Three-dimensional integral field observations of 10 galactic winds. I. Extended phase (≳10 Myr) of mass/energy injection before the wind blows

In recent years, we have come to recognize the widespread importance of large-scale winds in the life cycle of galaxies. The onset and evolution of a galactic wind is a highly complex process which must be understood if we are to understand how energy and metals are recycled throughout the galaxy and beyond. Here we present three-dimensional spectroscopic observations of a sample of 10 nearby galaxies with the AAOmega-SPIRAL integral-field spectrograph on the 3.9 m Anglo-Australian Telescope, the largest survey of its kind to date. The double-beam spectrograph provides spatial maps in a range of spectral diagnostics: [O III]5007, Hβ, Mgb, Na D, [O I]6300, Hα, [N II]6583, [S II]6717, 6731. We demonstrate that these flows can often separate into highly ordered structures through the use of ionization diagnostics and kinematics. All of the objects in our survey show extensive wind-driven filamentation along the minor axis, in addition to large-scale disk rotation. Our sample can be divided into either starburst galaxies or active galactic nuclei (AGNs), although some objects appear to be a combination of these. The total ionizing photon budget available to both classes of galaxies is sufficient to ionize all of the wind-blown filamentation out to large radius. We find, however, that while AGN photoionization always dominates in the wind filaments, this is not the case in starburst galaxies where shock ionization dominates. This clearly indicates that after the onset of star formation, there is a substantial delay (≳10 Myr) before a starburst wind develops. We show why this behavior is expected by deriving "ionization" and dynamical timescales for both AGNs and starbursts. We establish a sequence of events that lead to the onset of a galactic wind. The clear signature provided by the ionization timescale is arguably the strongest evidence yet that the starburst phenomenon is an impulsive event. A well-defined ionization timescale is not expected in galaxies with a protracted history of circumnuclear star formation. Our three-dimensional data provide important templates for comparisons with high-redshift galaxies.