The location and impact of jet-driven outflows of cold gas: The case of 3C 293

The nearby radio galaxy 3C 293 is one of a small group of objects where extreme outflows of neutral hydrogen have been detected. However, due to the limited spatial resolution of previous observations, the exact location of the outflow was not able to be determined. In this Letter, we present new higher resolution Very Large Array observations of the central regions of this radio source and detect a fast outflow of H I with a full width at zero intensity velocity of Δv ˜ 1200 km s-1 associated with the inner radio jet, approximately 0.5 kpc west of the central core. We investigate possible mechanisms which could produce the observed H I outflow and conclude that it is driven by the radio jet. However, this outflow of neutral hydrogen is located on the opposite side of the nucleus to the outflow of ionized gas previously detected in this object. We calculate a mass outflow rate in the range of 8-50 M⊙ yr-1 corresponding to a kinetic energy power injected back into the interstellar medium of 1.38 × 1042 - 1.00 × 1043 erg s-1 or 0.01-0.08 per cent of the Eddington luminosity. This places it just outside the range required by some galaxy evolution simulations for negative feedback from the AGN to be effective in halting star formation within the galaxy.