Emission line haloes in quasars: The smoking gun of quasar feedback?

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Lutz Wisotzki
• Subject Area: Astrophysics and Astronomy
• Term: from 2007 to 2011
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 42000560

• Final Report Year: 2012

Final Report Abstract

We performed the first large study of the Extended Emission Line Regions (EELRs) around luminous radio-quiet QSOs by means of integral-field spectroscopy. To deblend the extended from the unresolved QSO emission we developed a deblending algorithm that is publicly available to the community. We do not find signatures for strong gas outflows around the QSOs which questions some AGN feedback models in which a large fraction of the gas is expelled from the QSO hosts. The size of EELRs correlates with the continuum luminosity of the QSOs much more strongly than the integrated [O III] luminosity that has usually been used. The [O III] luminosity thus appears to be a poor tracer for the bolometric luminosity. Tentative evidence is presented that the EELR luminosity is correlated also with the radio luminosity even in radio-quiet QSO, which indicates that even low-power radio jets are important to shape the properties of the ionised gas on host galaxy scales. The systematically lower gas-phase oxygen abundance in bulge-dominated QSO hosts provide new evidence for an external origin of the ionised and opens up a new route to understand the triggering mechanisms of QSO activity. We identified a QSO showing direct accretion of very low metallicity gas from its environment, apparently feeding not only the AGN but also an undermassive but heavily star-forming bulge.

Publications

• (2008): Extended emission-line regions in low-redshift quasars. In: A&A 488 (1), S. 145–149
  Husemann, B., Wisotzki, L., Sánchez, S.F., & Jahnke, K.
  
• 2008, Integral field spectroscopy of low-z QSOs and Seyfert galaxies. Dependence of EELRs on nuclear properties. Memorie della Societa Astronomica Italiana, 79, 1227
  Husemann, B., Wisotzki, L., Sánchez, S.F., & Jahnke, K.
  
• (2010). Mapping the ionised gas around the luminous QSO HE 1029-1401: evidence for minor merger events?. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 519, A115
  Husemann, B., Sánchez, S.F., Wisotzki, L., et al.
  
• (2011). The low-metallicity QSO HE 2158− 0107: a massive galaxy growing by accretion of nearly pristine gas from its environment?. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 535, A72
  Husemann, B., Wisotzki, L., Jahnke, K. & Sánchez, S.F.
  
• 2011,The AGN-host galaxy connection : new insights from the extended ionised gas. PhD Dissertation, University of Potsdam
  Husemann, B.