Feedback and ionized gas outflows in four low-radio power AGN at z ∼ 0.15

¹ University of Trento, Via Sommarive 14, 38123 Trento, Italy
e-mail: lorenzo.ulivi@unitn.it
² Università di Firenze, Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Via G. Sansone 1, 50019 Sesto F.no, Firenze, Italy
³ INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy
⁴ Instituto de Astrofísica, Facultad de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 306, Santiago 22, Chile
⁵ Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza dei Cavalieri 7, 56126 Pisa, Italy
⁶ Department of Physics, University of Arkansas, 226 Physics Building, 825 West Dickson Street, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA
⁷ European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748 Garching, Germany
⁸ Ludwig Maximilian Universität, Professor-Huber-Platz 2, 80539 Munich, Germany
⁹ School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK
¹⁰ Kavli Institute for Cosmology, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK
¹¹ Cavendish Laboratory, Astrophysics Group, University of Cambridge, 9 JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK
¹² Department of Physics & Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
¹³ Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
¹⁴ Centro de Astrobiología, (CAB, CSIC–INTA), Departamento de Astrofísica, Cra. de Ajalvir Km. 4, 28850 Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain

Received: 11 July 2023
Accepted: 18 January 2024

Abstract

An increasing number of observations and simulations suggests that low-power (< 10⁴⁴ erg s⁻¹) jets may be a significant channel of feedback produced by active galactic nuclei (AGN), but little is known about their actual effect on their host galaxies from the observational point of view. We targeted four luminous type 2 AGN hosting moderately powerful radio emission (∼10⁴⁴ erg s⁻¹), two of which and possibly a third are associated with jets, with optical integral field spectroscopy observations from the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) to analyze the properties of their ionized gas as well as the properties and effects of ionized outflows. We combined these observations with Very Large Array (VLA) and e-MERLIN data to investigate the relations and interactions between the radio jets and host galaxies. We detected ionized outflows as traced by the fast bulk motion of the gas. The outflows extended over kiloparsec scales in the direction of the jet, when present. In the two sources with resolved radio jets, we detected a strong enhancement in the emission-line velocity dispersion (up to 1000 km s⁻¹) perpendicular to the direction of the radio jets. We also found a correlation between the mass and the energetics of this high-velocity dispersion gas and the radio power, which supports the idea that the radio emission may cause the enhanced turbulence. This phenomenon, which is now being observed in an increasing number of objects, might represent an important channel for AGN feedback on galaxies