Quantifying the AGN-driven outflows in ULIRGs (QUADROS) III: Measurements of the radii and kinetic powers of 8 near-nuclear outflows

R. A. W. Spence; C. Tadhunter; M. Rose; J. Rodríguez Zaurín

doi:10.1093/mnras/sty1046

paper

Quantifying the AGN-driven outflows in ULIRGs (QUADROS) III: Measurements of the radii and kinetic powers of 8 near-nuclear outflows

arXiv:1805.02647 · doi:10.1093/mnras/sty1046

Abstract

As part of the QUADROS project to quantify the impact of AGN-driven outflows in rapidly evolving galaxies in the local universe, we present observations of 8 nearby ULIRGs ( $0.04 < z < 0.2$ ) taken with the ISIS spectrograph on the \textit{William Herschel Telescope} (WHT), and also summarise the results of the project as a whole. Consistent with \cite{Rose2018}, we find that the outflow regions are compact (0.08 < $R_{[O I I I]}$ < 1.5 kpc), and the electron densities measured using the [SII], [OII] trans-auroral emission-line ratios are relatively high (2.5 < log n $_{e}$ (cm $^{- 3}$ ) < 4.5, median log n $_{e}$ (cm $^{- 3}) \sim 3.1$ ). Many of the outflow regions are also significantly reddened (median E(B-V) $\sim$ 0.5). Assuming that the de-projected outflow velocities are represented by the 5 $^{th}$ percentile velocities ( $v_{05}$ ) of the broad, blueshifted components of [OIII] $λ$ 5007, we calculate relatively modest mass outflow rates ( $0.1 < M ˙ < 20$ M $_{⊙}$ yr $^{- 1}$ , median $M ˙$ $\sim$ 2 M $_{⊙}$ yr $^{- 1}$ ), and find kinetic powers as a fraction of the AGN bolometric luminosity ( $F ˙ = E ˙ / L_{b o l}$ ) in the range 0.02 < $F ˙$ < 3 \%, median $F ˙$ $\sim$ 0.3 \%). The latter estimates are in line with the predictions of multi-stage outflow models, or single-stage models in which only a modest fraction of the initial kinetic power of the inner disk winds is transferred to the larger-scale outflows. Considering the QUADROS sample as a whole, we find no clear evidence for correlations between the properties of the outflows and the bolometric luminosities of the AGN, albeit based on a sample that covers a relatively small range in $L_{b o l}$ . Overall, our results suggest that there is a significant intrinsic scatter in outflow properties of ULIRGs for a given AGN luminosity.

arXiv comment25 pages, 11 figures, 11 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Quantifying the AGN-driven outflows in ULIRGs (QUADROS) III: Measurements of the radii and kinetic powers of 8 near-nuclear outflows

Abstract

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