Excitation of Molecular Hydrogen in Seyferts: NGC 5506 and NGC 3081

Context. The recently launched James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is opening new observing windows on the distant Universe. Among JWST’s instruments, the Mid Infrared Instrument (MIRI) offers the unique capability of imaging observations at wavelengths of λ > 5 μm. This enables unique access to the rest frame near-infrared (NIR, λ ≥ 1 μm) emission from galaxies at redshifts of z > 4 and the visual (λ ≳ 5000 Å) rest frame for z > 9. We report here on the guaranteed time observations (GTO), from the MIRI European Consortium, of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), forming the MIRI Deep Imaging Survey (MIDIS), consisting of an on source integration time of ∼41 hours in the MIRI/F560W (5.6 μm) filter. The F560W filter was selected since it would produce the deepest data in terms of AB magnitudes in a given time. To our knowledge, this constitutes the longest single filter exposure obtained with JWST of an extragalactic field as of yet. Aims. The HUDF is one of the most observed extragalactic fields, with extensive multi-wavelength coverage, where (before JWST) galaxies up to z ∼ 7 have been confirmed, and at z > 10 suggested, from HST photometry. We aim to characterise the galaxy population in HUDF at 5.6 μm, enabling studies such as: the rest frame NIR morphologies for galaxies at z ≲ 4.6, probing mature stellar populations and emission lines in z > 6 sources, intrinsically red and dusty galaxies, and active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and their host galaxies at intermediate redshifts. Methods. We reduced the MIRI data using the official JWST pipeline, augmented by in-house custom scripts. We measured the noise characteristics of the resulting image. Galaxy photometry was obtained, and photometric redshifts were estimated for sources with available multi-wavelength photometry (and compared to spectroscopic redshifts when available). Results. Over the deepest part of our image, the 5σ point source limit is 28.65 mag AB (12.6 nJy), ∼0.35 mag better than predicted by the JWST exposure time calculator. We find ∼2500 sources, the overwhelming majority of which are distant galaxies, but we note that spurious sources likely remain at faint magnitudes due to imperfect cosmic ray rejection in the JWST pipeline. More than 500 galaxies with available spectroscopic redshifts, up to z ≈ 11, have been identified, the majority of which are at z < 6. More than 1000 galaxies have reliable photometric redshift estimates, of which ∼25 are at 6 < z < 12. The point spread function in the F560W filter has a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of ≈0.2″ (corresponding to 1.4 kpc at z = 4), allowing the NIR rest frame morphologies and stellar mass distributions to be resolved for z < 4.5. Moreover, > 100 objects with very red NIRCam vs MIRI (3.6–5.6 μm > 1 mag) colours have been found, suggestive of dusty or old stellar populations at high redshifts. Conclusions. We conclude that MIDIS surpasses preflight expectations and that deep MIRI imaging has great potential to characterise the galaxy population from cosmic noon to dawn.

The Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science program observed the Extended Groth Strip (EGS) with the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in 2022. In this paper, we discuss the four MIRI pointings that observed with longer-wavelength filters, including F770W, F1000W, F1280W, F1500W, F1800W, and F2100W. We compare the MIRI galaxies with the Spitzer/MIPS 24 μm population in the EGS field. We find that MIRI can observe an order of magnitude deeper than MIPS in significantly shorter integration times, attributable to JWST's much larger aperture and MIRI’s improved sensitivity. MIRI is exceptionally good at finding faint (L IR < 1010 L ⊙) galaxies at z ∼ 1–2. We find that a significant portion of MIRI galaxies are “mid-IR weak”—they have strong near-IR emission and relatively weaker mid-IR emission, and most of the star formation is unobscured. We present new IR templates that capture how the mid-to-near-IR emission changes with increasing infrared luminosity. We present two color–color diagrams to separate mid-IR weak galaxies and active galactic nuclei (AGN) from dusty star-forming galaxies and find that these color diagrams are most effective when used in conjunction with each other. We present the first number counts of 10 μm sources and find that there are ≲10 IR AGN per MIRI pointing, possibly due to the difficulty of distinguishing AGN from intrinsically mid-IR weak galaxies (due to low metallicities or dust content). We conclude that MIRI is most effective at observing moderate-luminosity (L IR = 109–1010 L ⊙) galaxies at z = 1–2, and that photometry alone is not effective at identifying AGN within this faint population.

Context. During the commissioning of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the mid-infrared instrument (MIRI) observed NGC 6552 with the MIRI Imager and the Medium-Resolution Spectrograph (MRS). NGC 6552 is an active galactic nucleus (AGN) at a redshift of 0.0266 (DL = 120 Mpc) classified as a Seyfert 2 nucleus in the optical and Compton-thick AGN in the X-ray. Aims. This work exemplifies and demonstrates the MRS capabilities to study the mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectra and characterise the physical conditions and kinematics of the ionised and molecular gas in the nuclear regions of nearby galaxies. Methods. MIRI Imager observations covers the full NGC 6552 galaxy at 5.6 μm. MRS observations covers its nuclear region (3.6×4.3 kpc at 17.7–27.9 μm) in a wavelength range between 4.9 and 27.9 μm. These observations were obtained with the aim to investigate the persistence of the MIRI detectors (residual signal left from previous bright source observations). However, NGC 6552 observations demonstrate the performance and power of the MIRI instrument even with a non-optimal observational strategy. Results. We obtained the nuclear, circumnuclear, and central mid-IR spectra of NGC 6552. They provide the first clear observational evidence for a nuclear outflow in NGC 6552. The outflow contributes to 67±7% of the total line flux independent of the ionisation potential (27–187 eV) and critical densities (104–4×106 cm−3), showing an average blue-shifted peak velocity of −127±45 km s−1 and an outflow maximal velocity of 698±80 km s−1. Since the mid-IR photons penetrate dusty regions as efficiently as X-ray keV photons, we interpret these results as the evidence for a highly ionised, non-stratified, AGN-powered, and fast outflowing gas in a low density environment (few 103 cm−3) located very close (&lt; 0.2 kpc) to the Compton-thick AGN. Nine pure rotational molecular Hydrogen lines are detected and spectrally resolved, and exhibit symmetric Gaussian profiles, consistent with the galactic rotation, and with no evidence of outflowing H2 material. We detect a warm H2 mass of 1.9 ± 1.1 × 107 M⊙ in the central region (1.8 kpc in diameter) of the galaxy, with almost 30% of that mass in the circumnuclear region. Line ratios confirm that NGC 6552 has a Seyfert nucleus with a black hole mass estimated in the range of 0.6–6 million solar masses. Conclusions. This work demonstrates the power of the newly commissioned MIRI Medium Resolution Spectrograph to reveal new insights in the kinematics and ionisation state of the interstellar medium around the dusty nuclear regions of nearby active galaxies.

It is now clear that a significant population of accreting black holes are undetected by commonly employed optical, mid-infrared color, X-ray, and radio selection methods as a result of obscuration or contamination of the emission from the nuclear region caused by star formation in the host galaxy. These elusive active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are an important component of the AGN population. They are often found in mergers, where significant black hole growth likely takes place, and in the lowest-mass galaxies or galaxies that lack classical bulges, a demographic that places important constraints on models of supermassive black hole seed formation and merger-free models of AGN fueling. In this work, we demonstrate the power of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in uncovering and characterizing these elusive AGNs. We present an integrated modeling approach in which both the line and emergent continuum are predicted from gas exposed to the ionizing radiation from a young starburst and an AGN, focusing specifically on the spectral diagnostics available through JWST, and provide predictions on the detectability of key diagnostic lines by the near- and mid-infrared spectrometers, assuming typical conditions for the gas. We demonstrate the crucial need for JWST in uncovering low-level accretion activity even in nearby galaxies and out to redshifts of ≈1–3, depending on the ionization parameter, and gas phase metallicity. We present a redshift-dependent selection strategy that can be used to identify promising elusive AGN candidates for future follow-up study. The full suite of simulations is available online, where users can select specific parameters and retrieve the predicted continuum and infrared line luminosities from our models.

Aims. This paper utilises the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to extend the observational studies of dust and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission to a new mass and star formation rate (SFR) parameter space beyond our local Universe. The combination of fully sampled spectral energy distributions (SEDs) with multiple mid-infrared (mid-IR) bands and the unprecedented sensitivity of MIRI allows us to investigate dust obscuration and PAH behaviour from z = 0.7 up to z = 2 in typical main-sequence galaxies. Our focus is on constraining the evolution of PAH strength and the dust-obscured luminosity fraction before and during cosmic noon, the epoch of peak star formation activity in the Universe. Methods. In this study, we utilise MIRI multi-band imaging data from the SMILES survey (5 to 25 μm), complemented with NIRCam photometry from the JADES survey (1 to 5 μm), available HST photometry (0.4 to 0.9 μm), and spectroscopic redshifts from the FRESCO and JADES surveys in GOODS-S for 443 star-forming (without dominant active galactic nucleus (AGN)) galaxies at z = 0.7 − 2.0. This redshift range was chosen to ensure that the MIRI data cover mid-IR dust emission. Our methodology involved employing ultraviolet (UV) to IR energy balance SED fitting to robustly constrain the fraction of dust mass in PAHs and dust-obscured luminosity. Additionally, we inferred dust sizes from MIRI 15 μm imaging data, enhancing our understanding of the physical characteristics of dust within these galaxies. Results. We find a strong correlation between the fraction of dust in PAHs (PAH fraction, qPAH) with stellar mass. Moreover, the sub-sample with robust qPAH measurements (N = 216) shows a similar behaviour between qPAH and gas-phase metallicity to that at z ∼ 0, suggesting a universal relation: qPAH is constant (∼3.4%) above a metallicity of Z ∼ 0.5 Z⊙ and decreases to &lt; 1% at metallicities ≲0.3 Z⊙. This indicates that metallicity is a good indicator of the interstellar medium properties that affect the balance between the formation and destruction of PAHs. The lack of a redshift evolution from z ∼ 0 − 2 also implies that above Z ∼ 0.5 Z⊙ the PAH emission effectively traces obscured luminosity and the previous locally calibrated PAH-SFR calibrations remain applicable in this metallicity regime. We observe a strong correlation between the obscured UV luminosity fraction (ratio of obscured to total luminosity) and stellar mass. Above the stellar mass of M* &gt; 5 × 109 M⊙, on average, more than half of the emitted luminosity is obscured, while there exists a non-negligible population of lower-mass galaxies with &gt; 50% obscured fractions. At a fixed mass, the obscured fraction correlates with SFR surface density. This is a result of higher dust covering fractions in galaxies with more compact star-forming regions. Similarly, galaxies with high IRX (IR to UV luminosity) at a given mass or UV continuum slope (β) tend to have higher ΣSFR and shallower attenuation curves, owing to their higher effective dust optical depths and more compact star-forming regions.

We investigate the capabilities of the mid-infrared instrument (MIRI) of JWST to advance our knowledge of active galactic nucleus (AGN) dust using the spectral fitting technique on an AGN collection of 21 nearby ($z&amp;lt;0.05$) AGN (7 type-1 and 14 type-2) observations obtained with the medium resolution spectroscopy (MRS) mode. This collection includes publicly available AGN and data from the collaboration of Galactic Activity, Torus, and Outflow Survey (GATOS). We developed a tool named MRSPSFisol that decomposes MRS cubes into point-like and extended contributions. We found statistically good fits for 12 targets with current AGN dust models. The model that provides good fits ($\rm {\chi ^2/dof&amp;lt; 2}$) for these 12 targets assumes a combination of clumpy and smooth distribution of dust in a flare-disc geometry where the dust grain size is a free parameter. Still, two and one AGN statistically prefer the disc $+$ wind and the classical clumpy torus model, respectively. However, the currently available models fail to reproduce 40 per cent of the targets, likely due to the extreme silicate features not well reproduced by the models and signatures of water-ice and aliphatic hydrocarbon absorption features in most targets. New models exploring, for instance, new chemistry, are needed to explain the complexity of AGN dust continuum emission observed by JWST.

The distribution of molecular gas on small scales regulates star formation and the growth of supermassive black holes in galaxy centers. Yet, the role of active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback in shaping this distribution remains poorly constrained. We investigate how AGNs influence the small-scale structure of molecular gas in galaxy centers by measuring the clumpiness of CO($3-2$) emission observed with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in the nuclear regions ($50-200$ pc from the AGNs) of 16 nearby Seyfert galaxies from the Galaxy Activity, Torus, and Outflow Survey (GATOS). To quantify clumpiness we applied three different methods: (1) the median of the pixel-by-pixel contrast between the original and smoothed maps; (2) the ratio of the total excess flux to the total flux, after subtracting the background smoothed emission; and (3) the fraction of total flux coming from clumpy regions, interpreted as the mass fraction in clumps. We find a negative correlation between molecular gas clumpiness and AGN X-ray luminosity (L_ X ), suggesting that higher AGN activity is associated with smoother gas distributions. All methods reveal a turnover in this relation around L_ X erg s^-1, possibly indicating a threshold above which AGN feedback becomes efficient at dispersing dense molecular structures and suppressing future star formation. Our findings provide new observational evidence that AGN feedback can smooth out dense gas structures in galaxy centers.

We present James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) imaging of NGC 7469 with the Near-Infrared Camera and the Mid-InfraRed Instrument. NGC 7469 is a nearby, z = 0.01627, luminous infrared galaxy that hosts both a Seyfert Type-1.5 nucleus and a circumnuclear starburst ring with a radius of ∼0.5 kpc. The new near-infrared (NIR) JWST imaging reveals 66 star-forming regions, 37 of which were not detected by Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations. Twenty-eight of the 37 sources have very red NIR colors that indicate obscurations up to A v ∼ 7 and a contribution of at least 25% from hot dust emission to the 4.4 μm band. Their NIR colors are also consistent with young (<5 Myr) stellar populations and more than half of them are coincident with the mid-infrared (MIR) emission peaks. These younger, dusty star-forming regions account for ∼6% and ∼17% of the total 1.5 and 4.4 μm luminosity of the starburst ring, respectively. Thanks to JWST, we find a significant number of young dusty sources that were previously unseen due to dust extinction. The newly identified 28 young sources are a significant increase compared to the number of HST-detected young sources (4–5). This makes the total percentage of the young population rise from ∼15% to 48%. These results illustrate the effectiveness of JWST in identifying and characterizing previously hidden star formation in the densest star-forming environments around active galactic nuclei (AGN).

We present the first results of the Galaxy Activity, Torus, and Outflow Survey (GATOS), a project aimed at understanding the properties of the dusty molecular tori and their connection to the host galaxy in nearby Seyfert galaxies. Our project expands the range of active galactic nuclei (AGN) luminosities and Eddington ratios covered by previous surveys of Seyferts conducted by the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), allowing us to study the gas feeding and feedback cycle in a combined sample of 19 Seyferts. We used ALMA to obtain new images of the emission of molecular gas and dust using the CO(3–2) and HCO+(4–3) lines as well as their underlying continuum emission at 870 μm with high spatial resolutions (0.1″ ∼ 7 − 13 pc) in the circumnuclear disks (CND) of ten nearby (D &lt; 28 Mpc) Seyfert galaxies selected from an ultra-hard X-ray survey. Our new ALMA observations detect 870 μm continuum and CO line emission from spatially resolved disks located around the AGN in all the sources. The bulk of the 870 μm continuum flux can be accounted for by thermal emission from dust in the majority of the targets. For most of the sources, the disks show a preponderant orientation perpendicular to the AGN wind axes, as expected for dusty molecular tori. The median diameters and molecular gas masses of the tori are ∼42 pc and ∼6 × 105 M⊙, respectively. We also detected the emission of the 4–3 line of HCO+in four GATOS targets. The order of magnitude differences found in the CO/HCO+ratios within our combined sample point to a very different density radial stratification inside the dusty molecular tori of these Seyferts. We find a positive correlation between the line-of-sight gas column densities responsible for the absorption of X-rays and the molecular gas column densities derived from CO toward the AGN in our sources. Furthermore, the median values of both column densities are similar. This suggests that the neutral gas line-of-sight column densities of the dusty molecular tori imaged by ALMA significantly contribute to the obscuration of X-rays. The radial distributions of molecular gas in the CND of our combined sample show signs of nuclear-scale molecular gas deficits. We also detect molecular outflows in the sources that show the most extreme nuclear-scale gas deficits in our sample. These observations find for the first time supporting evidence that the imprint of AGN feedback is more extreme in higher luminosity and/or higher Eddington ratio Seyfert galaxies.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a NASA flagship mission that will address multiple science themes including our Universe’s first light, the assembly of galaxies, the birth of stars and planetary systems, and planets and the origins of life. The JWST is a large (6.5 m) segmented aperture telescope equipped with near- and mid-infrared instruments (0.6-28 microns), all of which are passively cooled to ~40 K by a 5-layer sunshield while the mid-infrared instrument is actively cooled to 7 K. The JWST will be launched to an L2 orbit aboard a European Space Agency (ESA) supplied Ariane 5 rocket, whose payload volume constraints require that the JWST structure is stowed for launch. The JWST telescope recently completed its cryogenic test program and the sunshield has been fully integrated and deployed. JWST is currently in the final stages of the test program at the Observatory level. The current estimated JWST performance metrics will be presented, such as the image quality, pointing stability, sensitivity, and stray light backgrounds. The JWST development status and future plans will be described for the final testing, launch, and commissioning. JWST is an international project with contributions from NASA, ESA, and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems is the prime contractor for the JWST, and the Space Telescope Science Institute will serve as the science operations center.

Dust-obscured galaxies are thought to represent an early evolutionary phase of massive galaxies in which the active galactic nucleus (AGN) is still deeply buried in significant amounts of dusty material and its emission is strongly suppressed. The unprecedented sensitivity of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) enabled us for the first time to detect the rest-frame optical emission of heavily obscured AGNs and unveil the properties of the hidden accreting super-massive black holes (BHs). In this work, we present the JWST/NIRSpec integral field spectroscopy (IFS) data of ALESS073.1, a massive (log(M⋆/M⊙) = 10.98) dusty, star-forming galaxy at z = 4.755 hosting an AGN at its center. The detection of a very broad (&gt; 9000 km s−1) Hα emission associated with the broad line region (BLR) confirms the presence of a BH (log(MBH/M⊙) &gt; 8.7) accreting at less than 18% of its Eddington limit. The identification of the BLR classifies the target as a type 1 AGN despite the observed high column density of NH ∼ 1024 cm−2. The rest-frame optical emission lines also reveal a fast (∼1700 km s−1) ionized gas outflow marginally resolved in the galaxy center. The high sensitivity of NIRSpec allowed us to perform the kinematic analysis of the narrow Hα component, which indicates that the warm ionized gas velocity field is consistent with disk rotation. Interestingly, we find that in the innermost nuclear regions (&lt; 1.5 kpc), the intrinsic velocity dispersion of the disk reaches ∼150 km s−1, which is ∼2 − 3 times higher than the velocity dispersion inferred from the [C II] 158 μm line tracing mostly cold gas. Since at large radii the velocity dispersion of the warm and cold gas are comparable, we conclude that the outflows are injecting turbulence in the warm ionized gas in the central region, but they are not sufficiently powerful to disrupt the dense gas and quench star formation. These findings support the scenario that dust-obscured galaxies represent the evolutionary stage preceding the unobscured quasar when all gas and dust are removed from the host.

The bulk of the stellar growth over cosmic time is dominated by IR-luminous galaxies at cosmic noon ( z = 1 – 2 ), many of which harbor a hidden active galactic nucleus (AGN). We use state-of-the-art infrared color diagnostics, combining Spitzer and Herschel observations, to separate dust-obscured AGNs from dusty star-forming galaxies (SFGs) in the CANDELS and COSMOS surveys. We calculate 24 μm counts of SFGs, AGN/star-forming “Composites,” and AGNs. AGNs and Composites dominate the counts above 0.8 mJy at 24 μm, and Composites form at least 25% of an IR sample even to faint detection limits. We develop methods to use the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) on JWST to identify dust-obscured AGNs and Composite galaxies from z ∼ 1 – 2 . With the sensitivity and spacing of MIRI filters, we will detect &gt;4 times as many AGN hosts as with Spitzer/IRAC criteria. Any star formation rates based on the 7.7 μm PAH feature (likely to be applied to MIRI photometry) must be corrected for the contribution of the AGN, or the star formation rate will be overestimated by ∼35% for cases where the AGN provides half the IR luminosity and ∼50% when the AGN accounts for 90% of the luminosity. Finally, we demonstrate that our MIRI color technique can select AGNs with an Eddington ratio of λ Edd ∼ 0.01 and will identify AGN hosts with a higher specific star formation rate than X-ray techniques alone. JWST/MIRI will enable critical steps forward in identifying and understanding dust-obscured AGNs and the link to their host galaxies.

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) images of the luminous infrared (IR) galaxy VV 114 are presented. This redshift ∼0.020 merger has a western component (VV 114W) rich in optical star clusters and an eastern component (VV 114E) hosting a luminous mid-IR nucleus hidden at UV and optical wavelengths by dust lanes. With MIRI, the VV 114E nucleus resolves primarily into bright NE and SW cores separated by 630 pc. This nucleus comprises 45% of the 15 μm light of VV 114, with the NE and SW cores having IR luminosities, L IR(8 − 1000 μm) ∼ 8 ± 0.8 × 1010 L ⊙ and ∼ 5 ± 0.5 × 1010 L ⊙, respectively, and IR densities, ΣIR ≳ 2 ± 0.2 × 1013 L ⊙ kpc−2 and ≳ 7 ± 0.7 × 1012 L ⊙ kpc−2, respectively—in the range of ΣIR for the Orion star-forming core and the nuclei of Arp 220. The NE core, previously speculated to have an active galactic nucleus (AGN), has starburst-like mid-IR colors. In contrast, the VV 114E SW core has AGN-like colors. Approximately 40 star-forming knots with L IR ∼ 0.02–5 × 1010 L ⊙ are identified, 28% of which have no optical counterpart. Finally, diffuse emission accounts for 40%–60% of the mid-IR emission. Mostly notably, filamentary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission stochastically excited by UV and optical photons accounts for half of the 7.7 μm light of VV 114. This study illustrates the ability of JWST to detect obscured compact activity and distributed PAH emission in the most extreme starburst galaxies in the local universe.

Context. Galaxy mergers are an important and complex phase during the evolution of galaxies. They may trigger nuclear activity and/or strong star forming episodes in galaxy centres that potentially alter the evolution of the system. Aims. As part of the guaranteed time observations program Mid-Infrared Characterization Of Nearby Iconic galaxy Centers (MICONIC), we used the medium-resolution spectrometer (MRS) of the Mid-Infrared Instrument on board the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to study NGC 6240. We aim to characterise the dual active galactic nuclei (AGN), the ionised gas outflows, and the main properties of the interstellar medium over a mapped area of 6.6″ × 7.7″. Aims. We obtained integral field spectroscopic mid-infrared data (wavelength from 4.9 to 28 μm) of NGC 6240. We modelled the emission lines through a kinematic decomposition that accounts for the possible existence of various components. Methods. We have resolved both nuclei of NGC 6240 for the first time in the full 5−28 μm spectral range. The fine structure lines in the southern (S) nucleus are broader than for the northern (N) nucleus (full width at half maximum of ≥1500 versus ∼700 km s−1 on average, respectively). High excitation lines, such as [Ne V], [Ne VI], and [Mg V], are clearly detected in the N nucleus. In the S nucleus, the same lines can be detected but only after a decomposition of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon features in the integrated spectrum, due to a combination of a strong mid-IR continuum, broad emission lines, and intense star formation (SF). The SF is distributed all over the mapped field of view of 3.5 kpc × 4.1 kpc (projected), with the maximum located around the S nucleus. Both nuclear regions appear to be connected by a bridge region that is detected with all the emission lines. Based on the observed MRS line ratios and the high velocity dispersion (σ ∼ 600 km s−1), shocks also dominate the emission in this system. We detected the presence of outflows as a bubble north-west from the N nucleus and at the S nucleus. We estimated an ionised mass outflow rate of 1.4 ± 0.3 M⊙ yr−1 and 1.8 ± 0.2 M⊙ yr−1, respectively. Given the derived kinetic power of these outflows, both the AGN and the starburst could have triggered them.

This study analyses JWST MIRI/MRS observations of the infrared (IR) polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) bands in the nuclear (∼0.4″ at 11 μm; ∼75 pc) and circumnuclear regions (inner ∼kpc) of local active galactic nuclei (AGNs) from the Galactic Activity, Torus, and Outflow Survey (GATOS). We examine the PAH properties in the circumnuclear regions of AGNs and the projected direction of AGN-outflows and compare them to those in star-forming regions and the innermost regions of AGNs. This study employs 4.9–28.1 μm sub-arcsecond angular resolution data to investigate the properties of PAHs in three nearby sources (DL ∼ 30 − 40 Mpc). Our findings are aligned with previous JWST studies, demonstrating that the central regions of AGNs display a larger fraction of neutral PAH molecules (i.e. elevated 11.3/6.2 and 11.3/7.7 μm PAH ratios) in comparison to star-forming galaxies. We find that AGNs might affect not only the PAH population in the innermost region, but also in the extended regions up to ∼kpc scales. By comparing our observations to PAH diagnostic diagrams, we find that, in general, regions located in the projected direction of the AGN-outflow occupy similar positions on the PAH diagnostic diagrams as those of the innermost regions of AGNs. Star-forming regions that are not affected by the AGNs in these galaxies share the same part of the diagram as star-forming galaxies. We also examined the potential of the PAH-H2 diagram to disentangle AGN-versus-star-forming activity. Our results suggest that in Seyfert-like AGNs, the illumination and feedback from the AGN might affect the PAH population at nuclear and kpc scales, particularly with respect to the ionisation state of the PAH grains. However, PAH molecular sizes are rather similar. The carriers of the ionised PAH bands (6.2 and 7.7 μm) are less resilient than those of neutral PAH bands (11.3 μm), which might be particularly important for strongly AGN-host coupled systems. Therefore, caution must be applied when using PAH bands as star-formation rate indicators in these systems even at kpc scales, with the effects of the AGN being more important for ionised ones.