Quasar feedback and the origin of radio emission in radio-quiet quasars
Abstract
We analyse Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectra of 568 obscured luminous quasars. The [O III] λ5007 Å emission line shows blueshifts and blue excess, indicating that some of the narrow-line gas is undergoing an organized outflow. The velocity width containing 90 per cent of line power ranges from 370 to 4780 km s-1, suggesting outflow velocities up to ∼2000 km s-1, and is strongly correlated with the radio luminosity among the radio-quiet quasars. We propose that radio emission in radio-quiet quasars is due to relativistic particles accelerated in the shocks within the quasar-driven outflows; star formation in quasar hosts is insufficient to explain the observed radio emission. The median radio luminosity of the sample of νLν[1.4 GHz] = 1040 erg s-1 suggests a median kinetic luminosity of the quasar-driven wind of Lwind = 3 × 1044 erg s-1, or about 4 per cent of the estimated median bolometric luminosity Lbol = 8 × 1045 erg s-1. Furthermore, the velocity width of [O III] is positively correlated with mid-infrared luminosity, which suggests that outflows are ultimately driven by the radiative output of the quasar. Emission lines characteristic of shocks in quasi-neutral medium increase with the velocity of the outflow, which we take as evidence of quasar-driven winds propagating into the interstellar medium of the host galaxy. Quasar feedback appears to operate above the threshold luminosity of Lbol ∼ 3 × 1045 erg s-1.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- July 2014
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/stu842
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1402.6736
- Bibcode:
- 2014MNRAS.442..784Z
- Keywords:
-
- galaxies: evolution;
- galaxies: ISM;
- quasars: emission lines;
- radio continuum: galaxies;
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies;
- Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 23 pages, accepted to MNRAS