the deepest absorption of this type which has been observed to date in a brightest cluster galaxy. By comparing the relative strengths of the lines for the most strongly absorbing region, we are able to estimate a gas temperature of 42^{+25}_{-11} K and line of sight column densities of N_{CO}=2^{+3}_{-1}× 10 ^{17} {cm}^{-2} and N_{H2 }=7^{+10}_{-4}× 10 ^{20} {cm}^{-2}.
Some merging galaxy clusters host diffuse extended radio emission, so-called radio halos and relics, unrelated to individual galaxies. The origin of these halos and relics is still debated, although ...there is compelling evidence now that they are related to cluster merger events. Here we present detailed Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) and Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) radio observations between 147 MHz and 4.9 GHz of a new radio-selected galaxy cluster 1RXS J0603.3+4214, for which we find a redshift of 0.225. The cluster is detected as an extended X-ray source in the ROSAT All Sky Survey with an X-ray luminosity of LX, 0.1−2.4 keV ~ 1 × 1045 erg s-1. The cluster hosts a large bright 1.9 Mpc radio relic, an elongated ~2 Mpc radio halo, and two fainter smaller radio relics. The large radio relic has a peculiar linear morphology. For this relic we observe a clear spectral index gradient from the front of the relic towards the back, in the direction towards the cluster center. Parts of this relic are highly polarized with a polarization fraction of up to 60%. We performed rotation measure (RM) synthesis between 1.2 and 1.7 GHz. The results suggest that for the west part of the large relic some of the Faraday rotation is caused by the intracluster medium and not only due to galactic foregrounds. We also carried out a detailed spectral analysis of this radio relic and created radio color–color diagrams. We find (i) an injection spectral index of −0.6 to −0.7; (ii) steepening spectral index and increasing spectral curvature in the post-shock region; and (iii) an overall power-law spectrum between 74 MHz and 4.9 GHz with α = −1.10 ± 0.02. Mixing of emission in the beam from regions with different spectral ages is probably the dominant factor that determines the shape of the radio spectra. Changes in the magnetic field, total electron content, or adiabatic gains/losses do not play a major role. A model in which particles are (re)accelerated in a first order Fermi process at the front of the relic provides the best match to the observed spectra. We speculate that in the post-shock region particles are re-accelerated by merger induced turbulence to form the radio halo as the relic and halo are connected. The orientation of the bright relic and halo indicate a north-south merger event, but the peculiar linear shape and the presence of another relic, perpendicular to the bright relic, suggest a more complex merger event. Deep X-ray observations will be needed to determine the merger scenario.
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