JWST MIRI/MRS observations of hot molecular gas in an AGN host galaxy at Cosmic Noon

Kakkad, D., Mainieri, V., Tanaka, Takumi S., Silverman, John D., Law, D., Riffel, Rogemar A., Circosta, C., Bertola, E., Bianchin, M., Bischetti, M., Rivera, G. Calistro, Carniani, S., Cicone, C., Cresci, G., Costa, T., Harrison, C. M., Lamperti, I., Kalita, B., Koekemoer, Anton M., Marconi, A., Perna, M., Piconcelli, E., Puglisi, A., Ilha, Gabriele S., Tozzi, G., Vietri, G., Vignali, C., Ward, S., Zamorani, G. and Zappacosta, L. (2025) JWST MIRI/MRS observations of hot molecular gas in an AGN host galaxy at Cosmic Noon. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS), 541 (4). ISSN 0035-8711

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Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are believed to play a central role in quenching star formation by removing or destroying molecular gas from host galaxies via radiation-pressure driven outflows and/or radio jets. Some studies of cold molecular gas in galaxies at Cosmic Noon ($z\sim2$) show that AGN have less cold gas ($$10 kpc in MIRI/MRS and ALMA data, respectively and ancillary NIRCam imaging that reveals two satellite galaxies at distances of $\sim$0.4 arcsec (3.3 kpc) and $\sim$0.9 arcsec (7.4 kpc) from the AGN. Our results tentatively indicate that while the CO(3-2)-based cold gas phase dominates the molecular gas mass at Cosmic Noon, H$_{2}$ ro-vibrational transitions are effective in tracing hot molecular gas locally in regions that may lack CO emission.

Item Type	Article
Identification Number	10.1093/mnras/staf1125
Additional information	© The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords	astro-ph.ga, astro-ph.he
Date Deposited	27 Apr 2026 11:36
Last Modified	27 Apr 2026 23:04