The IBISCO survey

I. Multiphase discs and winds in the Seyfert galaxy Markarian 509

¹ SISSA, Via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy
e-mail: mazanch@sissa.it
² Dipartimento di Fisica, Sezione di Astronomia, Universita degli Studi di Trieste, Via Tiepolo 11, 34143 Trieste, Italy
³ INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, Via G.B. Tiepolo 11, 34143 Trieste, Italy
⁴ IFPU – Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe, Via Beirut 2, 34014 Trieste, Italy
⁵ INAF-OAS Bologna, Via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
⁶ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Via di Frascati 33, 00040 Monteporzio Catone, Rome, Italy
⁷ Dept. of Physics, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
⁸ Dept. of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
⁹ NASA – Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 662, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA

Received: 27 October 2020
Accepted: 13 July 2021

Abstract

We present the analysis of the ALMA CO(2−1) emission line and the underlying 1.2 mm continuum of Mrk 509 with spatial resolution of ∼270 pc. This local Seyfert 1.5 galaxy, optically classified as a spheroid, is known to host an ionised disc, a starburst ring, and ionised gas winds on both nuclear (ultra-fast outflows) and galactic scales. From CO(2−1) we estimate a molecular gas reservoir of M_H2 = 1.7 × 10⁹ M_⊙, located within a disc of size ∼5.2 kpc, with M_dyn = (2.0 ± 1.1) × 10¹⁰ M_⊙ inclined at 44 ± 10 deg. The molecular gas fraction within the disc is μ_gas = 5%, consistent with that of local star-forming galaxies with similar stellar mass. The gas kinematics in the nuclear region within r ∼ 700 pc, that is only marginally resolved at the current angular resolution, suggests the presence of a warped nuclear disc. Both the presence of a molecular disc with ongoing star formation in a starburst ring, and the signatures of a minor merger, are in agreement with the scenario where galaxy mergers produce gas destabilisation, feeding both star formation and AGN activity. The spatially resolved Toomre Q-parameter across the molecular disc is in the range Q_gas = 0.5 − 10, and shows that the disc is marginally unstable across the starburst ring, and stable against fragmentation at nucleus and in a lopsided ring-like structure located inside of the starburst ring. We find complex molecular gas kinematics and significant kinematics perturbations at two locations, one within 300 pc of the nucleus and one 1.4 kpc away close to the region with high Q_gas, that we interpret as molecular winds with velocity v₉₈ = 200 − 250 km s⁻¹. The total molecular outflow rate is in the range 6.4−17.0 M_⊙ yr⁻¹ for the optically thin and thick cases, respectively. The molecular wind total kinetic energy is consistent with a multiphase momentum-conserving wind driven by the AGN with Ṗ_of/Ṗ_rad in the range 0.06−0.5. The spatial overlap of the inner molecular wind with the ionised wind, and their similar velocity suggest a cooling sequence within a multiphase wind driven by the AGN. The second outer molecular wind component overlaps with the starburst ring, and its energy is consistent with a supernova-driven wind arising from the starburst ring.