Abstract

To understand the role that active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback plays in galaxy evolution, we need in-depth studies of the multi-phase structure and energetics of galaxy-wide outflows. In this work, we present new, deep (similar to 50 h) NOEMA CO(1-0) line observations of the molecular gas in the powerful outflow driven by the AGN in the ultra-luminous infrared galaxy IRAS F08572+3915. We spatially resolve the outflow, finding that its most likely configuration is a wide-angle bicone aligned with the kinematic major axis of the rotation disk. The molecular gas in the wind reaches velocities up to approximately +/- 1200 km s(-1) and transports nearly 20% of the molecular gas mass in the system. We detect a second outflow component located similar to 6 kpc northwest from the galaxy moving away at similar to 900 km s(-1), which could be the result of a previous episode of AGN activity. The total mass and energetics of the outflow, which includes contributions from the ionized, neutral, and warm and cold molecular gas phases, is strongly dominated by the cold molecular gas. In fact, the molecular mass outflow rate is higher than the star formation rate, even if we only consider the gas in the outflow that is fast enough to escape the galaxy, which accounts for similar to 40% of the total mass of the outflow. This results in an outflow depletion time for the molecular gas in the central similar to 1.5 kpc region of only similar to 3 Myr, a factor of similar to 2 shorter than the depletion time by star formation activity.