Discovery of spectacular quasar-driven superbubbles in red quasars
Abstract
Quasar-driven outflows on galactic scales are a routinely invoked ingredient for galaxy formation models. We report the discovery of ionized gas nebulae surrounding three luminous red quasars at z ~ 0.4 from Gemini integral field unit observations. All these nebulae feature unprecedented pairs of "superbubbles" extending ~20 kpc in diameter, and the line-of-sight velocity difference between the red- and blueshifted bubbles reaches up to ~1200 km/s. Their spectacular dual-bubble morphology (in analogy to the galactic "Fermi bubbles") and their kinematics provide unambiguous evidence for galaxy-wide quasar-driven outflows, in parallel with the quasi-spherical outflows similar in size from luminous type 1 and type 2 quasars at concordant redshift. These bubble pairs manifest themselves as a signpost of the short-lived superbubble "break-out" phase, when the quasar wind drives the bubbles to escape the confinement from the dense environment and plunge into the galactic halo with a high-velocity expansion. Unprecedented pairs of superbubbles are caught in red quasars, a signpost of the outflow break-out phase.
- Publication:
-
Science Advances
- Pub Date:
- July 2023
- DOI:
- 10.1126/sciadv.adg8287
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2307.06059
- Bibcode:
- 2023SciA....9G8287S
- Keywords:
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- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
- E-Print:
- 47 pages, 15 figures, Published in Science Advances on Jul 12 2023