Feedback and feeding in the context of galaxy evolution with SPICA: direct characterization of molecular outflows and inflows

E. González-Alfonso, L. Armus, F. J. Carrera, V. Charmandaris, A. Efstathiou, E. Egami, J. A. Fernández-Ontiveros, J. Fischer, G. L. Granato, C. Gruppioni, E. Hatziminaoglou, M. Imanishi, N. Isobe, H. Kaneda, D. Koziel-Wierzbowska, M. A. Malkan, J. Martin-Pintado, S. Mateos, H. Matsuhara, G. Miniutti, T. Nakagawa, F. Pozzi, F. Rico-Villas, G. Rodighiero, P. Roelfsema, L. Spinoglio, H. W. W. Spoon, E. Sturm, F. van der Tak, C. Vignali, L. Wang

Published 2017-10-06Version 1

A far-infrared observatory such as the {\it SPace Infrared telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics} ({\it SPICA}), with its unprecedented spectroscopic sensitivity, would unveil the role of feedback in galaxy evolution during the last $\sim10$ Gyr of the Universe ($z=1.5-2$), through the use of far- and mid-infrared molecular and ionic fine structure lines that trace outflowing and infalling gas. Outflowing gas is identified in the far-infrared through P-Cygni line shapes and absorption blueshifted wings in molecular lines with high dipolar moments, and through emission line wings of fine-structure lines of ionized gas. We quantify the detectability of galaxy-scale massive molecular and ionized outflows as a function of redshift in AGN-dominated, starburst-dominated, and main-sequence galaxies, explore the detectability of metal-rich inflows in the local Universe, and describe the most significant synergies with other current and future observatories that will measure feedback in galaxies via complementary tracers at other wavelengths.