Breaking the obscuring screen: A resolved molecular outflow in a buried QSO

Abstract

We present Keck laser guide star adaptive optics observations of the nearby buried quasi-stellar object (QSO) F08572+3915:NW. We use near-infrared integral field data taken with the OH-Suppressing Infra-Red Imaging Spectrograph to reveal a compact disk and molecular outflow using Paα and H2 rotational-vibrational transitions at a spatial resolution of 100 pc. The outflow emerges perpendicular to the disk into a bicone of one-sided opening angle 100° up to distances of 400 pc from the nucleus. The integrated outflow velocities, which reach at least -1300 km s-1, correspond exactly to those observed in (unresolved) OH absorption, but are smaller (larger) than those observed on larger scales in the ionized (neutral atomic) outflow. These data represent a factor of >10 improvement in the spatial resolution of molecular outflows from mergers/QSOs, and plausibly represent the early stages of the excavation of the dust screen from a buried QSO. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..