Detection of extended millimeter emission in the host galaxy of 3C273 and its implications for QSO feedback via high dynamic range ALMA imaging

TL;DR

This study uses high dynamic range ALMA imaging to detect extended millimeter emission in 3C273's host galaxy, revealing ionized gas possibly influenced by QSO feedback, with implications for understanding galaxy evolution.

Contribution

It presents the highest ALMA image dynamic range to date and identifies extended millimeter emission linked to QSO activity, offering new insights into AGN feedback mechanisms.

Findings

Extended millimeter emission detected in 3C273's host galaxy.

Emission is likely thermal bremsstrahlung from gas ionized by the quasar.

Ionized gas mass estimated between 10^10 and 10^11 solar masses.

Abstract

We estimate the amount of negative feedback energy injected into the ISM of the host galaxy of 3C273, a prototypical radio loud quasar. We obtained 93, 233 and 343 GHz continuum images with the Atacama Large Millimeter/Sub-millimeter Array (ALMA). After self calibration and point source subtraction, we reach an image dynamic range of $\sim 85000$ at 93\ GHz, $\sim 39000$ at 233\ GHz and $\sim 2500$ at 343\ GHz. These are currently the highest image dynamic range obtained using ALMA. We detect spatially extended millimeter emission associated with the host galaxy, cospatial with the Extended Emission Line Region (EELR) observed in the optical. The millimeter spectral energy distribution and comparison with centimeter data show that the extended emission cannot be explained by dust thermal emission, synchrotron or thermal bremsstrahlung arising from massive star formation. We interpret the extended millimeter emission as thermal bremsstrahlung from gas directly ionized by the central source. The extended flux indicates that at least $\sim 7\%$ of the bolometric flux of the nuclear source was used to ionize atomic hydrogen in the host galaxy. The ionized gas is estimated to be as massive as $10^{10}$ to $10^{11}\ \mathrm{M_\odot}$, but the molecular gas fraction with respect to the stellar mass is consistent with other ellipticals, suggesting that direct ionization ISM by the QSO may not be sufficient to suppress star formation, or we are witnessing a short timescale before negative feedback becomes observable. The discovery of a radio counterpart to EELRs provides a new pathway to studying the QSO-host ISM interaction.