Abstract
AbstractWe investigated the interstellar medium (ISM) properties in the central regions of nearby Seyfert galaxies characterised by prominent conical or bi-conical outflows belonging to the MAGNUM survey by exploiting the unprecedented sensitivity, spatial and spectral coverage of the integral field spectrograph MUSE at the Very Large Telescope. We developed a novel approach based on the gas and stars kinematics to disentangle high-velocity gas in the outflow from gas in the disc to spatially track the differences in their ISM properties. This allowed us to reveal the presence of an ionisation structure within the extended outflows that can be interpreted with different photoionisation and shock conditions, and to trace tentative evidence of outflow-induced star formation (“positive” feedback) in a galaxy of the sample, Centaurus A.
Highlights
Galaxy-scale outflows driven by active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity are thought to be so powerful to sweep away most of the gas of the host galaxy, providing a mechanism for the central black hole (BH) to possibly regulate star formation (SF) activity
We found that the gas in the outflowing cones of our galaxies is set up in clumpy clouds characterised by higher density and ionisation with respect to disc gas
The cone edges and the regions perpendicular to the outflow axis could instead be dominated by shocks due to the interaction between the outflow and the interstellar medium (ISM)
Summary
Galaxy-scale outflows driven by active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity are thought to be so powerful to sweep away most of the gas of the host galaxy, providing a mechanism for the central black hole (BH) to possibly regulate star formation (SF) activity. Outflows are routinely detected in luminous active galaxies on different physical scales and in different gas phases (e.g., ionised, atomic and molecular gas; Cicone et al 2018 and references therein), even though understanding their role in galaxy evolution is still a challenging task In this context, nearby galaxies represent ideal laboratories to explore in high detail outflow properties, their formation and acceleration mechanisms, as well as the effects of SF and AGN activities on host galaxies.
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