Shocked POststarburst Galaxy Survey. IV. Outflows in Shocked Post-Starburst Galaxies Are Not Responsible For Quenching

• Published in: arXiv.org 2024-12
• Main Authors: Fodor, Antoniu, Taylor Tomko, Braun, Mary, Medling, Anne M, Johnson, Thomas M, Thompson, Alexander, Johnston, Victor D, Newhouse, Matthew, Luo, Yuanze, K Decker French, Otter, Justin A, Tripathi, Akshat, Verrico, Margaret E, Alatalo, Katherine, Rowlands, Kate, Heckman, Timothy
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Active galactic nuclei; Galactic evolution; Kinematics; Luminosity; Outflow; Quenching; Starburst galaxies; Starbursts; Stars & galaxies
• ISSN: 2331-8422
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2412.06621

Shocked POst-starburst Galaxies (SPOGs) exhibit both emission lines suggestive of shock-heated gas and post-starburst-like stellar absorption, resulting in a unique subset for galaxy evolution studies. We have observed 77 galaxies that fulfilled the SPOGs criteria selection using the DeVeny Spectrograph on the Lowell Discovery Telescope. Our long-slit minor axis spectra detect H\(\alpha\) and [O III] in some SPOGs out to 6 kpc above the galactic plane. We find extraplanar ionized gas in 31 targets of our sample overall. Using their internal and external kinematics, we argue that 22 galaxies host outflows with ionized gas masses ranging from \(10^2 M_{\odot}\) to \(10^5 M_{\odot}\). The rest are likely extended diffuse ionized gas. A positive correlation exists between AGN luminosity and the extraplanar gas extent, velocity dispersion, and mass\(\unicode{x2013}\unicode{x2013}\)suggesting that the AGN may indeed drive the outflows detected in AGN hosts. The low masses of the extraplanar gas suggest that these outflows are not depleting each galaxy's gas reserves. The outflows, therefore, are not likely a significant quenching mechanism in these SPOGs.