English

Complex Velocity Structure of Nebular Gas in Active Galaxies Centred in Cooling X-ray Atmospheres

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2024-10-02 v2

Abstract

[OII] emission maps obtained with the Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI) are presented for four galaxies centered in cooling X-ray cluster atmospheres. Nebular emission extending tens of kpc is found in systems covering a broad range of atmospheric cooling rates, cluster masses, and dynamical states. Abell 262's central galaxy hosts a kpc-scale disk. The nebular gas in RXJ0820.9+0752 is offset and redshifted with respect to the central galaxy by 102010-20 kpc and 150 km s1^{-1}, respectively. The nebular gases in PKS 0745-191 and Abell 1835 are being churned to higher velocity dispersion by X-ray bubbles and jets. The churned gas is enveloped by larger scale, lower velocity dispersion (quiescent) nebular emission. The mean line-of-sight speeds of the churned gas, quiescent gas, and the central galaxy each differ by up to 150\sim 150 km s1^{-1}; nebular speeds upward of 800800 km s1^{-1} are found. Gases with outwardly-rising speeds upward of several hundred km s1^{-1} are consistent with being advected behind and being lifted by the rising bubbles. The peculiar motion between the galaxy, nebular gas, and perhaps the hot atmosphere from which it presumably condensed is affecting the bubble dynamics, and may strongly affect thermally unstable cooling, the dispersal of jet energy, and the angular momentum of gas accreting onto the galaxies and their nuclear black holes.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2404.02212,
  title  = {Complex Velocity Structure of Nebular Gas in Active Galaxies Centred in Cooling X-ray Atmospheres},
  author = {Marie-Joëlle Gingras and Alison L. Coil and B. R. McNamara and Serena Perrotta and Fabrizio Brighenti and H. R. Russell and Muzi Li and S. Peng Oh and Wenmeng Ning},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2404.02212},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

36 pages, 26 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ