We report on the determination of electron densities, and their impact on the outflow masses and rates, measured in the central few hundred parsecs of 11 local luminous active galaxies. We show that the peak of the integrated line emission in the AGN is significantly offset from the systemic velocity as traced by the stellar absorption features, indicating that the profiles are dominated by outflow. In contrast, matched inactive galaxies are characterised by a systemic peak and weaker outflow wing. We present three independent estimates of the electron density in these AGN, discussing the merits of the different methods. The electron density derived from the [SII] doublet is significantly lower than than that found with a method developed in the last decade using auroral and transauroral lines, as well as a recently introduced method based on the ionization parameter. The reason is that, for gas photoionized by an AGN, much of the [SII] emission arises in an extended partially ionized zone where the implicit assumption that the electron density traces the hydrogen density is invalid. We propose ways to deal with this situation and we derive the associated outflow rates for ionized gas, which are in the range 0.001–0.5 M⊙ yr−1 for our AGN sample. We compare these outflow rates to the relation between $\dot{M}_{\rm out}$ and LAGN in the literature, and argue that it may need to be modified and rescaled towards lower mass outflow rates.

Supermassive Black Holes grow at the center of galaxies in consonance with them. In this review we discuss the mass feeding mechanisms that lead to this growth in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), focusing on constraints derived from observations of their environment, from extragalactic down to galactic and nuclear scales. At high AGN luminosities, galaxy mergers and interactions play an important role in AGN triggering and feeding. However, gas chaotic cold accretion in galaxy clusters can trigger radiatively inefficient AGNs in brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs). At lower luminosities, minor mergers feed AGN in early-type, gas-starving galaxies, while secular processes dominate in later-type, gas-rich galaxies. While bars do not appear to directly feed AGNs, AGN flickering leads to the dissociation between small and large scales, hence affecting the interpretation of cause and effect. At ∼100 pc scales, recent observations have revealed compact disks and inflows along nuclear gaseous spirals and bars, while chaotic cold accretion continues to feed BCGs at these scales. Estimated mass inflow rates -of 0.01 to a few M yr −1 -are in many cases a thousand times higher than the mass accretion rate to the supermassive black hole. As a result, 10 6 -10 9 M gas reservoirs can be built on 10 7−8 yr, that in turn may lead to the formation of new stars and/or be ejected via the onset of AGN feedback.

We report on our combined analysis of HST, VLT/MUSE, VLT/SINFONI, and ALMA observations of the local Seyfert 2 galaxy, NGC 5728 to investigate in detail the feeding and feedback of the AGN. The datasets simultaneously probe the morphology, excitation, and kinematics of the stars, ionized gas, and molecular gas over a large range of spatial scales (10 pc-10 kpc). NGC 5728 contains a large stellar bar which is driving gas along prominent dust lanes to the inner 1 kpc where the gas settles into a circumnuclear ring. The ring is strongly star forming and contains a substantial population of young stars as indicated by the lowered stellar velocity dispersion and gas excitation consistent with HII regions. We model the kinematics of the ring using the velocity field of the CO (2-1) emission and stars and find it is consistent with a rotating disk. The outer regions of the disk, where the dust lanes meet the ring, show signatures of inflow at a rate of 1 M yr −1 . Inside the ring, we observe three molecular gas components corresponding to the circular rotation of the outer ring, a warped disk, and the nuclear stellar bar. The AGN is driving an ionized gas outflow that reaches a radius of 250 pc with a mass outflow rate of 0.08 M yr −1 consistent with its luminosity and scaling relations from previous studies. While we observe distinct holes in CO emission which could be signs of molecular gas removal, we find that largely the AGN is not disrupting the structure of the circumnuclear region.

We analyse optical datacubes of the inner kiloparsec of 30 local (z ≤ 0.02) active galactic nuclei (AGN) hosts that our research group, AGNIFS, has collected over the past decade via observations with the integral field units of the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrographs. Spatial resolutions range between 50 pc and 300 pc and spectral coverage is from 4800Å or 5600Å to 7000Å, at velocity resolutions of ≈50 $\rm ~km~s^{-1}$. We derive maps of the gas excitation and kinematics, determine the AGN ionisation axis – which has random orientation relative to the galaxy, and the kinematic major axes of the emitting gas. We find that rotation dominates the gas kinematics in most cases, but is disturbed by the presence of inflows and outflows. Outflows have been found in 21 nuclei, usually along the ionisation axis. The gas velocity dispersion is traced by W80 (velocity width encompassing 80 per cent of the line flux), adopted as a tracer of outflows. In 7 sources W80 is enhanced perpendicularly to the ionisation axis, indicating lateral expansion of the outflow. We have estimated mass-outflow rates $\dot{M}$ and powers $\dot{E}$, finding median values of $\log \, [\dot{M}/({\rm \, M_\odot \, yr^{-1}})]=-2.1_{-1.0}^{+1.6}$ and $\log \, [\dot{E}/({\rm \, erg\, s^{-1}})]=38.5_{-0.9}^{+1.8}$, respectively. Both quantities show a mild correlation with the AGN luminosity (LAGN). $\dot{E}$ is of the order of 0.01 LAGN for 4 sources, but much lower for the majority (9) of the sources, with a median value of $\log \, [\dot{E}/L_{\rm AGN} ]=-5.34_{-0.9}^{+3.2}$ indicating that typical outflows in the local Universe are unlikely to significantly impact their host galaxy evolution.

Context. The M BH -σ relation is considered a result of co-evolution between the host galaxies and their super-massive black holes. For elliptical bulge hosting inactive galaxies, this relation is well established, but there is still discussion whether active galaxies follow the same relation. Aims. In this paper, we estimate black hole masses for a sample of 19 local luminous AGNs (LLAMA) in order to test their location on the M BH -σ relation. In addition, we test how robustly we can determine the stellar velocity dispersion in the presence of an AGN continuum, AGN emission lines and as a function of signal/noise ratio. Methods. Super-massive black hole masses (M BH ) were derived from the broad-line based relations for Hα, Hβ and Paβ emission line profiles for the Type 1 AGNs. We compare the bulge stellar velocity dispersion (σ ) as determined from the Ca II triplet (CaT) with the dispersion measured from the near-infrared CO (2-0) absorption features for each AGN and find them to be consistent with each other. We apply an extinction correction to the observed broad line fluxes and we correct the stellar velocity dispersion by an average rotation contribution as determined from spatially resolved stellar kinematic maps. Results. The Hα-based black hole masses of our sample of AGNs were estimated in the range 6.34 ≤ log M BH ≤ 7.75 M and the σ CaT estimates range between 73 ≤ σ CaT ≤ 227 km s −1 . From the so-constructed M BH -σ relation for our Type 1 AGNs, we estimate the black hole masses for the Type 2 AGNs and the inactive galaxies in our sample. Conclusions. In conclusion, we find that our sample of local luminous AGNs is consistent with the M BH -σ relation of lower luminosity AGNs and inactive galaxies, after correcting for dust extinction and the rotational contribution to the stellar velocity dispersion.