Galaxy Activity, Torus and Outflow Survey (GATOS) X: Molecular gas clumpiness under the influence of AGN
Fuente:
arXiv
Guardado en:
| Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Formato: | Preprint |
| Publicado: |
2025
|
| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | |
| Etiquetas: |
Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
|
| _version_ | 1866912821433860096 |
|---|---|
| author | Esposito, Federico Alonso-Herrero, Almudena García-Burillo, Santiago García-Bernete, Ismael Combes, Françoise Davies, Richard Lopez-Rodriguez, Enrique González-Martín, Omaira Almeida, Cristina Ramos Audibert, Anelise Hicks, Erin K. S. Querejeta, Miguel Ricci, Claudio Bellocchi, Enrica Boorman, Peter Bunker, Andrew J. Campbell, Steph Delaney, Daniel E. Díaz-Santos, Tanio Esparza-Arredondo, Donaji Hönig, Sebastian Ortega, Álvaro Labiano Levenson, Nancy A. Packham, Chris Pereira-Santaella, Miguel Riffel, Rogemar A. Rigopoulou, Dimitra Rosario, David J. Usero, Antonio Zhang, Lulu |
| author_facet | Esposito, Federico Alonso-Herrero, Almudena García-Burillo, Santiago García-Bernete, Ismael Combes, Françoise Davies, Richard Lopez-Rodriguez, Enrique González-Martín, Omaira Almeida, Cristina Ramos Audibert, Anelise Hicks, Erin K. S. Querejeta, Miguel Ricci, Claudio Bellocchi, Enrica Boorman, Peter Bunker, Andrew J. Campbell, Steph Delaney, Daniel E. Díaz-Santos, Tanio Esparza-Arredondo, Donaji Hönig, Sebastian Ortega, Álvaro Labiano Levenson, Nancy A. Packham, Chris Pereira-Santaella, Miguel Riffel, Rogemar A. Rigopoulou, Dimitra Rosario, David J. Usero, Antonio Zhang, Lulu |
| contents | The distribution of molecular gas on small scales regulates star formation and the growth of supermassive black holes in galaxy centers, yet the role of active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback in shaping this distribution remains poorly constrained. We investigate how AGN influence the small-scale structure of molecular gas in galaxy centers, by measuring the clumpiness of CO(3 - 2) emission observed with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in the nuclear regions (50 - 200 pc from the AGN) of 16 nearby Seyfert galaxies from the Galaxy Activity, Torus, and Outflow Survey (GATOS). To quantify clumpiness, we apply three different methods: (1) the median of the pixel-by-pixel contrast between the original and smoothed maps; (2) the ratio of the total excess flux to the total flux, after substracting the background smoothed emission; and (3) the fraction of total flux coming from clumpy regions, interpreted as the mass fraction in clumps. We find a negative correlation between molecular gas clumpiness and AGN X-ray luminosity (L_X), suggesting that higher AGN activity is associated with smoother gas distributions. All methods reveal a turnover in this relation around L_X = 10^{42} erg/s, possibly indicating a threshold above which AGN feedback becomes efficient at dispersing dense molecular structures and suppressing future star formation. Our findings provide new observational evidence that AGN feedback can smooth out dense gas structures in galaxy centers. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_18957 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Galaxy Activity, Torus and Outflow Survey (GATOS) X: Molecular gas clumpiness under the influence of AGN Esposito, Federico Alonso-Herrero, Almudena García-Burillo, Santiago García-Bernete, Ismael Combes, Françoise Davies, Richard Lopez-Rodriguez, Enrique González-Martín, Omaira Almeida, Cristina Ramos Audibert, Anelise Hicks, Erin K. S. Querejeta, Miguel Ricci, Claudio Bellocchi, Enrica Boorman, Peter Bunker, Andrew J. Campbell, Steph Delaney, Daniel E. Díaz-Santos, Tanio Esparza-Arredondo, Donaji Hönig, Sebastian Ortega, Álvaro Labiano Levenson, Nancy A. Packham, Chris Pereira-Santaella, Miguel Riffel, Rogemar A. Rigopoulou, Dimitra Rosario, David J. Usero, Antonio Zhang, Lulu Astrophysics of Galaxies The distribution of molecular gas on small scales regulates star formation and the growth of supermassive black holes in galaxy centers, yet the role of active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback in shaping this distribution remains poorly constrained. We investigate how AGN influence the small-scale structure of molecular gas in galaxy centers, by measuring the clumpiness of CO(3 - 2) emission observed with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in the nuclear regions (50 - 200 pc from the AGN) of 16 nearby Seyfert galaxies from the Galaxy Activity, Torus, and Outflow Survey (GATOS). To quantify clumpiness, we apply three different methods: (1) the median of the pixel-by-pixel contrast between the original and smoothed maps; (2) the ratio of the total excess flux to the total flux, after substracting the background smoothed emission; and (3) the fraction of total flux coming from clumpy regions, interpreted as the mass fraction in clumps. We find a negative correlation between molecular gas clumpiness and AGN X-ray luminosity (L_X), suggesting that higher AGN activity is associated with smoother gas distributions. All methods reveal a turnover in this relation around L_X = 10^{42} erg/s, possibly indicating a threshold above which AGN feedback becomes efficient at dispersing dense molecular structures and suppressing future star formation. Our findings provide new observational evidence that AGN feedback can smooth out dense gas structures in galaxy centers. |
| title | Galaxy Activity, Torus and Outflow Survey (GATOS) X: Molecular gas clumpiness under the influence of AGN |
| topic | Astrophysics of Galaxies |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.18957 |