Tracing the extreme interplay between radio jets and the ISM in IC 5063

¹ Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, Postbus 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo, The Netherlands
e-mail: morganti@astron.nl
² Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen, Postbus 800, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands
³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S7 3RH, UK

Received: 14 November 2012
Accepted: 5 February 2013

Abstract

We report the discovery with the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) of an outflow of molecular gas in the radio-loud Seyfert galaxy IC 5063 (z = 0.0110). In addition to the emission of the large-scale CO disk, a prominent blueshifted wing is observed in the CO(2−1) spectrum. IC 5063 represents one of the best cases of a fast jet-driven H I (and ionized gas) outflow, which is located at the site of a radio-bright feature about 0.5 kpc from the nucleus. It is possible that the blueshifted part of the molecular gas is associated with this outflow and is accelerated by the interaction with the radio jet. The outflow of molecular gas is characterized by an H₂ mass of the outflowing component of between 2.25 ± 0.70 × 10⁷M_⊙ and 1.29 ± 0.40 × 10⁸M_⊙ and a mass outflow rate between 22 and 129 M_⊙ yr^-1 depending on the assumption for α_X and assuming a luminosity ratio L′CO(2–1)/L′CO(1–0) = 1. This confirms that this may indeed be the dominant component in outflows driven by the nuclear activity as also found in other objects. However, this high mass outflow rate cannot easily be supported for a long time, suggesting that the gas outflow in IC 5063 happens in bursts and is in a particularly strong phase at present. Owing to its proximity, IC 5063 serves as an excellent laboratory for understanding the impact of radio jets on the gas-rich inter-stellar medium.