2009/11/14 by D. M. Alexander, A. M. Swinbank, Ian Smail +4 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Active galactic nucleus #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Galaxy formation and evolution #Interacting galaxy #Luminosity #Outflow #Population #Redshift #Supernova #astro-ph.CO #astro-ph.GA #astro-ph.HE
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.16046.x
10 pages, 5 figures, 1 table. MNRAS in press (no further changes required after resubmission)
arxiv created 2009/11/14 · openalex publication_date 2010/01/21 · arxiv updated 2015/05/14 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Leading models of galaxy formation require large-scale energetic outflows to regulate the growth of distant galaxies and their central black holes. However, current observational support for this hypothesis at high redshift is mostly limited to rare z > 2 radio galaxies. Here, we present Gemini-North Near-Infrared Field Spectrometer (NIFS) observations of the [O iii] λ5007 emission from a z≈ 2 ultraluminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG; LIR > 1012 L⊙) with an optically identified active galactic nuclei (AGN). The spatial extent (≈4–8 kpc) of the high velocity and broad [O iii] emission is consistent with that found in z > 2 radio galaxies, indicating the presence of a large-scale energetic outflow in a galaxy population potentially orders of magnitude more common than distant radio galaxies. The low radio luminosity of this system indicates that radio-bright jets are unlikely to be responsible for driving the outflow. However, the estimated energy input required to produce the large-scale outflow signatures (of the order of ≈1059 erg over ≈30 Myr) could be delivered by a wind radiatively driven by the AGN and/or supernovae winds from intense star formation. The energy injection required to drive the outflow is comparable to the estimated binding energy of the galaxy spheroid, suggesting that it can have a significant impact on the evolution of the galaxy. We argue that the outflow observed in this system is likely to be comparatively typical of the high-redshift ULIRG population and discuss the implications of these observations for galaxy formation models.