A study of X-ray emission of galaxies hosting molecular outflows (MOX Sample)

We have carried out an extensive X-ray spectral analysis of a sample of galaxies exhibiting molecular outflows (MOX sample) to characterize the X-ray properties and investigate the effect of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) on the dynamical properties of the molecular outflows (MOs). We find that the X-ray bolometric correction (L 2-10 keV/L AGN) of these sources ranges from ∼10-4.5 to 10-0.5, with ∼70% of the sources below 10-2, implying a weak X-ray emission relative to the AGN bolometric luminosity (L AGN). However, the upper limit on the 2-10 keV luminosity () obtained from 12 μm flux, following the correlation derived by Asmus et al., is ∼0.5-3 orders of magnitude larger than the L 2-10 keV values estimated using X-ray spectroscopy, implying a possibility that the MOX sources host normal AGNs (not X-ray weak), and their X-ray spectra are extremely obscured. We find that both L 2-10 keV and L AGN correlate strongly with the MO velocity and the mass outflow rates (), implying that the central AGN plays an important role in driving these massive outflows. However, we also find statistically significant positive correlations between the starburst emission and MO mass outflow rate, versus , and L 0.6-2keV versus , which implies that starbursts can generate and drive the MOs. The correlations of MO velocity and with AGN luminosities are found to be stronger compared to those with the starburst luminosities. We conclude that both starbursts and AGNs play a crucial role in driving the large-scale MO.