WISDOM project -- XI. Star Formation Efficiency in the Bulge of the AGN-host Galaxy NGC 3169 with SITELLE and ALMA

Abstract

The star formation efficiency (SFE) has been shown to vary across different environments, particularly within galactic starbursts and deep within the bulges of galaxies. Various quenching mechanisms may be responsible, ranging from galactic dynamics to feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN). Here, we use spatially-resolved observations of warm ionised gas emission lines (H𝛽, [O ] 𝜆𝜆4959,5007, [N ] 𝜆𝜆6548,6583, H𝛼 and [S ] 𝜆𝜆6716,6731) from the imaging Fourier transform spectrograph SITELLE at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) and cold molecular gas ( 12 CO(2-1)) from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to study the SFE in the bulge of the AGN-host galaxy NGC 3169. After distinguishing star-forming regions from AGN-ionised regions using emission-line ratio diagnostics, we measure spatially-resolved molecular gas depletion times (𝜏 dep ≡1/SFE) with a spatial resolution of ≈ 100 pc within a galactocentric radius of 1.8 kpc. We identify a star-forming ring located at radii 1.25 ± 0.6 kpc with an average 𝜏 dep of 0.3 Gyr. At radii < 0.9 kpc, however, the molecular gas surface densities and depletion times increase with decreasing radius, the latter reaching approximately 2.3 Gyr at a radius ≈ 500 pc. Based on analyses of the gas kinematics and comparisons with simulations, we identify AGN feedback, bulge morphology and dynamics as the possible causes of the radial profile of SFE observed in the central region of NGC 3169.