Deciphering the Origin of Ionized Gas in IC 1459 with VLT/MUSE

TL;DR

This study uses VLT/MUSE observations to analyze the ionized gas in IC 1459, revealing its complex kinematics and likely origin from late-stage gas accretion, with shock heating and stellar processes contributing to ionization.

Contribution

The paper provides new integral field spectroscopic data and stellar orbital models to understand the origin and excitation mechanisms of ionized gas in IC 1459, highlighting late-stage accretion and shock heating.

Findings

Ionized gas exhibits non-disk-like, counter-rotating structure.

Two kinematically distinct emission-line regions identified.

Gas likely originated from late-stage accretion from the environment.

Abstract

IC 1459 is an early-type galaxy (ETG) with a rapidly counter-rotating stellar core, and is the central galaxy in a gas-rich group of spirals. In this work, we investigate the abundant ionized gas in IC 1459 and present new stellar orbital models to connect its complex array of observed properties and build a more complete picture of its evolution. Using the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE), the optical integral field unit (IFU) on the Very Large Telescope (VLT), we examine the gas and stellar properties of IC 1459 to decipher the origin and powering mechanism of the galaxy's ionized gas. We detect ionized gas in a non-disk-like structure rotating in the opposite sense to the central stars. Using emission-line flux ratios and velocity dispersion from full-spectral fitting, we find two kinematically distinct regions of shocked emission-line gas in IC 1459, which we distinguished using narrow ($\sigma$ $\leq$ 155 km s$^{-1}$) and broad ($\sigma$ $>$ 155 km s$^{-1}$) profiles. Our results imply that the emission-line gas in IC 1459 has a different origin than that of its counter-rotating stellar component. We propose that the ionized gas is from late-stage accretion of gas from the group environment, which occurred long after the formation of the central stellar component. We find that shock heating and AGN activity are both ionizing mechanisms in IC 1459 but that the dominant excitation mechanism is by post-asymptotic giant branch stars from its old stellar population.