Emission-Line Properties of 3CR Radio Galaxies III: Origins and Implications of the Velocity Fields

Abstract

We present the results of an analysis of the large scale velocity fields of the ionized gas associated with powerful radio galaxies. Long-slit spectra of 52 objects provide a sample of resolved velocities that span a wide range of redshifts, radio and emission-line luminosities. Line widths reaching 1000 km/s and resolved velocity fields with amplitudes of up 1500 km/ s are found on scales from 10 to 100 kpc in the environments of radio galaxies at redshifts larger than 0.5. The global velocities and FWHM are of comparable amplitudes in the FRII sources, while the FRI sources have FWHM values that are larger than their resolved velocity fields. We find evidence for systematically larger line widths and velocity field amplitudes at z > 0.6. Several of the largest amplitude systems contain two galaxies with small projected separations. All of the > 1000 km/s systems occur in objects at z > 0.6 and all have comparable radio and [OII] sizes. There is a weak correlation of off-nuclear line widths and velocity field with the ratio of the radio and emission-line sizes, but it is of low statistical significance and there is a very large dispersion. The change in properties at redshifts above z ~ 0.6 could reflect a difference in environments of the host galaxies, with the hosts inhabiting higher density regions with increasing redshift. The mass of ionized gas and the apparent enclosed dynamical mass are correllated and both increase steeply with redshift and/or radio power.