MUSE reveals extended circumnuclear outflows in the Seyfert 1 NGC 7469

TL;DR

This study uses VLT/MUSE data to identify and characterize extended outflows in NGC 7469, revealing both star formation and AGN-driven winds within the central kiloparsec, enhancing understanding of feedback mechanisms.

Contribution

It provides the first spatially-resolved analysis of both star formation and AGN-driven outflows in NGC 7469 using optical emission line kinematics.

Findings

Detected a slow outflow across the star formation ring possibly driven by star formation.

Identified a faster, AGN-driven outflow with velocities up to -715 km/s in the western region.

Demonstrated the effectiveness of integral field spectroscopy in studying feedback processes.

Abstract

NGC 7469 is a well known Luminous IR Galaxy, with a circumnuclear star formation ring ($\sim 830$ pc radius) surrounding a Seyfert 1 AGN. Nuclear unresolved winds were previously detected in X-rays and UV, as well as an extended biconical outflow in IR coronal lines. We search for extended outflows by measuring the kinematics of the $\mathrm{H\beta}$ and [O III] $\lambda 5007$ optical emission lines, in data of the VLT/MUSE integral field spectrograph. We find evidence of two outflow kinematic regimes: one slower regime extending across most of the star formation ring -- possibly driven by the massive star formation -- and a faster regime (with a maximum velocity of $-715 \ \mathrm{km \ s^{-1}}$), only observed in [O III], in the western region between the AGN and the massive star forming regions of the ring, likely AGN-driven. This work shows a case where combined AGN/star-formation feedback can be effectively spatially-resolved, opening up a promising path toward a deeper understanding of feedback processes in the central kiloparsec of AGN.