English

Spatially Resolved, Multiphase Mass Outflows of the Seyfert 1 Galaxy NGC 3227

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2025-10-28 v1

Abstract

We present spatially resolved mass outflow rates of the ionized and molecular gas in the narrow line region of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 3227. Using long-slit spectroscopy and [O III] imaging from from Hubble Space Telescope's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph and Apache Point Observatory's Kitt Peak Ohio State Multi-Object Spectrograph, in conjunction with Cloudy photoionization models and emission line diagnostics, we find a peak ionized mass outflow rate of M˙ion=\dot M_{\text{ion}} = 19.9±9.219.9\pm9.2 M_\odot yr1^{-1} at a distance of 47±647\pm6 pc from the supermassive black hole (SMBH). Using archival data from the Gemini-North Near-infrared Field Spectrograph measuring H2_2 λ2.1218\lambda2.1218 μ\mum emission, we find a maximum peak warm molecular outflow rate of M˙H29×104\dot M_{\mathrm{H_2}} \le 9 \times 10^{-4} M_\odot yr1^{-1} at a distance of 36±636\pm6 pc from the SMBH. Using archival data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array measuring CO(2-1) emission, we find a maximum peak cold molecular gas mass outflow rate of M˙CO\dot M_{\mathrm{CO}} \le 23.123.1 M_\odot year1^{-1} at a distance of 57±657\pm6 pc from the SMBH. For the first time, we calculate spatially resolved gas evacuation timescales for the cold molecular gas reservoirs ostensibly sourcing the outflows, and find that evacuating gas to \sim400 pc from the SMBH occurs on timescales of 106.0107.610^{6.0} - 10^{7.6} years. These results indicate that the multi-phase AGN outflows are effective in clearing the inner few hundred parsecs of NGC 3227's gas content on timescales that may set the AGN duty cycle of 10510810^5 - 10^8 years.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2510.23000,
  title  = {Spatially Resolved, Multiphase Mass Outflows of the Seyfert 1 Galaxy NGC 3227},
  author = {Julia Falcone and D. Michael Crenshaw and Mitchell Revalski and Travis C. Fischer and Beena Meena and Maura Kathleen Shea and Jacob Tutterow and Zo Chapman and Kesha Patel},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.23000},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

24 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal