Fakultät für Physik und Astronomie
STEPHEN PHILLIPS hostreviews.co.uk / UNSPLASH

Mapping intrinsic Ly-alpha halos of high-redshift AGN with MUSE

Wuji Wang , ARI

High-redshift radio galaxies (HzRGs) have powerful AGN and are hosted by some of the most massive galaxies. They are surrounded by an enriched CGM allowing us to study feeding/feedback processes at and beyond Cosmic Noon. To understand the role of the CGM thoroughly, we observed a sample of eight HzRGs (2.92<z<4.51) with MUSE. In addition to the prominent Ly-alpha line, several UV emission lines (e.g. NV and CIV) are also captured and present absorption features. In our pilot study, we map the absorption- corrected halo of a z ca.4.5 redshift radio galaxy and find evidence that AGN feedback may play an important role in redistributing material and metals on CGM scale (Wang et al. 2021). In this talk, I will present the results of this technique applied to the full MUSE sample, i.e. mapping the intrinsic Ly-alpha emission halos of our HzRGs. The developed smoothing+tessellation technique for MUSE (or IFU) data allows us to capture faint and extended halo emission (7 have halos >100kpc) only limited by the data depth. HI Lya absorption features are often interpreted as radiative transfer effect. Seeing them in both hydrogen and metals, we argue that they are due to absorbing gas and must be considered in CGM analysis. In this way, we can decipher the morphological and kinematical information of the kpc-scale halos linking this with the feedback. Four of our HzRGs will be observed with JWST/NIRSpec, which will enable us to explore feedback from the vicinity of the central engine and study its propagation through the host galaxy and beyond into the CGM at larger scales.

ARI Institute Colloquium
1 Dec 2022, 11:15
ARI, Moenchhofstrasse 12-14, Seminarraum 1, 1.OG

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