The Galaxy Activity, Torus, and Outflow Survey (GATOS)

The distribution of molecular gas on small scales regulates star formation and the growth of supermassive black holes in galaxy centers. Yet, the role of active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback in shaping this distribution remains poorly constrained. We investigate how AGNs influence the small-scale structure of molecular gas in galaxy centers by measuring the clumpiness of CO(3 − 2) emission observed with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in the nuclear regions (50 − 200 pc from the AGNs) of 16 nearby Seyfert galaxies from the Galaxy Activity, Torus, and Outflow Survey (GATOS). To quantify clumpiness we applied three different methods: (1) the median of the pixel-by-pixel contrast between the original and smoothed maps; (2) the ratio of the total excess flux to the total flux, after subtracting the background smoothed emission; and (3) the fraction of total flux coming from clumpy regions, interpreted as the mass fraction in clumps. We find a negative correlation between molecular gas clumpiness and AGN X-ray luminosity ( L X ), suggesting that higher AGN activity is associated with smoother gas distributions. All methods reveal a turnover in this relation around L X = 10 42 erg s −1 , possibly indicating a threshold above which AGN feedback becomes efficient at dispersing dense molecular structures and suppressing future star formation. Our findings provide new observational evidence that AGN feedback can smooth out dense gas structures in galaxy centers.

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Publication Details

Journal
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Published
2025-11-04
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202556485
Primary Topic
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
Type
article
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article

The Galaxy Activity, Torus, and Outflow Survey (GATOS)

C. Packham, I. García-Bernete, Cláudio Ricci, Kelly Hicks et al.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
article

The Galaxy Activity, Torus, and Outflow Survey (GATOS)

C. Packham, I. García-Bernete, Cláudio Ricci, Kelly Hicks, A. Alonso‐Herrero, C. Ramos Almeida, Álvaro Labiano Ortega, A. Audibert, S. García‐Burillo, R. Davies, Miguel Querejeta, Donají Esparza-Arredondo, Lulu Zhang, Steph Campbell, Peter Boorman, Françoise Combes, Federico Esposito, Enrique López-Rodríguez, Jessica Bunker, M. Pereira-Santaella, A. Usero, E. K Delaney, E. Bellocchi, O. González-Martín, T. Díaz-Santos, Dimitra Rigopoulou, S. F. Hönig, A. Rogemar Riffel, A. Nancy Levenson, J. David Rosario
article en

Abstract

The distribution of molecular gas on small scales regulates star formation and the growth of supermassive black holes in galaxy centers. Yet, the role of active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback in shaping this distribution remains poorly constrained. We investigate how AGNs influence the small-scale structure of molecular gas in galaxy centers by measuring the clumpiness of CO(3 − 2) emission observed with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in the nuclear regions (50 − 200 pc from the AGNs) of 16 nearby Seyfert galaxies from the Galaxy Activity, Torus, and Outflow Survey (GATOS). To quantify clumpiness we applied three different methods: (1) the median of the pixel-by-pixel contrast between the original and smoothed maps; (2) the ratio of the total excess flux to the total flux, after subtracting the background smoothed emission; and (3) the fraction of total flux coming from clumpy regions, interpreted as the mass fraction in clumps. We find a negative correlation between molecular gas clumpiness and AGN X-ray luminosity ( L X ), suggesting that higher AGN activity is associated with smoother gas distributions. All methods reveal a turnover in this relation around L X = 10 42 erg s −1 , possibly indicating a threshold above which AGN feedback becomes efficient at dispersing dense molecular structures and suppressing future star formation. Our findings provide new observational evidence that AGN feedback can smooth out dense gas structures in galaxy centers.

Astronomy and AstrophysicsVol. 705
University of Geneva (CH), Universidad Complutense de Madrid (ES), California Institute of Technology (US), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Space Telescope Science Institute (US), University of Alaska Anchorage (US), Universidad de La Laguna (ES), Tokyo Denki University (JP), Collège de France (FR), European University Cyprus (CY), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (FR), European Space Agency (FR), Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (BR), Sorbonne Université (FR), Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (PT), Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (DE), Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (US), Instituto de Física Fundamental (ES), Institute of Astronomy (RU), Centro de Astrobiología (ES), Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (ES), Astronomy and Space (AU), Spanish National Observatory (ES), University of Southampton (GB), The University of Texas at San Antonio (US), Newcastle University (GB), Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (GR), Universidad Diego Portales (CL)
Openalex Percentile: Top 77%
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
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