Jet-induced feedback in the [O III] lines of early evolution stage active galactic nuclei

TL;DR

This study investigates how relativistic jets in early-stage active galactic nuclei influence the properties of the [O III] emission lines, revealing that jets significantly affect gas kinematics and may serve as indicators of jet presence.

Contribution

It demonstrates that [O III] line shifts are linked to jets in early-stage AGN and shows that radio morphology and spectral index are not related to these shifts, suggesting inclination independence.

Findings

[O III] lines are often blueshifted in jetted sources.

Radio morphology and spectral index do not correlate with [O III] shifts.

[O III] shifts may serve as proxies for jet detection.

Abstract

It is well known that active galactic nuclei (AGN) show various forms of interaction with their host galaxy, in a number of phenomena generally called AGN feedback. In particular, the relativistic plasma jets launched by a fraction of AGN can strongly affect their environment. We present here a study of the [O III] $\lambda\lambda$4959,5007 lines in a diverse sample of early evolution stage AGN -- specifically narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies. Radio imaging observations of all of the sources enable a division to jetted and non-jetted sources, and exploiting this we show that the ionized gas properties are significantly influenced by the presence of the jets, as we often find the [O III] lines (blue-)shifted with respect to their restframe wavelength. We also show how the radio morphology and the radio spectral index do not seem to play a role in the origin of the [O III] shifts, thus suggesting that the source inclination is not relevant to the lines displacement. We do not find a strong relation between the [O III] line properties and the bolometric luminosity, suggesting that within our sample radiatively driven outflows do not seem to have a significant contribution to the [O III] line kinematics. We finally suggest that [O~ III] shifts may be a good proxy to identify the presence of relativistic jets. Additional studies, especially with integral-field spectroscopy, will provide a deeper insight into the relation between jets and their environment in early evolution stage AGN.