No Arabic abstract
Cold neutral gas is a key ingredient for growing the stellar and central black hole mass in galaxies throughout cosmic history. We have used the Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA) to detect a rare example of redshifted $^{12}$CO(2-1) absorption in PKS B1740-517, a young ($t sim 1.6 times 10^{3}$ yr) and luminous ($L_{rm 5 GHz} sim 6.6 times 10^{43}$ erg s$^{-1}$ ) radio galaxy at $z = 0.44$ that is undergoing a tidal interaction with at least one lower-mass companion. The coincident HI 21-cm and molecular absorption have very similar line profiles and reveal a reservoir of cold gas ($M_{rm gas} sim 10^{7} - 10^{8}$ M$_{odot}$), likely distributed in a disc or ring within a few kiloparsecs of the nucleus. A separate HI component is kinematically distinct and has a very narrow line width ($Delta{v}_{rm FWHM} lesssim 5$ km s$^{-1}$), consistent with a single diffuse cloud of cold ($T_{rm k} sim 100$ K) atomic gas. The $^{12}$CO(2-1) absorption is not associated with this component, which suggests that the cloud is either much smaller than 100 pc along our sight-line and/or located in low-metallicity gas that was possibly tidally stripped from the companion. We argue that the gas reservoir in PKS B1740-517 may have accreted onto the host galaxy $sim$50 Myr before the young radio AGN was triggered, but has only recently reached the nucleus. This is consistent with the paradigm that powerful luminous radio galaxies are triggered by minor mergers and interactions with low-mass satellites and represent a brief, possibly recurrent, active phase in the life cycle of massive early type galaxies.
Newly born and young radio sources are in a delicate phase of their life. Their jets are fighting their way through the surrounding gaseous medium, strongly experiencing this interaction while, at the same time, impacting and affecting the interstellar medium (ISM). Here we present the results from two studies of HI (in absorption) and molecular gas illustrating what can be learned from these phases of the gas. We first describe a statistical study with the WSRT. The study shows that the young radio sources not only have an higher detection rate of HI, but also systematically broader and more asymmetric HI profiles, most of them blueshifted. This supports the idea that we are looking at young radio jets making their way through the surrounding ISM, which also appears to be, on average, richer in gas than in evolved radio sources. Signatures of the impact of the jet are seen in the kinematics of the gas. However, even among the young sources, we identify a population that remains undetected in HI even after stacking their profiles. Orientation effects can only partly explain the result. These objects either are genuinely gas-poor or have different conditions of the medium, e.g. higher spin temperature. We further present the ALMA study of molecular gas in IC5063 to trace in detail the jet impacting the ISM. The kinematics of the cold, molecular gas co-spatial with the radio plasma shows this process in action. The ALMA data reveal a fast outflow of molecular gas extending along the entire radio jet (~1 kpc), with the highest outflow velocities at the location of the brighter hot-spot. We propose a scenario where the radio jet is expanding into a clumpy medium, interacting directly with the clouds and inflating a cocoon that drives a lateral outflow into the ISM.
We present the serendipitous discovery of an extended cold gas structure projected close to the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) of the z=0.045 cluster Abell 3716, from archival integral field spectroscopy. The gas is revealed through narrow Na D line absorption, seen against the stellar light of the BCG, which can be traced for $sim$25 kpc, with a width of 2-4 kpc. The gas is offset to higher velocity than the BCG (by $sim$100 km/s), showing that it is infalling rather than outflowing; the intrinsic linewidth is $sim$80 km/s (FWHM). Very weak H$alpha$ line emission is detected from the structure, and a weak dust absorption feature is suggested from optical imaging, but no stellar counterpart has been identified. We discuss some possible interpretations for the absorber: as a projected low-surface-brightness galaxy, as a stream of gas that was stripped from an infalling cluster galaxy, or as a retired cool-core nebula filament.
We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations of CO lines and dust continuum emission of the source RCSGA 032727--132609, a young $z=1.7$ low-metallicity starburst galaxy. The CO(3-2) and CO(6-5) lines, and continuum at rest-frame $450,mu m$ are detected and show a resolved structure in the image plane. We use the corresponding lensing model to obtain a source plane reconstruction of the detected emissions revealing intrinsic flux density of $S_{450,mu m}=23.5_{-8.1}^{+26.8}$ $mu$Jy and intrinsic CO luminosities $L_{rm CO(3-2)}=2.90_{-0.23}^{+0.21}times10^{8}$ ${rm K,km,s^{-1},pc^{2}}$ and $L_{rm CO(6-5)}=8.0_{-1.3}^{+1.4}times10^{7}$ ${rm K,km,s^{-1},pc^{2}}$. We used the resolved properties in the source plane to obtain molecular gas and star-formation rate surface densities of $Sigma_{rm H2}=16.2_{-3.5}^{+5.8},{rm M}_{odot},{rm pc}^{-2}$ and $Sigma_{rm SFR}=0.54_{-0.27}^{+0.89},{rm M}_{odot},{rm yr}^{-1},{rm kpc}^{-2}$ respectively. The intrinsic properties of RCSGA 032727--132609 show an enhanced star-formation activity compared to local spiral galaxies with similar molecular gas densities, supporting the ongoing merger-starburst phase scenario. RCSGA 032727--132609 also appears to be a low--density starburst galaxy similar to local blue compact dwarf galaxies, which have been suggested as local analogs to high-redshift low-metallicity starburst systems. Finally, the CO excitation level in the galaxy is consistent with having the peak at ${rm J}sim5$, with a higher excitation concentrated in the star-forming clumps.
We investigate the ionized gas excitation and kinematics in the inner $4.3 times 6.2$ kpc$^{2}$ of the merger radio galaxy 4C +29.30. Using optical integral field spectroscopy with the Gemini North Telescope, we present flux distributions, line-ratio maps, peak velocities and velocity dispersion maps as well as channel maps with a spatial resolution of $approx 955$ pc. We observe high blueshifts of up to $sim -650$ km s$^{-1}$, in a region $sim 1$ south of the nucleus (the southern knot, SK), which also presents high velocity dispersions ($sim 250$ km s$^{-1}$), which we attribute to an outflow. A possible redshifted counterpart is observed north from the nucleus (the northern knot, NK). We propose that these regions correspond to a bipolar outflow possibly due to the interaction of the radio jet with the ambient gas. We estimate a total ionized gas mass outflow rate of $dot{M}_{out} = 25.4 substack{+11.5 -7.5}$ M$_odot$ yr$^{-1}$ with a kinetic power of $dot{E} = 8.1 substack{+10.7 -4.0} times 10^{42}$ erg s$^{-1}$, which represents $5.8 substack{+7.6 -2.9} %$ of the AGN bolometric luminosity. These values are higher than usually observed in nearby active galaxies with the same bolometric luminosities and could imply a significant impact of the outflows in the evolution of the host galaxy. The excitation is higher in the NK (that correlates with extended X-ray emission, indicating the presence of hotter gas) than in the SK, supporting a scenario in which an obscuring dust lane is blocking part of the AGN radiation to reach the southern region of the galaxy.
We present ALMA observations of the CO(1-0) and CO(3-2) line emission tracing filaments of cold molecular gas in the central galaxy of the cluster PKS0745-191. The total molecular gas mass of 4.6 +/- 0.3 x 10^9 solar masses, assuming a Galactic X_{CO} factor, is divided roughly equally between three filaments each extending radially 3-5 kpc from the galaxy centre. The emission peak is located in the SE filament roughly 1 arcsec (2 kpc) from the nucleus. The velocities of the molecular clouds in the filaments are low, lying within +/-100 km/s of the galaxys systemic velocity. Their FWHMs are less than 150 km/s, which is significantly below the stellar velocity dispersion. Although the molecular mass of each filament is comparable to a rich spiral galaxy, such low velocities show that the filaments are transient and the clouds would disperse on <10^7 yr timescales unless supported, likely by the indirect effect of magnetic fields. The velocity structure is inconsistent with a merger origin or gravitational free-fall of cooling gas in this massive central galaxy. If the molecular clouds originated in gas cooling even a few kpc from their current locations their velocities would exceed those observed. Instead, the projection of the N and SE filaments underneath X-ray cavities suggests they formed in the updraft behind bubbles buoyantly rising through the cluster atmosphere. Direct uplift of the dense gas by the radio bubbles appears to require an implausibly high coupling efficiency. The filaments are coincident with low temperature X-ray gas, bright optical line emission and dust lanes indicating that the molecular gas could have formed from lifted warmer gas that cooled in situ.