Circumnuclear Multiphase Gas in the Circinus Galaxy. VI. Detectability of Molecular Inflow and Atomic Outflow

Abstract

Recent submillimeter observations have revealed signs of parsec-scale molecular inflow and atomic outflow in the nearest Seyfert 2 galaxy, the Circinus galaxy. To verify the gas kinematics suggested by these observations, we performed molecular and atomic line transfer calculations based on a physics-based 3D radiation-hydrodynamic model, which has been compared with multiwavelength observations in this paper series. The major-axis position–velocity diagram (PVD) of CO(3–2) reproduces the observed faint emission at the systemic velocity, and our calculations confirm that this component originates from failed winds falling back to the disk plane. The minor-axis PVD of [C i ]( ^3 P _1 – ^3 P _0 ), when created using only the gas with positive radial velocities, presents a sign of blueshifted and redshifted offset peaks similar to those in the observation, suggesting that the observed peaks indeed originate from the outflow, but that the model may lack outflows as strong as those in the Circinus galaxy. Similar to the observed HCN(3–2), the similar dense-gas tracer HCO ^+ (3–2) can exhibit nuclear spectra with inverse P-Cygni profiles with ∼0.5 pc beams, but the line shape is azimuthally dependent. The corresponding continuum absorbers are inflowing clumps at 5–10 pc from the center. To detect significant absorption with a high probability, the inclination must be fairly edge-on (≳85°), and the beam size must be small (≲1 pc). These results suggest that HCN or HCO ^+ and [C i ] lines are effective for observing parsec-scale inflows and outflows, respectively.

Keywords

• Active galactic nuclei
• Seyfert galaxies
• Interstellar medium
• Radiative transfer simulations
• Millimeter astronomy
• Submillimeter astronomy