Bibcode
Tadhunter, C.; Rodríguez Zaurín, J.; Rose, M.; Spence, R. A. W.; Batcheldor, D.; Berg, M. A.; Ramos Almeida, C.; Spoon, H. W. W.; Sparks, W.; Chiaber, M.
Bibliographical reference
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 478, Issue 2, p.1558-1569
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8
2018
Citations
33
Refereed citations
31
Description
The true importance of the warm, AGN-driven outflows for the evolution
of galaxies remains uncertain. Measurements of the radial extents of the
outflows are key for quantifying their masses and kinetic powers, and
also establishing whether the AGN outflows are galaxy-wide. Therefore,
as part of a larger project to investigate the significance of warm,
AGN-driven outflows in the most rapidly evolving galaxies in the local
universe, here we present deep Hubble Space Telescope (HST) narrow-band
[O III] λ5007 observations of a complete sample of eight nearby
ULIRGs with optical AGN nuclei. Combined with the complementary
information provided by our ground-based spectroscopy, the HST images
show that the warm gas outflows are relatively compact for most of the
objects in the sample: in three objects, the outflow regions are barely
resolved at the resolution of HST (0.065 < R_[O III] < 0.12 kpc);
in a further four cases, the outflows are spatially resolved but with
flux-weighted mean radii in the range 0.65 < R_[O III] < 1.2 kpc;
and in only one object (Mrk273) is there clear evidence for a more
extended outflow, with a maximum extent of R_[O III]˜ 5 kpc.
Overall, our observations show little evidence for the galaxy-wide
outflows predicted by some models of AGN feedback.
Related projects
Nuclear Activity in Galaxies: a 3D Perspective from the Nucleus to the Outskirts
This project consists of two main research lines. First, the study of quasar-driven outflows in luminous and nearby obscured active galactic nuclei (AGN) and the impact that they have on their massive host galaxies (AGN feedback). To do so, we have obtained Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC) infrared and optical observations with the instruments
Cristina
Ramos Almeida