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=19.9±9.2 M⊙ yr−1 at a distance of 47±6 pc from the supermassive black hole (SMBH). Using archival data from the Gemini-North Near-infrared Field Spectrograph measuring H2λ2.1218μm emission, we find a maximum peak warm molecular outflow rate of M˙H2≤9×10−4 M⊙ yr−1 at a distance of 36±6 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≤23.1 M⊙ year−1 at a distance of 57±6 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 ∼400 pc from the SMBH occurs on timescales of 106.0−107.6 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 105−108 years.
@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