Shocks, clouds and atomic outflows in active galactic nuclei hosting relativistic jets

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Author: Perucho, Manel
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Perucho, Manel
author_facet Perucho, Manel
contents A number of observations have revealed atomic and/or molecular lines in active galaxies hosting jets and outflows. Line widths indicate outward motions of hundreds to few thousands of kilometers per second. They appear associated to the presence of radio emission in Gigahert-peaked spectrum (GPS) and compact steep spectrum (CSS) sources, with linear sizes < 10 kpc. Numerical simulations have shown that the bow shocks triggered by relativistic jets in their host galaxies drive ionisation and turbulence in the interstellar medium (ISM). However, the presence of atomic lines requires rapid recombination of ionised gas, which seems to be hard to explain from the physical conditions revealed so far by numerical simulations of powerful jets. The aim of this paper is to provide a global frame to explain the presence of lines in terms of jet and shock evolution, and fix the parameter space in which the atomic and molecular outflows might occur. This parameter space is inspired by numerical simulations and basic analytical models of jet evolution as a background. Our results show that a plausible, general explanation involves momentum transfer and heating to the interstellar medium gas by jet triggered shocks within the inner kiloparsecs. The presence of post-shock atomic gas is possible in the case of shocks interacting with dense clouds that remain relatively stable after the shock passage. According to our results, current numerical simulations cannot reproduce the physical conditions to explain the presence of atomic and molecular outflows in young radio-sources. However, I show that these outflows might occur in low-power jets at all scales, and predict a trend towards powerful jets showing lines at CSS scales, when clouds have cooled to recombination temperatures.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2401_14218
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Shocks, clouds and atomic outflows in active galactic nuclei hosting relativistic jets
Perucho, Manel
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Astrophysics of Galaxies
A number of observations have revealed atomic and/or molecular lines in active galaxies hosting jets and outflows. Line widths indicate outward motions of hundreds to few thousands of kilometers per second. They appear associated to the presence of radio emission in Gigahert-peaked spectrum (GPS) and compact steep spectrum (CSS) sources, with linear sizes < 10 kpc. Numerical simulations have shown that the bow shocks triggered by relativistic jets in their host galaxies drive ionisation and turbulence in the interstellar medium (ISM). However, the presence of atomic lines requires rapid recombination of ionised gas, which seems to be hard to explain from the physical conditions revealed so far by numerical simulations of powerful jets. The aim of this paper is to provide a global frame to explain the presence of lines in terms of jet and shock evolution, and fix the parameter space in which the atomic and molecular outflows might occur. This parameter space is inspired by numerical simulations and basic analytical models of jet evolution as a background. Our results show that a plausible, general explanation involves momentum transfer and heating to the interstellar medium gas by jet triggered shocks within the inner kiloparsecs. The presence of post-shock atomic gas is possible in the case of shocks interacting with dense clouds that remain relatively stable after the shock passage. According to our results, current numerical simulations cannot reproduce the physical conditions to explain the presence of atomic and molecular outflows in young radio-sources. However, I show that these outflows might occur in low-power jets at all scales, and predict a trend towards powerful jets showing lines at CSS scales, when clouds have cooled to recombination temperatures.
title Shocks, clouds and atomic outflows in active galactic nuclei hosting relativistic jets
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.14218