TY - JOUR
T1 - Discovery and origins of giant optical nebulae surrounding quasar PKS 0454−22
AU - Helton, Jakob M.
AU - Johnson, Sean D.
AU - Greene, Jenny E.
AU - Chen, Hsiao Wen
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the the referee for providing constructive and insightful suggestions that helped strengthen this paper. We are grateful to C. Péroux both for helpful comments on the paper draft as well as leadership of the MUSE program that obtained the archival data that enabled our study. We thank M. Gaspari, R. Cen, and M. Strauss for fruitful discussions of this project. SDJ is grateful for partial support from a NASA Hubble Fellowship (HST-HF2-51375.001-A) and a Carnegie-Princeton Fellowship. JEG acknowledges support from a National Science Foundation grant (AST-1815417). This paper is based on observations from the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere under ESO (PI: C. Péroux, PID: 0100.A-0753) and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (PI: K. Lanzetta, PID: 7475; PI: C. Churchill, PID: 12252). Additionally, this paper made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database, the NASA Astrophysics Data System, ASTROPY (Astropy Collaboration et al. 2018), and APLPY (Robitaille & Bressert 2012).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society
PY - 2021/8/1
Y1 - 2021/8/1
N2 - We report optical integral-field spectroscopy in the field of one of the most luminous quasars in the z < 1 Universe, PKS 0454−22, with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer. These data enable the discovery of three large ionized nebulae emitting in [O II], H β, and [O III] with projected areas of 1720, 1520, and 130 pkpc2, which we refer to as N1, N2, and N3, respectively. N1 spatially and kinematically surrounds the quasar host and five nearby galaxies. The morphology and kinematics of N1 are most consistent with stripped interstellar medium resulting from ongoing interactions. Its ionization properties can be explained by quasar photoionization. N2 spatially and kinematically surrounds two galaxies that are at projected distances of d ≈ 90 pkpc and line-of-sight velocities of Δv ≈+1410 km s−1 from the quasar. The morphology and kinematics of N2 are also consistent with stripped interstellar medium. However, its ionization state requires additional ionization sources beyond the quasar, likely from fast shocks as it moves through the hot halo associated with a galaxy overdensity around the quasar. N3 is not coincident with any galaxies with secure redshifts, and may arise from a cool gas structure in the intragroup medium or a dwarf galaxy. These large ionized nebulae demonstrate that interactions can produce cool gas structures on halo scales, while also possibly facilitating quasar fueling. The growing availability of wide-area integral field spectroscopic data will continue to reveal the morphologies, kinematics, and conditions of the gas flows, which may fuel galaxy and black hole growth.
AB - We report optical integral-field spectroscopy in the field of one of the most luminous quasars in the z < 1 Universe, PKS 0454−22, with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer. These data enable the discovery of three large ionized nebulae emitting in [O II], H β, and [O III] with projected areas of 1720, 1520, and 130 pkpc2, which we refer to as N1, N2, and N3, respectively. N1 spatially and kinematically surrounds the quasar host and five nearby galaxies. The morphology and kinematics of N1 are most consistent with stripped interstellar medium resulting from ongoing interactions. Its ionization properties can be explained by quasar photoionization. N2 spatially and kinematically surrounds two galaxies that are at projected distances of d ≈ 90 pkpc and line-of-sight velocities of Δv ≈+1410 km s−1 from the quasar. The morphology and kinematics of N2 are also consistent with stripped interstellar medium. However, its ionization state requires additional ionization sources beyond the quasar, likely from fast shocks as it moves through the hot halo associated with a galaxy overdensity around the quasar. N3 is not coincident with any galaxies with secure redshifts, and may arise from a cool gas structure in the intragroup medium or a dwarf galaxy. These large ionized nebulae demonstrate that interactions can produce cool gas structures on halo scales, while also possibly facilitating quasar fueling. The growing availability of wide-area integral field spectroscopic data will continue to reveal the morphologies, kinematics, and conditions of the gas flows, which may fuel galaxy and black hole growth.
KW - Galaxies: interactions
KW - Quasars: general
KW - Quasars: individual: PKS 0454−22
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U2 - 10.1093/mnras/stab1647
DO - 10.1093/mnras/stab1647
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85109494504
SN - 0035-8711
VL - 505
SP - 5497
EP - 5513
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
IS - 4
ER -