ALMA observations of feeding and feedback in nearby Seyfert galaxies: an AGN-driven outflow in NGC 1433^⋆

¹ Observatoire de Paris, LERMA, CNRS: UMR8112, 61 Av. de l’Observatoire, 75014 Paris, France
e-mail: francoise.combes@obspm.fr
² Observatorio Astronómico Nacional (OAN)-Observatorio de Madrid, Alfonso XII 3, 28014 Madrid, Spain
³ INAF – Istituto di Radioastronomia & Italian ALMA Regional Centre, via Gobetti 101, 40129, Bologna, Italy
⁴ INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy
⁵ IRAM, 300 rue de la Piscine, Domaine Universitaire, 38406 Saint Martin d’ Hères, France
⁶ Dep. of Physics & Astronomy, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, 136 Frelinghuysen road, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
⁷ CNRS, IRAP, 9 Av. colonel Roche, BP 44346, 31028 Toulouse Cedex 4, France
⁸ I. Physikalisches Institut, Universität zu Köln, Zülpicher Str. 77, 50937 Köln, Germany
⁹ Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucía (CSIC), Apdo 3004, 18080 Granada, Spain
¹⁰ Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (MPIA), Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
¹¹ Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstr. 1, Garching bei München, Germany

Received: 16 July 2013
Accepted: 17 September 2013

Abstract

We report ALMA observations of CO(3–2) emission in the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 1433 at the unprecedented spatial resolution of 0.′′5 = 24 pc. Our aim is to probe active galactic nucleus (AGN) feeding and feedback phenomena through the morphology and dynamics of the gas inside the central kpc. The galaxy NGC 1433 is a strongly barred spiral with three resonant rings: one at the ultra-harmonic resonance near corotation, and the others at the outer and inner Lindblad resonances (OLR and ILR). A nuclear bar of 400 pc radius is embedded in the large-scale primary bar. The CO map, which covers the whole nuclear region (nuclear bar and ring), reveals a nuclear gaseous spiral structure, inside the nuclear ring encircling the nuclear stellar bar. This gaseous spiral is well correlated with the dusty spiral seen in Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images. The nuclear spiral winds up in a pseudo-ring at ~200 pc radius, which might correspond to the inner ILR. Continuum emission is detected at 0.87 mm only at the very centre, and its origin is more likely thermal dust emission than non-thermal emission from the AGN. It might correspond to the molecular torus expected to exist in this Seyfert 2 galaxy. The HCN(4–3) and HCO⁺(4–3) lines were observed simultaneously, but only upper limits are derived, with a ratio to the CO(3–2) line lower than 1/60 at 3σ, indicating a relatively low abundance of very dense gas. The kinematics of the gas over the nuclear disk reveal rather regular rotation only slightly perturbed by streaming motions due to the spiral; the primary and secondary bars are too closely aligned with the galaxy major or minor axis to leave a signature in the projected velocities. Near the nucleus, there is an intense high-velocity CO emission feature redshifted to 200 km s^-1 (if located in the plane), with a blue-shifted counterpart, at 2′′ (100 pc) from the centre. While the CO spectra are quite narrow in the centre, this wide component is interpreted as an outflow involving a molecular mass of 3.6 × 10⁶  M_⊙ and a flow rate ~7 M_⊙/yr. The flow could be in part driven by the central star formation, but is mainly boosted by the AGN through its radio jets.