Ionized gas outflow signatures in SDSS-IV MaNGA active galactic nuclei

Abstract

ABSTRACT The prevalence of outflow and feedback signatures in active galactic nuclei (AGNs is a major unresolved question which large integral field unit (IFU) surveys now allow to address. In this paper, we present a kinematic analysis of the ionized gas in 2778 galaxies at z ∼ 0.05 observed by Sloan Digital Sky Survey-IV (SDSS-IV) Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA). Specifically, we measure the kinematics of the [O iii] λ5007 Å emission line in each spatial element and fit multiple Gaussian components to account for possible non-gravitational motions of gas. Comparing the kinematics of the ionized gas between 308 MaNGA-selected AGNs that have been previously identified through emission-line diagnostics and sources not classified as AGN, we find that while 25 per cent of MaNGA-selected AGN show [O iii] components with emission-line widths of >500 km s−1 in more than 10 per cent of their spaxels, only 7 per cent of MaNGA non-AGNs show a similar signature. Even the AGNs that do not show nuclear AGN photoionization signatures and that were only identified as AGN based on their larger scale photoionization signatures show similar kinematic characteristics. In addition to obscuration, another possibility is that outflow and mechanical feedback signatures are longer lived than the AGN itself. Our measurements demonstrate that high velocity gas is more prevalent in AGN compared to non-AGN and that outflow and feedback signatures in low-luminosity, low-redshift AGN may so far have been underestimated. We show that higher luminosity MaNGA-selected AGNs are able to drive larger scale outflows than lower luminosity AGN. But estimates of the kinetic coupling efficiencies are ≪1 per cent and suggest that the feedback signatures probed in this paper are unlikely to have a significant impact on the AGN host galaxies. However, continuous energy injection may still heat a fraction of the cool gas and delay or suppress star formation in individual galaxies even when the AGN is weak.