English

Galactic-scale emission-line outflow from the radio-loud quasar 3C 191

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2025-02-27 v1

Abstract

Quasar feedback is routinely invoked as an indispensable ingredient in galaxy formation models. Galactic outflows are a crucial agent of quasar feedback that frequently manifest themselves in absorption and emission lines. Measuring the size and energetics of outflows based on absorption lines remains a challenge, and integral-field spectroscopy (IFS) mapping in emission lines is complementary. We present a VLT/SINFONI IFS mapping of quasar 3C 191 at z2z \sim 2, in which the outflow has been analyzed in absorption line spectroscopy. Three components are found based on the morphology and kinetics of [OIII]-emitting gas: a unshifted component which consistent with the systemic redshift and the location of the nucleus, a blueshifted in the north, and a redshifted in the south. The latter two components have velocities \sim 600 km s1^{-1} and projected extents of 5 and 11 kpc, respectively, suggesting a biconical outflow structure. The blueshifted component's velocity is consistent with that derived from absorption lines. Using the electron density measured by the absorption lines and the luminosity and velocity of [OIII] outflow, we derive the mass outflow rate to be M˙\dot{M} \sim 9.5-13.4 M_\odot yr1^{-1} and kinetic luminosity E˙kin\dot{E}_{\rm kin} ~ 2.5-3.7 ×1042\times 10^{42} erg s1^{-1}, consistent with absorption line analyses with VLT/Xshooter spectrum. The kinetic luminosity is only 0.01% of the bolometric luminosity, rendering a relatively weak outflow compared to typical expectation for effective feedback.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2502.18824,
  title  = {Galactic-scale emission-line outflow from the radio-loud quasar 3C 191},
  author = {Qinyuan Zhao and Luming Sun and Lu Shen and Guilin Liu and Junfeng Wang and Mayank Sharma and Nahum Arav and Yulong Gao and Chris Benn},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.18824},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

18gapes, 10 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJS