The Molecular and Ionized Gas Phases of an AGN-driven Outflow in a Typical Massive Galaxy at z=2

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution ALMA and VLT observations to analyze the molecular and ionized gas phases of an AGN-driven outflow in a massive galaxy at z=2.3, revealing its role in galaxy quenching.

Contribution

It provides detailed observations of both molecular and ionized outflow components at high redshift, highlighting the dominance of molecular gas in feedback processes.

Findings

Molecular outflow extends ~10 kpc with positive velocity gradient.

Molecular gas does not escape and is likely reaccreted.

Outflow can deplete gas reservoir faster than star formation can exhaust it.

Abstract

Nuclear outflows driven by accreting massive black holes are one of the main feedback mechanisms invoked at high-z to reproduce the distinct separation between star-forming, disk galaxies and quiescent spheroidal systems. Yet, our knowledge of feedback at high-z remains limited by the lack of observations of the multiple gas phases in galaxy outflows. In this work we use new deep, high-spatial resolution ALMA CO(3-2) and archival VLT/SINFONI H$\alpha$ observations to study the molecular and ionized components of the AGN-driven outflow in zC400528 ---a massive, main sequence galaxy at z=2.3 in the process of quenching. We detect a powerful molecular outflow that shows a positive velocity gradient and extends for at least ~10 kpc from the nuclear region, about three times the projected size of the ionized wind. The molecular gas in the outflow does not reach velocities high enough to escape the galaxy and is therefore expected to be reaccreted. Keeping in mind the various assumptions involved in the analysis, we find that the mass and energetics of the outflow are dominated by the molecular phase. The AGN-driven outflow in zC400528 is powerful enough to deplete the molecular gas reservoir on a timescale at least twice shorter than that needed to exhaust it by star formation. This suggests that the nuclear outflow is one of the main quenching engines at work in the observed suppression of the central star-formation activity in zC400528.