A titanic interstellar medium ejection from a massive starburst galaxy at redshift 1.4

Puglisi, Annagrazia; Daddi, Emanuele; Brusa, Marcella; Bournaud, Frederic; Fensch, Jeremy; Liu, Daizhong; Delvecchio, Ivan; Calabrò, Antonello; Circosta, Chiara; Valentino, Francesco; Perna, Michele; Jin, Shuowen; Enia, Andrea; Mancini, Chiara; Rodighiero, Giulia

Abstract

Feedback-driven winds from star formation or active galactic nuclei might be a relevant channel for the abrupt quenching of star formation in massive galaxies. However, both observations and simulations support the idea that these processes are non-conflictingly co-evolving and self-regulating. Furthermore, evidence of disruptive events that are capable of fast quenching is rare, and constraints on their statistical prevalence are lacking. Here we present a massive starburst galaxy at redshift z = 1.4, which is ejecting 46 ± 13% of its molecular gas mass at a startling rate of ≳10,000 M⊙ yr−1. A broad component that is red-shifted from the galaxy emission is detected in four (low and high J) CO and [C I] transitions and in the ionized phase, which ensures a robust estimate of the expelled gas mass. The implied statistics suggest that similar events are potentially a major star-formation quenching channel. However, our observations provide compelling evidence that this is not a feedback-driven wind, but rather material from a merger that has been probably tidally ejected. This finding challenges some literature studies in which the role of feedback-driven winds might be overstated.

Citation

Puglisi, A., Daddi, E., Brusa, M., Bournaud, F., Fensch, J., Liu, D., …Rodighiero, G. (2021). A titanic interstellar medium ejection from a massive starburst galaxy at redshift 1.4. Nature Astronomy, 5(3), 319-330. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-01268-x

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 4, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Jan 11, 2021
• Publication Date: 2021-03
• Deposit Date: Jun 18, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 11, 2021
• Journal: Nature Astronomy
• Publisher: Nature Research
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 319-330
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-01268-x