Escape, Accretion or Star Formation? The Competing Depleters of Gas in the Quasar Markarian 231

Abstract

We report on high resolution CO(1-0), CS(2-1) and 3mm continuum Combined Array for Research in Millimeter Astronomy (CARMA) observations of the molecular outflow host and nearest quasar Markarian 231. We use the CS(2-1) measurements to derive a dense gas mass within Mrk231 of $1.8\pm 0.3\times 10^{10}{M}_{\odot }$, consistent with previous measurements. The CS(2-1) data also seem to indicate that the molecular disk of Mrk231 is forming stars at about normal efficiency. The high resolution CARMA observations were able to resolve the CO(1-0) outflow into two distinct lobes, allowing for a size estimate to be made and further constraining the molecular outflow dynamical time, further constraining the molecular gas escape rate. We find that 15% of the molecular gas within the Mrk231 outflow actually exceeds the escape velocity in the central kiloparsec. Assuming that molecular gas is not constantly being accelerated, we find the depletion timescale of molecular gas in Mrk231 to be 49Myr, rather than 32Myr, more consistent with the poststarburst stellar population observed in the system.

6 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, accepted by ApJ Letters

References in corpus (7)

• Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Three Year Results: Implications for Cosmology
• Massive molecular outflows and negative feedback in ULIRGs observed by Herschel-PACS
• The VLA Low-frequency Sky Survey
• Dense gas in luminous infrared galaxies
• Suppression of Star Formation in NGC 1266
• High resolution observations of HCN and HCO+ J=3-2 in the disk and outflow of Mrk231 -Detection of vibrationally excited HCN in the warped nucleus
• Exceptional AGN-driven turbulence inhibits star formation in the 3C 326N radio-galaxy

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• SQuIGG$\vec{L}$E: Observational Evidence of Low Ongoing Star Formation Rates in Gas-Rich Post-Starburst Galaxies
• Forming Stars in a Dual AGN Host: Molecular and Ionized Gas in the Nearby, Luminous Infrared Merger, Mrk 266
• The Nature of LoBAL QSOs: II. HST/WFC3 Observations Reveal Host Galaxies Dominated by Mergers
• High resolution ALMA observations of H${}_2$S in LIRGS (Dense gas and shocks in outflows and CNDs)
• Now you see it, now you don't: Star formation truncation precedes the loss of molecular gas by ~100 Myr in massive post-starburst galaxies at z~0.6