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25th of May 2016
ATNF Colloquium
Radio Jet Driven Outflows
by Jenny Shih (Gemini Observatory)
Abstract. Galactic-scale outflows play an important role in galaxy evolution by regulating the star formation rates and suppressing the growth of supermassive black holes. We seek to constrain the 3-D properties of radio-jet driven outflows through a study of extended emission-line regions (EELRs) around quasars and radio galaxies. EELRs are massive clumps of ionized gas found around about one-third of the AGNs with powerful radio jets. They can extend out to tens of kpc, and contain up to ~1010 Solar Masses. Previous studies of some luminous EELRs have shown that they are likely outflows driven by the radio jets. We have obtained integral-field unit (IFU) observations of 40 quasars and 40 radio galaxies with watched radio properties and redshifts to constrain the 3-D gas distribution and velocity structure of the EELRs. We also present an IFU study focused on EELRs around 8 very young radio galaxies for comparison with the above sample. We show the evolutionary trends of the EELRs including changes in the alignments with the corresponding radio structures, the ionization mechanisms, and the kinematics.

Figure caption: Gemini GMOS IFU data of the ionized outflow around 3C 303.1. The top row shows the host galaxy image vs. the map of ionized gas. The ionized gas has two distinct velocity components: one broad and one narrow, shown in the middle and bottom row respectively.


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