GATOS XIV: the first direct kinematic evidence of dusty outflows from AGN via PAH kinematics of local Seyfert galaxies with JWST

We present the first spatially resolved kinematic evidence for dust in the outflows of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). We utilize observations from James Webb Space Telescope with Near Infrared Spectrograph Integral Field Unit (NIRSpec IFU) and Mid-Infrared Instrument Medium Resolution Spectroscopy (MIRI MRS) data of 10 local Seyferts and use principal component analysis (PCA) tomography to extract the kinematics of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) features. PAHs comprise the smallest carbonaceous dust molecules in the interstellar medium, and produce emission features in the infrared providing the potential to measure kinematics. This is however challenging due to their broad shapes and variations in their intrinsic profile, prompting the need for techniques such as PCA tomography. We find that the velocity of the PAHs is similar to the molecular gas as traced by the rotational transitions of H(Formula presented), where for NGC 5728 and NGC 7582, both disc and outflow are present. We detect the outflow in the kinematics of large and neutral PAHs, namely the 11.3 and 17 μm PAH features, where after subtracting the disc, the velocity field matches that of high-ionization potential lines such as [Ne vi] (7.65 μm, IP = 158 eV). Finally, we fail to detect kinematics of the 6.2 μm PAH due to an altered intrinsic profile while the the 3.3 μm PAH kinematics purely trace the circumnuclear disc. This suggests the PAHs in the outflow are more neutral and larger than in star-forming regions, consistent with PAH band ratios in previous studies of AGN.