The MURALES survey

Abstract

We present the final observations of a complete sample of 37 radio galaxies from the Third Cambridge Catalogue (3C) with redshift < 0.3 and declination < 20° obtained with the VLT/MUSE optical integral field spectrograph. These data were obtained as part of the MUse RAdio Loud Emission line Snapshot (MURALES) survey with the main goal of exploring the AGN feedback process in the most powerful radio sources. We present the data analysis and, for each source, the resulting emission line images and the 2D gas velocity field. Thanks to the unprecedented depth these observations reveal emission line regions (ELRs) extending several tens of kiloparsec in most objects. The gas velocity shows ordered rotation in 25 galaxies, but in several sources it is highly complex. We find that the 3C sources show a connection between radio morphology and emission line properties. In the ten FR I sources the line emission region is generally compact, only a few kpc in size; only in one case does it exceed the size of the host. Conversely, all but two of the FR II galaxies show large-scale structures of ionized gas. The median extent is 16 kpc with the maximum reaching a size of ∼80 kpc. There are no apparent differences in extent or strength between the ELR properties of the FR II sources of high and low gas excitation. We confirm that the previous optical identification of 3C 258 is incorrect: this radio source is likely associated with a quasi-stellar object at z ∼ 1.54.

The MURALES survey

“…In this framework, the MUse RAdio-Loud Emission lines Snapshot (MURALES) survey was carried out with the integral field spectrograph MUSE at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) on Article number, page 1 of 12 arXiv:2111.01615v1 [astro-ph.GA] 2 Nov 2021 a sample of 3CR radio sources in order to explore the connection between ionized gas and the relativistic jet plasma. We observed 37 radio galaxies with z < 0.3 and δ < 20 • and presented the main results in Balmaverde et al (2019) and Balmaverde et al (2021). Thanks to their unprecedented depth (the median 3σ surface brightness limit in the emission line maps is 6×10 −18 erg s −1 cm −2 arcsec −2 ), these observations reveal emission line regions extending by several dozen kiloparsec in most objects.…”

BASS XXXI: Outflow scaling relations in low redshift X-ray AGN host galaxies with MUSE

“…The redshift cut is motivated by the fact that we would like to resolve outflows down to sub-kiloparsec scales in the host galaxies of the selected AGN. Furthermore, targets that have low signal in the the literature (e.g., Dopita et al 2015;Thomas et al 2017;Powell et al 2018;Treister et al 2018;Venturi et al 2018;Balmaverde et al 2019;Erroz-Ferrer et al 2019;Mingozzi et al 2019;den Brok et al 2020;López-Cobá et al 2020;Balmaverde et al 2021). Whenever possible, we will compare our results with the already published data in the literature to check for consistency in the derived maps and quantities.…”

“…For instance, ionised and molecular gas observations of IC 5063 have shown evidence of jet-ISM interaction in this system (e.g., Kulkarni et al 1998;Morganti et al 2015;Tadhunter et al 2014;Dasyra et al 2015;Oosterloo et al 2017;Mukherjee et al 2018a;Venturi et al 2021). Jet-ISM interaction has also been proposed in some of the 3C sources, part of the MURALES survey (e.g., Balmaverde et al 2019Balmaverde et al , 2021. Similarly, The outflow properties considered in these tests are: Non-parametric velocity dispersion obtained from integrated fibre spectrum (w fibre 80 ) and slit spectrum (w slit 80 ), parametric velocity computed from integrated fibre spectrum (𝑣 fibre max ) and slit spectrum (𝑣 slit max ), total mass outflow rate obtained from resolved maps ( 𝑀 total res ), mass outflow rate obtained from resolved maps within a 3 aperture centered on the AGN ( 𝑀 cent res ), mass outflow rate obtained from integrated fibre spectrum ( 𝑀 fibre ) and slit spectrum ( 𝑀 slit ) and mass outflow rate assuming an outflow electron density of 200 cm −3 .…”

The quasar feedback survey: discovering hidden Radio-AGN and their connection to the host galaxy ionized gas

“…Overall, by focusing on sources at z ≈ 0.1, our survey allows for both a reasonable spatial resolution (∼1 kpc) and sensitivity, while also allowing us to build up a sample of bolometrically luminous AGNs (also see e.g. Husemann et al 2013;Karouzos, Woo & Bae 2016;Rupke, Gültekin & Veilleux 2017;Rose et al 2018;Rakshit & Woo 2018b;Balmaverde et al 2020;Santoro et al 2020). Importantly, we have selected our quasars from a well-studied parent sample (Section 2.2) and, as is usually not the case for bolometrically luminous 'radio-quiet' quasars, we will start with a detailed study of the spatially resolved radio properties.…”