GATOS. VIII. On the Physical Origin of the Extended Mid-infrared Emission in Active Galactic Nuclei

The polar mid-infrared (MIR) emission detected within tens to hundreds of parsecs in some active galactic nuclei (AGN) has been associated with dusty winds driven away by radiation pressure. The physical characterization of this extended polar emission remains uncertain. Here, we combine 10–21 μm JWST/Mid-InfRared Instrument (MIRI) imaging observations with 7–25 μm JWST/MIRI MRS integral field spectroscopic observations of six nearby, D¯=35.4±4.6 Mpc, AGN from the GATOS Survey to quantify the nature of the extended MIR emission at ∼75 pc resolution at 21 μm. These AGN have similar bolometric luminosities, log10(L¯bol[ergs−1])=44.0±0.3 , span a wide range of optical outflow rates, Ṁ= 0.003–0.21 M⊙ yr−1, column densities, log10(NHX−ray[cm−2])= 22.2–24.3, and Eddington ratios, λEdd = 0.005–0.06. We cross-correlate the line-only and continuum-only images and find a poor correlation, which indicates that the extended MIR continuum emission is spatially uncorrelated with the warm outflows associated with narrow emission lines within 10–15 μm. Line emission is resolved along the jet axis, while dust emission is perpendicular to it. The 75–450 pc continuum emission has a fairly constant dust temperature, Td=132−7+7 K, and mass, Md=728−27+29 M⊙. Using the conditions of energy balance between radiation-pressure and gravity (λEdd versus NH), we find that our AGN sample is in the gravitationally bounded regime consistent with no detection of dusty winds. At 10 μm, the level of extended line emission contribution is correlated with the outflow kinetic energy and mass outflow rates. We find no correlation with the AGN properties. These results indicate that the radio jet may be triggering the gas outflow and line emission, while the extended dust emission is distributed in molecular clouds and/or shocked regions.