Lighting Up the CGM: Strong, Jet-Aligned $H\alpha$ Emission around Radio Galaxies

Abstract

A primary question within galaxy evolution is how active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback modifies the circumgalactic medium (CGM). We present a search for faint H$\alpha$ emission from the cool ionized CGM ($T\sim 10^4$ K) around radio galaxies by stacking background-quasar spectra from DESI sightlines. We take into account the projected distance and position angle of each quasar sightline relative to the radio jet axis, and test whether jet--CGM coupling is anisotropic. We detect a strong H$\alpha$ excess at $>5\sigma$ along the collimated radio jet axis ($\theta<20^\circ$) with a mean integrated flux of $1.19\times10^{-17}\ {\rm erg\ cm^{-2}\ s^{-1}}$. In contrast, the azimuthally averaged stack over all 324 sightline angles yields no detection ($<2\sigma$), indicating that this excess emission is very localized along the radio jet. We also find that the jet-aligned H$\alpha$ signal is radially structured, where the strongest emission occurs near the host galaxy just outside the optical half-light radius, and rising again near the projected radio-lobe region. The jet-aligned stacks reveal H$\alpha$ signal that is roughly 100 times brighter than normal halos. In the same sightlines however, Mg II absorption shows no difference in incidence between jet-aligned and off-axis directions, with broadly similar equivalent widths, column densities, and line widths. This striking contrast shows that while Mg II traces the ambient, clumpy cool CGM reservoir, the H$\alpha$ emission directly captures localized, low-covering-fraction clouds whose density, pressure, or ionization level has been dramatically boosted by the propagating jet. These results deliver clear evidence of localized jet-CGM interaction in radio-jetted AGNs.