Browsing by Author "Marasco, A."

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    Gas, dust, and the CO-to-molecular gas conversion factor in low-metallicity starbursts⋆
    (2023) Hunt, L. K.; Belfiore, F.; Lelli, F.; Draine, B. T.; Marasco, A.; Garcia-Burillo, S.; Venturi, G.; Combes, F.; Weiss, A.; Henkel, C.; Menten, K. M.; Annibali, F.; Casasola, V.; Cignoni, M.; McLeod, A.; Tosi, M.; Beltran, M.; Concas, A.; Cresci, G.; Ginolfi, M.; Kumari, N.; Mannucci, F.
    The factor relating CO emission to molecular hydrogen column density, X-CO, is still subject to uncertainty, in particular at low metallicity. In this paper, to quantify X-CO at two different spatial resolutions, we exploited a dust-based method together with ALMA 12-m and ACA data and H I maps of three nearby metal-poor starbursts, NGC 625, NGC 1705, and NGC 5253. Dust opacity at 250 pc resolution was derived based on dust temperatures estimated by fitting two-temperature modified blackbodies to Herschel PACS data. By using the HI maps, we were then able to estimate dust-to-gas ratios in the regions dominated by atomic gas, and, throughout the galaxy, to infer total gas column densities and H-2 column densities as the difference with HI. Finally, from the ACA CO(1-0) maps, we derived X-CO. We used a similar technique with 40 pc ALMA 12-m data for the three galaxies, but instead derived dust attenuation at 40 pc resolution from reddening maps based on VLT/MUSE data. At 250 pc resolution, we find X-CO  & SIM; 10(22) - 10(23) cm(-2)/K km s(-1), 5-1000 times the Milky Way value, with much larger values than would be expected from a simple metallicity dependence. Instead, at 40 pc resolution, X-CO again shows large variation, but is roughly consistent with a power-law metallicity dependence, given the Z  & SIM; 1/3 Z(& ODOT;) metal abundances of our targets. The large scatter in both estimations could imply additional parameter dependence, which we have investigated by comparing X-CO with the observed velocity-integrated brightness temperatures, I-CO, as predicted by recent simulations. Indeed, larger X-CO is significantly correlated with smaller I-CO, but with slightly different slopes and normalizations than predicted by theory. Such behavior can be attributed to the increasing fraction of CO-faint (or dark) H-2 gas with lower spatial resolution (larger beams). This confirms the idea the X-CO is multivariate, depending not only on metallicity but also on the CO brightness temperature and beam size. Future work is needed to consolidate these empirical results by sampling galaxies with different metal abundances observed at varying spatial resolutions.
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    MAGNUM survey: Compact jets causing large turmoil in galaxies. Enhanced line widths perpendicular to radio jets as tracers of jet-ISM interaction
    (2021) Venturi, G.; Cresci, G.; Marconi, A.; Mingozzi, M.; Nardini, E.; Carniani, S.; Mannucci, F.; Marasco, A.; Maiolino, R.; Perna, M.; Treister, E.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Gallimore, J.
    Context. Outflows accelerated by active galactic nuclei (AGN) are commonly observed in the form of coherent, mildly collimated high-velocity gas directed along the AGN ionisation cones and kinetically powerful (greater than or similar to 10(44-45) erg s(-1)) jets. Recent works found that outflows can also be accelerated by low-power (less than or similar to 10(44) erg s(-1)) jets, and the most recent cosmological simulations indicate that these are the dominant source of feedback on sub-kiloparsec scales, but little is known about their effect on the galaxy host.Aims. We study the relation between radio jets and the distribution and kinematics of the ionised gas in IC 5063, NGC 5643, NGC 1068, and NGC 1386 as part of our survey of nearby Seyfert galaxies called Measuring Active Galactic Nuclei Under MUSE Microscope (MAGNUM). All these objects host a small-scale (less than or similar to 1 kpc) low-power (less than or similar to 10(44) erg s(-1)) radio jet that has small inclinations (less than or similar to 45 degrees) with respect to the galaxy disc.Methods. We employed seeing-limited optical integral field spectroscopic observations from the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) at the Very Large Telescope to obtain flux, kinematic, and excitation maps of the extended ionised gas. We compared these maps with archival radio images and in one case, with Chandra X-ray observations.Results. We detect a strong (up to greater than or similar to 800-1000 km s(-1)) and extended (greater than or similar to 1 kpc) emission-line velocity spread perpendicular to the direction of the AGN ionisation cones and jets in all four targets. The gas excitation in this region of line-width enhancement is entirely compatible with shock ionisation. These broad and symmetric line profiles are not associated with a single coherent velocity of the gas. A 'classical' outflow component with net blueshifted and redshifted motions is also present, but is directed along the ionisation cones and jets.Conclusions. We interpret the observed phenomenon as due to the action of the jets perturbing the gas in the galaxy disc. These intense and extended velocity spreads perpendicular to AGN jets and cones are indeed currently only observed in galaxies hosting a low-power jet whose inclination is sufficiently low with respect to the galaxy disc to impact on and strongly affect its material. In line with cosmological simulations, our results demonstrate that low-power jets are indeed capable of affecting the host galaxy.