The extent and power of ‘maintenance mode’ feedback in MaNGA AGN

Abstract

We study the ionized gas kinematics of 293 Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) hosts as compared to that of 485 control galaxies from the MaNGA–SDSS survey using measurements of the [O III]λ5007 Å emission-line profiles, presenting flux, velocity, and W80 maps. In 45 per cent of the AGN, a broad component was needed to fit the line profiles wings within the inner few kpc, that we have identified with an outflow. But in most AGN, the profiles are broader than that of their controls over a much more extended region, identified as the ‘kinematically disturbed regions’ (KDRs). We find a positive correlation between the mean W80 and L[O III], supporting that the KDR is due to heating and turbulence of the ISM by outflows and radiation from the AGN. The extent RKDR reaches up to 24 kpc, with a mean ratio to that of the ENLR of 57 per cent. We estimate ionized gas mass flow rates (M˙ out) and kinetic powers (E˙out) both from the AGN broad components and from the W80 values, that can be obtained for the whole AGN sample. We find values for M˙ out and E˙out that correlate with the AGN luminosity Lbol, populating the low-luminosity end of these known correlations. The mean coupling efficiency between E˙out and AGN luminosity is ≈0.02 per cent from the W80 values and lower from the broad component. But the large extent of the KDR shows that even low-luminosity AGN can impact the host galaxy along several kpc in a “maintenance mode” feedback.