Bibcode
DOI
Arribas, Santiago; Colina, Luis; Clements, David
Referencia bibliográfica
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 560, Issue 1, pp. 160-167.
Fecha de publicación:
10
2001
Revista
Número de citas
38
Número de citas referidas
37
Descripción
Integral field optical spectroscopy using the INTEGRAL system has been
used to characterize the kinematic and ionization properties of the warm
gas within 2 kpc of the dust-enshrouded nucleus of Arp 220. Owing to the
large internal extinction toward the nuclei, the brightest stellar and
line-emitting regions observed at optical wavelengths do not coincide
with the dust-enshrouded near-infrared and radio nuclei of Arp 220 but
are located northwest of the nucleus at a distance of about 750 pc.
Moreover, although the continuum and the line-emitting gas share similar
distributions, their emission peaks are displaced, with the Hα
emission peak located at about 300 pc southwest of the optical stellar
continuum emission peak. A line decomposition analysis has been
performed in the complex and high spatially variable emission-line
profiles. Three different kinematically distinct and extended gaseous
components have been identified in the ionized gas. One narrow component
(R) indicates rotation, while the other two components (O and B) are
well interpreted by the presence of a biconical outflow. Specifically,
the rotational component R traces quiescent gas located in a nuclear
disk with the spin axis along the southeast-northwest direction (P.A.
135°). This component of ionized gas seems to be coupled with the
100 kpc disklike H I gas and the 1 kpc molecular disk detected in CO
(Scoville et al.). The inclination-corrected rotational velocities imply
a dynamical mass (Mdyn) of 2×1010
Msolar within a radius of 1.5 kpc. This relatively high value
indicates a large mass concentration in the nuclear region of Arp 220,
as Scoville et al. already inferred by the presence of
5×109 Msolar of molecular gas in a nuclear,
0.5 kpc disk. One of the outflow components, O, has peak-to-peak
velocities of 1000 km s-1. The broad component B, with an
average width of 815 km s-1, is detected at about 600 pc
northwest of the dust-enshrouded nucleus and is blueshifted by 300 km
s-1 with respect to the system velocity. The two-dimensional
distribution and kinematics of the components are consistent with a
bipolar cone geometry with an opening angle of about 90° and are
perpendicular to the nuclear disk of gas, as expected in the
starburst-driven galactic wind scenario proposed by Heckman, Armus,
& Miley. In most of the observed regions, the ionization status of
the different gas components is consistent with a shock-heated
LINER-like or Seyfert 2 nebula as judged by the [N II]/Hα and [S
II]/Hα emission-line ratios. Although the [O III] and Hβ
lines are undetected in most of the regions, the brightest zone located
northwest of the nucleus could be classified as a Seyfert 2 nebula based
on the additional constraint given by the measured lower limit (>=5)
for the [O III]/Hβ ratio. There is no evidence of excitation
gradients along the symmetry axis of the outflow nor of a biconical
ionization structure, which suggests that the ionizing field is
homogeneous and less collimated than the gas outflow. However, there are
four clearly identified extranuclear regions where the [N II]/Hα
ratio decreases by a factor of 5 and is close to the typical values of H
II regions. None of these regions are in spatial agreement with the star
clusters found in the infrared by Scoville et al., confirming that they
must be relatively old globular clusters.