GOALS-JWST: Resolving the Circumnuclear Gas Dynamics in NGC 7469 in the Mid-infrared
Inami, Hanae; Böker, Torsten; Law, David R.; Kemper, Francisca; Aalto, Susanne; McKinney, Jed; Hayward, Christopher C.; Larson, Kirsten L.; Díaz-Santos, Tanio; Bohn, Thomas; Armus, Lee; Murphy, Eric J.; Malkan, Matthew A.; Stierwalt, Sabrina; Brown, Michael J. I.; U, Vivian; Sanders, David; van der Werf, Paul P.; Surace, Jason; Finnerty, Luke; Privon, George C.; Charmandaris, Vassilis; Bianchin, Marina; Song, Yiqing; Rich, Jeff; Appleton, Philip; Barcos-Muñoz, Loreto; Medling, Anne M.; Howell, Justin; Iwasawa, Kazushi; Marshall, Jason; Mazzarella, Joseph M.; Lai, Thomas; Remigio, Raymond P.; Evans, Aaron; Linden, Sean; Gao, Tianmu; Muller-Sanchez, Francisco
United States, Brazil, Greece, Cyprus, Chile, Netherlands, China, Australia, Japan, Sweden, Spain
Abstract
The nearby, luminous infrared galaxy NGC 7469 hosts a Seyfert nucleus with a circumnuclear star-forming ring and is thus the ideal local laboratory for investigating the starburst-AGN (active galactic nucleus) connection in detail. We present integral-field observations of the central 1.3 kpc region in NGC 7469 obtained with the JWST Mid-InfraRed Instrument. Molecular and ionized gas distributions and kinematics at a resolution of ~100 pc over the 4.9-7.6 μm region are examined to study the gas dynamics influenced by the central AGN. The low-ionization [Fe II] λ5.34 μm and [Ar II] λ6.99 μm lines are bright on the nucleus and in the starburst ring, as opposed to H2 S(5) λ6.91 μm, which is strongly peaked at the center and surrounding ISM. The high-ionization [Mg V] line is resolved and shows a broad, blueshifted component associated with the outflow. It has a nearly face-on geometry that is strongly peaked on the nucleus, where it reaches a maximum velocity of -650 km s-1, and extends about 400 pc to the east. Regions of enhanced velocity dispersion in H2 and [Fe II] ~ 180 pc from the AGN that also show high L(H2)/L(PAH) and L([Fe II])/L(Pfα) ratios to the W and N of the nucleus pinpoint regions where the ionized outflow is depositing energy, via shocks, into the dense interstellar medium between the nucleus and the starburst ring. These resolved mid-infrared observations of the nuclear gas dynamics demonstrate the power of JWST and its high-sensitivity integral-field spectroscopic capability to resolve feedback processes around supermassive black holes in the dusty cores of nearby luminous infrared galaxies.