We study the properties of massive, galactic-scale outflows of molecular gas and investigate their impact on galaxy evolution. We present new IRAM PdBI CO(1-0) observations of local ULIRGs and QSO hosts: clear signature of massive and energetic molecular outflows, extending on kpc scales, is found in the CO(1-0) kinematics of four out of seven sources, with measured outflow rates of several 100 M yr −1 . We combine these new observations with data from the literature, and explore the nature and origin of massive molecular outflows within an extended sample of 19 local galaxies. We find that starburst-dominated galaxies have an outflow rate comparable to their SFR, or even higher by a factor of ∼2-4, implying that starbursts can indeed be effective in removing cold gas from galaxies. Nevertheless, our results suggest that the presence of an AGN can boost the outflow rate by a large factor, which is found to increase with the L AGN /L bol ratio. The gas depletion time-scales due to molecular outflows are anti-correlated with the presence and luminosity of an AGN in these galaxies, and range from a few hundred million years in starburst galaxies, down to just a few million years in galaxies hosting powerful AGNs. In quasar hosts the depletion time-scales due to the outflow are much shorter than the depletion time-scales due to star formation. We estimate the outflow kinetic power and find that, for galaxies hosting powerful AGNs, it corresponds to about 5% of the AGN luminosity, as expected by models of AGN feedback. Moreover, we find that momentum rates of about 20 L AGN /c are common among the AGN-dominated sources in our sample. For "pure" starburst galaxies our data tentatively support models in which outflows are mostly momentum-driven by the radiation pressure from young stars onto dusty clouds. Overall, our results indicate that, although starbursts are effective in powering massive molecular outflows, the presence of an AGN may strongly enhance such outflows and, therefore, have a profound feedback effect on the evolution of galaxies, by efficiently removing fuel for star formation, hence quenching star formation.

Mass outflows driven by stars and active galactic nuclei are a key element in many current models of galaxy evolution. They may produce the observed black hole-galaxy mass relation and regulate and quench both star formation in the host galaxy and black hole accretion. However, observational evidence of such feedback processes through outflows of the bulk of the star forming molecular gas is still scarce. Here we report the detection of massive molecular outflows, traced by the hydroxyl molecule (OH), in far-infrared spectra of ULIRGs obtained with Herschel-PACS as part of the SHINING key project. In some of these objects the (terminal) outflow velocities exceed 1000 km/s, and their outflow rates (up to ∼1200 M ⊙ /yr) are several times larger than their star formation rates. We compare the outflow signatures in different types of ULIRGs and in starburst galaxies to address the issue of the energy source (AGN or starburst) of these outflows. We report preliminary evidence that ULIRGs with a higher AGN luminosity (and higher AGN contribution to L IR ) have higher terminal velocities and shorter gas depletion time scales. The outflows in the observed ULIRGs are able to expel the cold gas reservoirs from the centres of these objects within ∼10 6 -10 8 years.

We report the results from a systematic search for molecular (OH 119 µm) outflows with Herschel-PACS 1 in a sample of 43 nearby (z < 0.3) galaxy mergers, mostly ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) and QSOs. We find that the character of the OH feature (strength of the absorption relative to the emission) correlates with that of the 9.7-µm silicate feature, a measure of obscuration in ULIRGs. Unambiguous evidence for molecular outflows, based on the detection of OH absorption profiles with median velocities more blueshifted than −50 km

We present a study of the [C ii] 157.74 lm fine-structure line in a sample of 15 ultraluminous infrared (IR) galaxies (IR luminosity L IR k10 12 L ; ULIRGs) using the Long Wavelength Spectrometer (LWS) on the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO). We confirm the observed order of magnitude deficit (compared to normal and starburst galaxies) in the strength of the [C ii] line relative to the far-infrared (FIR) dust continuum emission found in our initial report, but here with a sample that is twice as large. This result suggests that the deficit is a general phenomenon affecting 4 out of 5 ULIRGs. We present an analysis using observations of generally acknowledged photodissociation region (PDR) tracers ([C ii], [O i] 63 and 145 lm, and FIR continuum emission), which suggests that a high ultraviolet flux G 0 incident on a moderate density n PDR could explain the deficit. However, comparisons with other ULIRG observations, including CO (1-0), [C i] (1-0), and 6.2 lm polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission, suggest that high G 0 =n PDRs alone cannot produce a self-consistent solution that is compatible with all of the observations. We propose that non-PDR contributions to the FIR continuum can explain the apparent [C ii] deficiency. Here, unusually high G 0 and/ or n physical conditions in ULIRGs as compared to those in normal and starburst galaxies are not required to explain the [C ii] deficit. Dust-bounded photoionization regions, which generate much of the FIR emission but do not contribute significant [C ii] emission, offer one possible physical origin for this additional non-PDR component. Such environments may also contribute to the observed suppression of FIR fine-structure emission from ionized gas and PAHs, as well as the warmer FIR colors found in ULIRGs. The implications for observations at higher redshifts are also revisited.

We report initial results from the far-infrared fine structure line observations of a sample of 44 local starbursts, Seyfert galaxies and infrared luminous galaxies obtained with the PACS spectrometer on board Herschel. We show that the ratio between the far-infrared luminosity and the molecular gas mass, L FIR /M H2 , is a much better proxy for the relative brightness of the far-infrared lines than L FIR alone. Galaxies with high L FIR /M H2 ratios tend to have weaker fine structure lines relative to their far-infrared continuum than galaxies with L FIR /M H2 80 L ⊙ M ⊙ −1 . A deficit of the [C II] 158 µm line relative to L FIR was previously found with the ISO satellite, but now we show for the first time that this is a general aspect of all far-infrared fine structure lines, regardless of their origin in the ionized or neutral phase of the interstellar medium. The L FIR /M H2 value where these line deficits start to manifest is similar to the limit that separates between the two modes of star formation recently found in galaxies on the basis of studies of their gas-star formation relations. Our finding that the properties of the interstellar medium are also significantly different in these regimes provides independent support for the different star forming relations in normal disk galaxies and major merger systems. We use the spectral synthesis code Cloudy to model the emission of the lines. The expected increase of the ionization parameter with L FIR /M H2 can simultaneously explain the line deficits in the [C II], [N II] and [O I] lines.

In this first paper on the results of our Herschel PACS survey of local ultra luminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs), as part of our SHINING survey of local galaxies, we present far-infrared spectroscopy of Mrk 231, the most luminous of the local ULIRGs, and a type 1 broad absorption line AGN. For the first time in a ULIRG, all observed far-infrared fine-structure lines in the PACS range were detected and all were found to be deficient relative to the far infrared luminosity by 1-2 orders of magnitude compared with lower luminosity galaxies. The deficits are similar to those for the mid-infrared lines, with the most deficient lines showing high ionization potentials. Aged starbursts may account for part of the deficits, but partial covering of the highest excitation AGN powered regions may explain the remaining line deficits. A massive molecular outflow, discovered in OH and 18 OH, showing outflow velocities out to at least 1400 km s −1 , is a unique signature of the clearing out of the molecular disk that formed by dissipative collapse during the merger. The outflow is characterized by extremely high ratios of 18 O/ 16 O suggestive of interstellar medium processing by advanced starbursts.

We present FIR[50 − 300 µm]−CO luminosity relations (i.e., log L FIR = α log L CO + β) for the full CO rotational ladder from J = 1 − 0 up to J = 13 − 12 for a sample of 62 local (z ≤ 0.1) (Ultra) Luminous Infrared Galaxies (LIRGs; L IR[8−1000 µm] > 10 11 L ) using data from Herschel SPIRE-FTS and ground-based telescopes. We extend our sample to high redshifts (z > 1) by including 35 (sub)millimeter selected dusty star forming galaxies from the literature with robust CO observations, and sufficiently well-sampled FIR/sub-millimeter spectral energy distributions (SEDs) so that accurate FIR luminosities can be deduced. The addition of luminous starbursts at high redshifts enlarge the range of the FIR−CO luminosity relations towards the high-IR-luminosity end while also significantly increasing the small amount of mid-J/high-J CO line data (J = 5 − 4 and higher) that was available prior to Herschel. This new data-set (both in terms of IR luminosity and J-ladder) reveals linear FIR−CO luminosity relations (i.e., α 1) for J = 1 − 0 up to J = 5 − 4, with a nearly constant normalization (β ∼ 2). In the simplest physical scenario this is expected from the (also) linear FIR−(molecular line) relations recently found for the dense gas tracer lines (HCN and CS), as long as the dense gas mass fraction does not vary strongly within our (merger/starburst)-dominated sample. However from J = 6 − 5 and up to the J = 13 − 12 transition we find an increasingly sub-linear slope and higher normalization constant with increasing J. We argue that these are caused by a warm (∼ 100 K) and dense (> 10 4 cm −3 ) gas component whose thermal state is unlikely to be maintained by star formation powered far-UV radiation fields (and thus is no longer directly tied to the star formation rate). We suggest that mechanical heating (e.g., supernova driven turbulence and shocks), and not cosmic rays, is the more likely source of energy for this component. The global CO spectral line energy distributions (SLEDs), which remain highly excited from J = 6 − 5 up to J = 13 − 12, are found to be a generic feature of the (U)LIRGs in our sample, and further support the presence of this gas component.

We report on the energetics of molecular outflows in 14 local Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies (ULIRGs) that show unambiguous outflow signatures (P-Cygni profiles or high-velocity absorption wings) in the far-infrared lines of OH measured with the Herschel/PACS spectrometer. All sample galaxies are gas-rich mergers at various stages of the merging process. Detection of both ground-state (at 119 and 79 µm) and one or more radiatively-excited (at 65 and 84 µm) lines allows us to model the nuclear gas ( 300 pc) as well as the more extended components using spherically symmetric radiative transfer models. Reliable models and the corresponding energetics are found in 12 of the 14 sources. The highest molecular outflow velocities are found in buried sources, in which slower but massive expansion of the nuclear gas is also observed. With the exception of a few outliers, the outflows have momentum fluxes of (2 − 5) × L IR /c and mechanical luminosities of (0.1 − 0.3)% of L IR . The moderate momentum boosts in these sources ( 3) suggest that the outflows are mostly momentum-driven by the combined effects of AGN and nuclear starbursts, as a result of radiation pressure, winds, and supernovae remnants. In some sources (∼ 20%), however, powerful (10 10.5−11 L ⊙ ) AGN feedback and (partially) energy-conserving phases are required, with momentum boosts in the range 3 − 20. These outflows appear to be stochastic, strong-AGN feedback events that occur throughout the merging process. In a few sources, the outflow activity in the innermost regions has subsided in the last ∼ 1 Myr. While OH traces the molecular outflows at sub-kpc scales, comparison of the masses traced by OH with those previously inferred from tracers of more extended outflowing gas suggests that most mass is loaded (with loading factors ofṀ /SFR = 1 − 10) from the central galactic cores (a few × 100 pc), qualitatively consistent with an ongoing inside-out quenching of star formation. Outflow depletion timescales are < 10 8 yr, shorter than the gas consumption timescales by factors of 1.1 − 15, and are anti-correlated with the AGN luminosity.