Nuclear Activity in Galaxies: a 3D Perspective from the Nucleus to the Outskirts

    General
    Description

    This project consists of two main research lines. First, the study of quasar-driven outflows in luminous and nearby obscured active galactic nuclei (AGN) and the impact that they have on their massive host galaxies (AGN feedback). To do so, we have been granted time with the Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC) in the optical and near-infrared ranges, with JWST in the mid-infrared, with ALMA in the sub-mm/mm regime and with VLT at radio frequencies. The group is also devoted to obtain and exploit observing time with the JWST and ALMA as part of the GATOS consortium (Galactic Activity, Torus and Outflow Survey) with the aim of characterizing nuclear obscuration and the gas flow cycle in local AGN. Second, the application of integral field spectroscopy to the study of extended objects (active and star forming galaxies) to investigate the triggering of both phenomena. We also contribute to the development of new instruments and data analysis procedures related to 3D observing techniques. In particular, we participate in the development of HARMONI, the first-light high-spatial resolution integral field spectrograph for the ESO Extremely Large Telescope.

    Principal investigator
    Project staff

     

    1. The total budget awarded to this project through external funding sources totals 2.370.500 euros. This only includes projects starting in or after 2020. In 2024 we managed to get a new Juan de La Cierva contract for the group, granted to Marina Bianchin.
    2. Publication of four works from the QSOFEED project (Bessiere et al. 2024; Holden et al. 2024; Speranza et al. 2024). The ultimate goal is to understand the impact of AGN feedback on galaxies.
    3. Giovanna Speranza defended her Ph.D thesis, entitled "Incidence and energetics of AGN winds in the local universe", in February 2024 (Speranza et al. 2021, 2022, 2024). Within the BID4BESt project, another seven papers led by Ph.D students have been published during 2024, in which C. Ramos Almeida participates.
    4. As part of the QSOFEED project we obtained time with ALMA in Cycle 11, as well as with VLT (PI: A. Audibert), and the data from the JWST cycle 2 program 3655 have been observed (PI: C. Ramos Almeida). The GATOS collaboration obtained two successful JWST proposals in cycle 3 (4972 and 5017).
    5. As part of the GATOS collaboration, ten papers have been published, with from one to four members as co-authors.
    6. A new collaboration has been established with ESO to explore the applicability of the technique developed within this project for estimating the outer scale of turbulence in IFS observations corrected with adaptive optics, with MUSE-AO data acquired for analysis in 2025.

    Related publications

    Low-metallicity globular clusters in the low-mass isolated spiral galaxy NGC 2403 2022MNRAS.512..802F
    Quantifying the cool ISM in radio AGNs: evidence for late-time retriggering by galaxy mergers and interactions 2022MNRAS.512...86B
    HARMONI view of the host galaxies of active galactic nuclei around cosmic noon. Resolved stellar morpho-kinematics and the M<SUB>BH</SUB> − σ<SUB>⋆</SUB> relation 2022A&A...659A..79G
    The Complex Infrared Dust Continuum Emission of NGC 1068: Ground-based N- and Q-band Spectroscopy and New Radiative Transfer Models 2022ApJ...926..192V
    The diverse cold molecular gas contents, morphologies, and kinematics of type-2 quasars as seen by ALMA 2022A&A...658A.155R
    Do AGN triggering mechanisms vary with radio power? - II. The importance of mergers as a function of radio power and optical luminosity 2022MNRAS.510.1163P
    CO kinematics unveil outflows plausibly driven by a young jet in the gigahertz peaked radio core of NGC 6328 2021AN....342.1160P
    Black hole feeding and star formation in NGC 1808 2021A&A...656A..60A
    Modeling the Unresolved NIR-MIR SEDs of Local (z &lt; 0.1) QSOs 2021ApJ...922..157M
    Capturing dual AGN activity and kiloparsec-scale outflows in IRAS 20210+1121 2021A&A...654A.154S
    The MURALES survey. IV. Searching for nuclear outflows in 3C radio galaxies at z &lt; 0.3 with MUSE observations 2021A&A...653A.150S
    The dust-gas AGN torus as constrained from X-ray and mid-infrared observations 2021A&A...651A..91E
    The Galaxy Activity, Torus, and Outflow Survey (GATOS). II. Torus and polar dust emission in nearby Seyfert galaxies 2021A&A...652A..99A
    The Galaxy Activity, Torus, and Outflow Survey (GATOS). I. ALMA images of dusty molecular tori in Seyfert galaxies 2021A&A...652A..98G
    The origin of bulges and discs in the CALIFA survey - I. Morphological evolution 2021MNRAS.504.3058M
    Composite bulges - II. Classical bulges and nuclear discs in barred galaxies: the contrasting cases of NGC 4608 and NGC 4643 2021MNRAS.502.2446E
    Galaxies within galaxies in the TIMER survey: stellar populations of inner bars are scaled replicas of main bars 2021A&A...646A..42B
    Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. IX. Velocity-Delay Maps for Broad Emission Lines in NGC 5548 2021ApJ...907...76H
    Integral Field Spectroscopy of Planetary Nebulae with MUSE 2020Galax...8...31W
    The complex multi-component outflow of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 7130 2021A&A...645A.130C
    Multiphase feedback processes in the Sy2 galaxy NGC 5643 2021A&A...645A..21G
    Searching for molecular gas inflows and outflows in the nuclear regions of five Seyfert galaxies 2020A&A...643A.127D
    Stellar populations and physical properties of starbursts in the antennae galaxy from self-consistent modelling of MUSE spectra 2020MNRAS.497.3860G
    Cold molecular gas and PAH emission in the nuclear and circumnuclear regions of Seyfert galaxies 2020A&A...639A..43A
    Larger λ<SUB>R</SUB> in the disc of isolated active spiral galaxies than in their non-active twins 2020A&A...639L...9D
    Low optical polarization at the core of the optically thin jet of M87 2020MNRAS.496.2204F
    VLA and ALMA observations of the lensed radio-quiet quasar SDSS J0924+0219: a molecular structure in a 3 μJy radio source 2020MNRAS.496..138B
    Recovering Age-Metallicity Distributions from Integrated Spectra: Validation with MUSE Data of a Nearby Nuclear Star Cluster 2020ApJ...896...13B
    Modeling the Strongest Silicate Emission Features of Local Type 1 AGNs 2020ApJ...890..152M
    Arp 70: an interacting galaxy with extreme outflows 2020MNRAS.493.1434C
    The MUSE view of the planetary nebula NGC 3132 2020A&A...634A..47M
    Physical Parameters of the Torus for the Type 2 Seyfert IC 5063 from Mid-IR and X-Ray Simultaneous Spectral Fitting 2019ApJ...886..125E
    Black hole-galaxy scaling relation evolution from Z̃2.5: Simulated observations with HARMONI on the ELT 2019FrASS...6...73G
    Exploring the Mid-infrared SEDs of Six AGN Dusty Torus Models. I. Synthetic Spectra 2019ApJ...884...10G
    Exploring the Mid-infrared SEDs of Six AGN Dusty Torus Models. II. The Data 2019ApJ...884...11G
    NGC 6240: A triple nucleus system in the advanced or final state of merging 2020A&A...633A..79K
    The CALIFA view on stellar angular momentum across the Hubble sequence 2019A&A...632A..59F
    ALMA images the many faces of the <ASTROBJ>NGC 1068</ASTROBJ> torus and its surroundings 2019A&A...632A..61G
    Nuclear molecular outflow in the Seyfert galaxy NGC 3227 2019A&A...628A..65A
    Do AGN triggering mechanisms vary with radio power? - I. Optical morphologies of radio-intermediate HERGs 2019MNRAS.487.5490P