The Morphology and Kinematics of a Giant, Symmetric Nebula Around a Radio-Loud Quasar 3C$\,$57: Extended Rotating Gas or Biconical Outflows?
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| author | Zhuoqi Liu Johnson, Sean D. Li, Jennifer I-Hsiu Epinat, Benoît Rudie, Gwen C. Monreal-Ibero, Ana Cantalupo, Sebastiano Qu, Zhijie Chen, Mandy C. Kollatschny, Wolfram Muzahid, Sowgat Zahedy, Fakhri S. Kesler, Elise Mishra, Nishant |
| author_facet | Zhuoqi Liu Johnson, Sean D. Li, Jennifer I-Hsiu Epinat, Benoît Rudie, Gwen C. Monreal-Ibero, Ana Cantalupo, Sebastiano Qu, Zhijie Chen, Mandy C. Kollatschny, Wolfram Muzahid, Sowgat Zahedy, Fakhri S. Kesler, Elise Mishra, Nishant |
| contents | Gas flows between galaxies and the CGM play a crucial role in galaxy evolution. When ionized by a quasar, these gas flows can be directly traced as giant nebulae. We present a study of a giant nebula around a radio-loud quasar, 3C$\,$57 at $z\approx0.672$. Observations from MUSE reveal that the nebula is elongated with a major axis of $70 \, \rm kpc$ and a minor axis of $40 \, \rm kpc$. The nebula displays an approximately symmetric blueshifted-redshifted pattern along the major axis and multi-component emission features in its $\rm[O\,II]$ and $\rm [O\,III]$ profiles. The morphology and kinematics can be explained as rotating gas or biconical outflow, both of which qualitatively reproduce the observed position-velocity diagram. The 3C$\,$57 nebula is significantly more kinematically disturbed, with $\rm W_{80}$ (the line width encompassing 80$\%$ of the flux) of approximately $300{-}400\,\rm km\,s^{-1}$, compared to $\rm H\,I$ gas in local early-type galaxies, which typically shows $\rm W_{80} \approx 50\,\rm km\,s^{-1}$. This velocity dispersion is comparable to the gas in cool-core clusters despite originating in a group 100 times less massive. For biconical outflow models, the inferred $10{-}20^{\circ}$ inclination angle is in tension with the unobscured nature of the quasar, as the dusty torus is expected to be perpendicular to the outflow. Neither a quiescent rotating gas origin nor a biconical outflow fully reproduces the observed kinematics and morphology of the 3C$\,$57 nebula, suggesting a more intricate origin likely involving both rotation and AGN feedback. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_12597 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | The Morphology and Kinematics of a Giant, Symmetric Nebula Around a Radio-Loud Quasar 3C$\,$57: Extended Rotating Gas or Biconical Outflows? Zhuoqi Liu Johnson, Sean D. Li, Jennifer I-Hsiu Epinat, Benoît Rudie, Gwen C. Monreal-Ibero, Ana Cantalupo, Sebastiano Qu, Zhijie Chen, Mandy C. Kollatschny, Wolfram Muzahid, Sowgat Zahedy, Fakhri S. Kesler, Elise Mishra, Nishant Astrophysics of Galaxies Gas flows between galaxies and the CGM play a crucial role in galaxy evolution. When ionized by a quasar, these gas flows can be directly traced as giant nebulae. We present a study of a giant nebula around a radio-loud quasar, 3C$\,$57 at $z\approx0.672$. Observations from MUSE reveal that the nebula is elongated with a major axis of $70 \, \rm kpc$ and a minor axis of $40 \, \rm kpc$. The nebula displays an approximately symmetric blueshifted-redshifted pattern along the major axis and multi-component emission features in its $\rm[O\,II]$ and $\rm [O\,III]$ profiles. The morphology and kinematics can be explained as rotating gas or biconical outflow, both of which qualitatively reproduce the observed position-velocity diagram. The 3C$\,$57 nebula is significantly more kinematically disturbed, with $\rm W_{80}$ (the line width encompassing 80$\%$ of the flux) of approximately $300{-}400\,\rm km\,s^{-1}$, compared to $\rm H\,I$ gas in local early-type galaxies, which typically shows $\rm W_{80} \approx 50\,\rm km\,s^{-1}$. This velocity dispersion is comparable to the gas in cool-core clusters despite originating in a group 100 times less massive. For biconical outflow models, the inferred $10{-}20^{\circ}$ inclination angle is in tension with the unobscured nature of the quasar, as the dusty torus is expected to be perpendicular to the outflow. Neither a quiescent rotating gas origin nor a biconical outflow fully reproduces the observed kinematics and morphology of the 3C$\,$57 nebula, suggesting a more intricate origin likely involving both rotation and AGN feedback. |
| title | The Morphology and Kinematics of a Giant, Symmetric Nebula Around a Radio-Loud Quasar 3C$\,$57: Extended Rotating Gas or Biconical Outflows? |
| topic | Astrophysics of Galaxies |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.12597 |