Radiative and mechanical energies in galaxies
Authors: Villa-Vélez J. A. , Godard B. , Guillard P. , Pineau des Forêts G. 
Published: May 2024

Context. Atomic and molecular lines emitted from galaxies are fundamental tracers of the medium responsible for the emission and contain valuable information regarding the energy budget and the strength of the different feedback mechanisms.

Aims. The goal of this work is to provide a new framework for the interpretation of atomic and molecular lines originating from extragalactic sources and a robust method to deduce the mechanical and radiative energy budget from a set of observations.

Methods. Atomic and molecular lines detected in a given object are assumed to result from the combination of distributions of shocks and photo-dissociation regions (PDRs) within the observational beam. The emission of individual structures is computed using the Paris-Durham shock code and the Meudon PDR code over a wide range of parameters. The total emission is then calculated assuming probability distribution functions for shocks and PDRs. A distance between the observational dataset and the model is finally defined based on the ratios of the observed to the predicted intensities.

Results. As a test case scenario, we consider the radio galaxy 3C 326 N. The dataset is composed of 12 rotational and ro-vibrational lines of H2 and the fine structure lines of C+ and O. Our interpretative framework shows that both shocks and PDRs are required to explain the line fluxes. Surprisingly, viable solutions are obtained at low density only (nH < 100 cm−3), indicating that most of the emission originates from diffuse interstellar matter. The optimal solution, obtained for nH = 10 cm−3, corresponds to a distribution of low-velocity shocks (between 5 and 20 km s−1) propagating in PDR environments illuminated by a UV radiation field ten times larger than that in the solar neighborhood. This solution implies that at least 4% of the total mass carried by the PDRs is shocked. The H2 0-0 S(0) 28 μm, [CII] 158 μm, and [OI] 63 μm lines originate from the PDR components, while all the other H2 lines are mostly emitted by shocks. The total solid angles sustained by PDRs and shocks imply that the radiative and mechanical energies reprocessed by these structures are LUV = 6.3 × 109 L⊙ and LK = 3.9 × 108 L⊙, respectively, in remarkable agreement with the values of the IR luminosity deduced from the fit of the spectral energy distribution (SED) of 3C 326 N, and consistent with a small fraction of the active galactic nuclei (AGN) jet kinetic power dissipated in the interstellar medium (≈1%).

Conclusions. This work shows that the radiative and mechanical energy budget of galaxies can be derived from the sole observations of atomic and molecular lines. It reveals the unexpected importance of the diffuse medium for 3C 326 N, in contrast to previous studies. A last-minute comparison of the model to new JWST data obtained in 3C 326 N shows a striking agreement and demonstrates the ability of the model to make accurate predictions. This framework opens new prospects for the prediction and interpretation of extragalactic observations, in particular in the context of JWST observations.