GATOS N: The first direct kinematic evidence of dusty outflows from AGN via PAH kinematics of local Seyfert galaxies with JWST

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Main Authors: Donnan, Fergus R., García-Bernete, Ismael, Rigopoulou, Dimitra, Alonso-Herrero, Almudena, Audibert, Anelise, Bellocchi, Enrica, Bunker, Andrew, Campbell, Steph, Combes, Françoise, Davies, Richard, Díaz-Santos, Tanio, Fernández-Ontiveros, Juan A., Gandhi, Poshak, García-Burillo, Santiago, González-Martín, O., Hicks, Erin K. S., Muñoz, Laura Hermosa, Hoenig, Sebastian F., Imanishi, Masatoshi, Labiano, Alvaro, Levenson, Nancy A., Pereira-Santaella, Miguel, Almeida, Cristina Ramos, Ricci, Claudio, Riffel, Rogemar A., Rouan, Daniel, Rosario, David, Sandstrom, Karin, Shimizu, T. Taro, Stalevski, Marko, Thatte, Niranjan, Veenema, Oscar, Zhang, Lulu
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Donnan, Fergus R.
García-Bernete, Ismael
Rigopoulou, Dimitra
Alonso-Herrero, Almudena
Audibert, Anelise
Bellocchi, Enrica
Bunker, Andrew
Campbell, Steph
Combes, Françoise
Davies, Richard
Díaz-Santos, Tanio
Fernández-Ontiveros, Juan A.
Gandhi, Poshak
García-Burillo, Santiago
González-Martín, O.
Hicks, Erin K. S.
Muñoz, Laura Hermosa
Hoenig, Sebastian F.
Imanishi, Masatoshi
Labiano, Alvaro
Levenson, Nancy A.
Pereira-Santaella, Miguel
Almeida, Cristina Ramos
Ricci, Claudio
Riffel, Rogemar A.
Rouan, Daniel
Rosario, David
Sandstrom, Karin
Shimizu, T. Taro
Stalevski, Marko
Thatte, Niranjan
Veenema, Oscar
Zhang, Lulu
author_facet Donnan, Fergus R.
García-Bernete, Ismael
Rigopoulou, Dimitra
Alonso-Herrero, Almudena
Audibert, Anelise
Bellocchi, Enrica
Bunker, Andrew
Campbell, Steph
Combes, Françoise
Davies, Richard
Díaz-Santos, Tanio
Fernández-Ontiveros, Juan A.
Gandhi, Poshak
García-Burillo, Santiago
González-Martín, O.
Hicks, Erin K. S.
Muñoz, Laura Hermosa
Hoenig, Sebastian F.
Imanishi, Masatoshi
Labiano, Alvaro
Levenson, Nancy A.
Pereira-Santaella, Miguel
Almeida, Cristina Ramos
Ricci, Claudio
Riffel, Rogemar A.
Rouan, Daniel
Rosario, David
Sandstrom, Karin
Shimizu, T. Taro
Stalevski, Marko
Thatte, Niranjan
Veenema, Oscar
Zhang, Lulu
contents We present the first spatially resolved kinematic evidence for dust in the outflows of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). We utilise observations from JWST with NIRSpec IFU and MIRI MRS data of 10 local Seyferts and use Principal Component Analysis (PCA) tomography to extract the kinematics of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) features. PAHs comprise the smallest carbonaceous dust molecules in the Interstellar Medium (ISM), and produce emission features in the infrared providing the potential to measure kinematics. This is however challenging due to their broad shapes and variations in their intrinsic profile, prompting the need for techniques such as PCA tomography. We find that the velocity of the PAHs is similar to the molecular gas as traced by the rotational transitions of H$_2$, where for NGC 5728 and NGC 7582, both disk and outflow are present. We detect the outflow in the kinematics of large and neutral PAHs, namely the 11.3 $μ$m and 17 $μ$m PAH features, where after subtracting the disk, the velocity field matches that of high-ionisation potential lines such as [NeVI] (7.65 $μ$m, IP = 158 eV). Finally, we fail to detect kinematics of the 6.2 $μ$m PAH due to an altered intrinsic profile while the the 3.3 $μ$m PAH kinematics purely trace the circumnuclear disk. This suggests the PAHs in the outflow are more neutral and larger than in star-forming regions, consistent with PAH band ratios in previous studies of AGN.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_12200
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle GATOS N: The first direct kinematic evidence of dusty outflows from AGN via PAH kinematics of local Seyfert galaxies with JWST
Donnan, Fergus R.
García-Bernete, Ismael
Rigopoulou, Dimitra
Alonso-Herrero, Almudena
Audibert, Anelise
Bellocchi, Enrica
Bunker, Andrew
Campbell, Steph
Combes, Françoise
Davies, Richard
Díaz-Santos, Tanio
Fernández-Ontiveros, Juan A.
Gandhi, Poshak
García-Burillo, Santiago
González-Martín, O.
Hicks, Erin K. S.
Muñoz, Laura Hermosa
Hoenig, Sebastian F.
Imanishi, Masatoshi
Labiano, Alvaro
Levenson, Nancy A.
Pereira-Santaella, Miguel
Almeida, Cristina Ramos
Ricci, Claudio
Riffel, Rogemar A.
Rouan, Daniel
Rosario, David
Sandstrom, Karin
Shimizu, T. Taro
Stalevski, Marko
Thatte, Niranjan
Veenema, Oscar
Zhang, Lulu
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We present the first spatially resolved kinematic evidence for dust in the outflows of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). We utilise observations from JWST with NIRSpec IFU and MIRI MRS data of 10 local Seyferts and use Principal Component Analysis (PCA) tomography to extract the kinematics of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) features. PAHs comprise the smallest carbonaceous dust molecules in the Interstellar Medium (ISM), and produce emission features in the infrared providing the potential to measure kinematics. This is however challenging due to their broad shapes and variations in their intrinsic profile, prompting the need for techniques such as PCA tomography. We find that the velocity of the PAHs is similar to the molecular gas as traced by the rotational transitions of H$_2$, where for NGC 5728 and NGC 7582, both disk and outflow are present. We detect the outflow in the kinematics of large and neutral PAHs, namely the 11.3 $μ$m and 17 $μ$m PAH features, where after subtracting the disk, the velocity field matches that of high-ionisation potential lines such as [NeVI] (7.65 $μ$m, IP = 158 eV). Finally, we fail to detect kinematics of the 6.2 $μ$m PAH due to an altered intrinsic profile while the the 3.3 $μ$m PAH kinematics purely trace the circumnuclear disk. This suggests the PAHs in the outflow are more neutral and larger than in star-forming regions, consistent with PAH band ratios in previous studies of AGN.
title GATOS N: The first direct kinematic evidence of dusty outflows from AGN via PAH kinematics of local Seyfert galaxies with JWST
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.12200