Quasar Feedback in the Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxy F11119+3257: Connecting the Accretion Disk Wind with the Large-scale Molecular Outflow

In Tombesi et al., we reported the first direct evidence for a quasar accretion disk wind driving a massive (>100 M _⊙ yr⁻¹) molecular outflow. The target was F11119+3257, an ultraluminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) with unambiguous type 1 quasar optical broad emission lines. The energetics of the accretion disk wind and molecular outflow were found to be consistent with the predictions of quasar feedback models where the molecular outflow is driven by a hot energy-conserving bubble inflated by the inner quasar accretion disk wind. However, this conclusion was uncertain because the mass outflow rate, momentum flux, and mechanical power of the outflowing molecular gas were estimated from the optically thick OH 119 μm transition profile observed with Herschel. Here, we independently confirm the presence of the molecular outflow in F11119+3257, based on the detection of ∼±1000 km s⁻¹ blue- and redshifted wings in the CO(1−0) emission line profile derived from deep ALMA observations obtained in the compact array configuration (∼2.″8 resolution). The broad CO(1−0) line emission appears to be spatially extended on a scale of at least ∼7 kpc from the center. Mass outflow rate, momentum flux, and mechanical power of (80–200) $R_7^{-1}$ M _⊙ yr⁻¹, (1.5–3.0) $R_7^{-1}$ L _AGN/c, and (0.15–0.40)% $R_7^{-1}$ $L_{AGN}$, respectively, are inferred from these data, assuming a CO-to-H₂ conversion factor appropriate for a ULIRG (R ₇ is the radius of the outflow normalized to 7 kpc, and L _AGN is the AGN luminosity). These rates are time-averaged over a flow timescale of 7 × 10⁶ yr. They are similar to the OH-based rates time-averaged over a flow timescale of 4 × 10⁵ yr, but about a factor of 4 smaller than the local ("instantaneous"; ≲10⁵ yr) OH-based estimates cited in Tombesi et al. The implications of these new results are discussed in the context of time-variable quasar-mode feedback and galaxy evolution. The need for an energy-conserving bubble to explain the molecular outflow is also reexamined.