The AGN fuelling/feedback cycle in nearby radio galaxies – IV. Molecular gas conditions and jet–ISM interaction in NGC 3100

Abstract

ABSTRACT This is the fourth paper of a series investigating the AGN fuelling/feedback processes in a sample of 11 nearby low-excitation radio galaxies (LERGs). In this paper, we present follow-up Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of one source, NGC 3100, targeting the 12CO(1-0), 12CO(3-2), HCO+(4-3), SiO(3-2), and HNCO(6-5) molecular transitions. 12CO(1-0) and 12CO(3-2) lines are nicely detected and complement our previous 12CO(2-1) data. By comparing the relative strength of these three CO transitions, we find extreme gas excitation conditions (i.e. Tex ≳ 50 K) in regions that are spatially correlated with the radio lobes, supporting the case for a jet–ISM interaction. An accurate study of the CO kinematics demonstrates that although the bulk of the gas is regularly rotating, two distinct non-rotational kinematic components can be identified in the inner gas regions: one can be associated to inflow/outflow streaming motions induced by a two-armed spiral perturbation; the second one is consistent with a jet-induced outflow with vmax ≈ 200 km s−1 and $\dot{M}\lesssim 0.12$ M⊙ yr−1. These values indicate that the jet-CO coupling ongoing in NGC 3100 is only mildly affecting the gas kinematics, as opposed to what expected from existing simulations and other observational studies of (sub-)kpc scale jet–cold gas interactions. HCO+(4-3) emission is tentatively detected in a small area adjacent to the base of the northern radio lobe, possibly tracing a region of jet-induced gas compression. The SiO(3-2) and HNCO(6-5) shock tracers are undetected: this – along with the tentative HCO+(4-3) detection – may be consistent with a deficiency of very dense (i.e. ncrit > 106 cm−3) cold gas in the central regions of NGC 3100.