# GOALS-JWST: Gas Dynamics and Excitation in NGC 7469 revealed by NIRSpec

Marina Bianchin IAU-Gruber Foundation Fellow  4129 Frederick Reines Hall,
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, CA
92697, USA<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Vivian U 4129 Frederick Reines Hall, Department
of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
Yiqing Song European Southern Observatory, Alonso de Córdova, 3107, Vitacura,
Santiago, 763-0355, Chile  Joint ALMA Observatory, Alonso de Córdova, 3107,
Vitacura, Santiago, 763-0355, Chile  Thomas S.-Y. Lai (賴劭愉) IPAC, California
Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125  Raymond
P. Remigio 4129 Frederick Reines Hall, Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA  Loreto Barcos-Muñoz National
Radio Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA, 22903,
USA  Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, 530 McCormick Road,
Charlottesville, VA, 22903, USA  Tanio Díaz-Santos Institute of Astrophysics,
Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), Heraklion, 70013,
Greece  School of Sciences, European University Cyprus, Diogenes street,
Engomi, 1516 Nicosia, Cyprus  Lee Armus IPAC, California Institute of
Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125  Hanae Inami
Hiroshima Astrophysical Science Center, Hiroshima University, 1-3-1
Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8526, Japan  Kirsten L. Larson
AURA for the European Space Agency (ESA), Space Telescope Science Institute,
3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA  Aaron S. Evans National Radio
Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA, 22903, USA
Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, 530 McCormick Road,
Charlottesville, VA, 22903, USA  Torsten Böker European Space Agency, c/o
STScI, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA  Justin A. Kader 4129
Frederick Reines Hall, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of
California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA  Sean T. Linden Department of Astronomy,
University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA  Vassilis
Charmandaris Institute of Astrophysics, Foundation for Research and
Technology-Hellas (FORTH), Heraklion, 70013, Greece  School of Sciences,
European University Cyprus, Diogenes street, Engomi, 1516 Nicosia, Cyprus
Department of Physics, University of Crete, Heraklion, 71003, Greece  Matthew
A. Malkan Department of Physics & Astronomy, 430 Portola Plaza, University of
California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA  Jeff Rich The Observatories of the
Carnegie Institution for Science, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101
Thomas Bohn Hiroshima Astrophysical Science Center, Hiroshima University,
1-3-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8526, Japan  Anne M.
Medling Department of Physics & Astronomy and Ritter Astrophysical Research
Center, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH 43606,USA  ARC Centre of Excellence
for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D), Australia  Sabrina
Stierwalt Physics Department, 1600 Campus Road, Occidental College, Los
Angeles, CA 90041, USA  Joseph M. Mazzarella IPAC, California Institute of
Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125  David R. Law Space
Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
George C. Privon National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Road,
Charlottesville, VA, 22903, USA  Department of Astronomy, University of
Virginia, 530 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA, 22903, USA  Department of
Astronomy, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA  Susanne Aalto
Department of Space, Earth and Environment, Chalmers University of Technology,
412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden  Philip Appleton  IPAC, California Institute of
Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125  Michael J. I. Brown
Victorine A. Buiten  Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300
RA Leiden, The Netherlands  Luke Finnerty Department of Physics & Astronomy,
430 Portola Plaza, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Christopher C. Hayward Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron
Institute, 162 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10010, USA  Justin Howell IPAC,
California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA
91125  Kazushi Iwasawa ICREA, Pg. Lluís Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain
Institut de Ciències del Cosmos (ICCUB), Universitat de Barcelona (IEEC-UB),
Martí i Franquès, 1, 08028 Barcelona, Spain  Francisca Kemper Institut de
Ciències de l’Espai (ICE, CSIC), Can Magrans, s/n, E-08193 Cerdanyola del
Vallès, Barcelona, Spain  ICREA, Pg. Lluís Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain
Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC), E-08034 Barcelona, Spain
Jason Marshall  Glendale Community College, 1500 N. Verdugo Rd., Glendale, CA
91208  Jed McKinney  Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts at
Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA  Francisco Müller-Sánchez Department of
Physics and Materials Science, The University of Memphis, 3720 Alumni Avenue,
Memphis, TN 38152, USA  Eric J. Murphy National Radio Astronomy Observatory,
520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA, 22903, USA  Paul P. van der Werf
Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The
Netherlands  David B. Sanders Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii,
2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA  Jason Surace IPAC, California
Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125

###### Abstract

We present new JWST-NIRSpec IFS data for the luminous infrared galaxy NGC
7469: a nearby (70.6 Mpc) active galaxy with a Sy 1.5 nucleus that drives a
highly ionized gas outflow and a prominent nuclear star-forming ring. Using
the superb sensitivity and high spatial resolution of the JWST instrument
NIRSpec-IFS, we investigate the role of the Seyfert nucleus in the excitation
and dynamics of the circumnuclear gas. Our analysis focuses on the [Fe ii],
H2, and hydrogen recombination lines that trace the radiation/shocked-excited
molecular and ionized ISM around the AGN. We investigate the gas excitation
through H2/Br$\gamma$ and [Fe ii]/Pa$\beta$ emission line ratios and find that
photoionization by the AGN dominates within the central 300 pc of the galaxy
except in a small region that shows signatures of shock-heated gas; these
shock-heated regions are likely associated with a compact radio jet. In
addition, the velocity field and velocity dispersion maps reveal complex gas
kinematics. Rotation is the dominant feature, but we also identify non-
circular motions consistent with gas inflows as traced by the velocity
residuals and the spiral pattern in the Pa$\alpha$ velocity dispersion map.
The inflow is two orders of magnitude higher than the AGN accretion rate. The
compact nuclear radio jet has enough power to drive the highly ionized
outflow. This scenario suggests that the inflow and outflow are in a self-
regulating feeding-feedback process, with a contribution from the radio jet
helping to drive the outflow.

††facilities: JWST (NIRSpec IFU and NIRCam), HST (WFC3), MAST, NED.††software:
Astropy (Astropy Collaboration et al., 2013, 2018, 2022), IFSCUBE (Ruschel-
Dutra & Dall’Agnol De Oliveira, 2020; Ruschel-Dutra et al., 2021), JWST
Science Calibration (Bushouse et al., 2022), Matplotlib (Hunter, 2007),
QFitsView (Ott, 2012), SciPy (Virtanen et al., 2020).

##  1 Introduction

Luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) are systems with high infrared luminosities
($L_{\rm IR}\geq 10^{11}L_{\odot}$) that, in the nearby universe, are mostly
major mergers (Sanders & Mirabel, 1996). These galaxies host extreme
environments where both starburst and nuclear activity play a significant role
in shaping their evolution (e.g. Hekatelyne et al., 2020). Spatially resolved
studies show that the gas excitation in LIRGs and their ultraluminous
counterparts (ULIRGs, $L_{\rm IR}\geq 10^{12}L_{\odot}$) is governed by a
mixture of processes typical of active galactic nuclei (AGN, sometimes hidden
behind large amounts of dust with $A_{V}$ up to $\sim 40$; U et al., 2019;
Pérez-Torres et al., 2021), star-forming regions, and shocked gas (e.g. Rich
et al., 2015; Hekatelyne et al., 2020).

The gas dynamics in (U)LIRGs are often heavily impacted by the interaction
with other galaxies, the presence of AGNs and/or Starbursts. Evidence for this
comes from the detection of outflows on a variety of physical scales and gas
phases: cold (Feruglio et al., 2010; Xu et al., 2014; Veilleux et al., 2017;
Falstad et al., 2018; Barcos-Muñoz et al., 2018; Lutz et al., 2020; Pereira-
Santaella et al., 2020) and hot molecular gas (U et al., 2013, 2019; Medling
et al., 2015; Riffel et al., 2020; Motter et al., 2021), as well as
moderately- (Rich et al., 2012, 2014; Arribas et al., 2014; Rich et al., 2015;
Robleto-Orús et al., 2021; Xu & Wang, 2022) and highly-ionized gas (Rodríguez-
Ardila et al., 2006; Müller-Sánchez et al., 2011; U et al., 2022; Armus et
al., 2023) and neutral gas (Rupke & Veilleux, 2011; Morganti et al., 2016; Su
et al., 2023). Streaming motions, such as gas inflows, toward the nuclear
regions of ULIRGs have also been detected in some sources (Hekatelyne et al.,
2018; Medling et al., 2019; Aalto et al., 2019; González-Alfonso et al.,
2021). These inflows may act in providing the fuel necessary to trigger and
feed the AGN.

NGC 7469 hosts a Type I active nucleus (Osterbrock, 1977; Peterson et al.,
2014) sub-classified as Seyfert 1.5 (Landt et al., 2008) located at 70.6 Mpc
($z=0.01627$) with a (R’)SAB(rs)a morphology (de Vaucouleurs et al., 1991).
The central kiloparsec region of NGC 7469 shows a bright AGN surrounded by a
star-forming ring (e.g. Davies et al., 2004; Díaz-Santos et al., 2007; Song et
al., 2021). The ring has inner and outer radii of 330 pc and 616 pc (see Fig.
1) with a bimodal stellar population as seen from HST imaging (Díaz-Santos et
al., 2007) with a star formation rate of $\sim 22$ M⊙yr-1 estimated from the
radio continuum (Song et al., 2021) consistent with $10-30$ M⊙yr-1 estimated
from the recombination, [Neii], and [Neiii] (Lai et al., 2022). _JWST_ NIRCam
(Rieke et al., 2023) and MIRI (Bouchet et al., 2015) imaging reveal previously
undetected embedded stellar clusters with colors that suggest stellar ages of
$<5$ Myr (Bohn et al., 2023). The H2/PAH ratio, which measures the excess H2
relative to PAHs, is within the range of values from normal photo-dissociation
models implying that the ring is not currently being affected by AGN feedback
(Lai et al., 2022).

NGC 7469 hosts a nuclear outflow traced by highly ionized gas as evidenced in
the _JWST_ MIRI MRS observations (U et al., 2022; Armus et al., 2023) and in
the Near-IR via the [Si vi] $1.96\mu$m emission line (Müller-Sánchez et al.,
2011), and by the moderately ionized gas also traced by MIRI MRS (Zhang & Ho,
2023). This outflow has an extent of 400-600 pc and affects mostly the region
located between the nucleus and the ring, referred to as the inner
interstellar medium (inner-ISM). The outflow has a stratified and decelerating
structure as evidenced by highly blueshifted wings on the coronal emission
lines (Armus et al., 2023). The warm molecular gas shows enhanced velocity
dispersion to the northwest of the central AGN, suggestive of the presence of
shocked gas (U et al., 2022). Considering the richness of physical phenomena
in its inner kiloparsec region, NGC 7469 is an ideal target to investigate the
AGN–starburst–ISM interaction.

In this paper, we report the morphology, kinematics, and excitation of the
ionized atomic and hot ($\sim 1000$ K) molecular gas in the central region of
NGC 7469 as observed by _JWST_ (Rigby et al., 2023, and references therein)
with the NIRSpec instrument in its integral field spectroscopy (IFS) mode. We
describe the observations and data reduction in Section 2 and our results in
Section 3. We discuss the kinematics and gas excitation in Section 4 and
present our conclusions in Section 5.

Figure 1: _Left: HST_ (F110W) and _JWST_ (F150W and F200W) color composite
image of NGC 7469 (Bohn et al., 2023). North is up and East to the left as
indicated by the compass in the bottom left. Bright stellar clusters are
detected throughout the starburst ringThe cyan rectangle indicates the
combined FoV of our dithered NIRSpec observations ($4.2\arcsec\times
4.8\arcsec$). 1$\arcsec$ corresponds to 330 pc at the distance of the galaxy.
The right panels show extracted NIRSpec spectra from the nucleus with a radius
of 0.4 arcsec (black) and the star formating ring with inner and outer radius
of 1 arcsec and 1.8 arcsec (blue). These extractions correspond to the black-
filled circle and the dashed blue annulus in the galaxy image. The red,
orange, and light blue lines indicate the location of the high ionization
(coronal), the ionized, and molecular emission lines, respectively. The
spectra were arbitrarily scaled for visualization purposes to differentiate
between the nuclear and the star-forming ring spectra. The first shows the
broad lines, typical of Type 1 nuclei, in the permitted emission lines as the
Hydrogen and Helium recombination lines, high ionization coronal lines
indicated by the red markers, and other emission lines as [Fe ii] and H2. The
latter is dominated by narrow lines, a prominent PAH feature at $3.3\mu$m and
the aliphatic at 3.4$\mu$m, CO stellar absorption features, and a CO2
absorption.

##  2 Data

###  2.1 _JWST_ -NIRSpec Observations

NGC 7469 was observed with the NIRSpec IFS (Böker et al., 2022; Jakobsen et
al., 2022) on July 19th 2022 UT as part of the _JWST_ Director Discretionary
Time Early Release Science (DD-ERS) program (PID: 1328, PIs Lee Armus & Aaron
Evans). We employed NIRSpec in the high resolution mode ($R\approx 2700$,
corresponding to a velocity resolution of $\approx 110$ km s-1) in three
grating/filter combinations — G140H/F100LP, G235H/F170LP, G395H/F290LP —
covering the wavelength range of 0.97 to 5.27$\mu$m with a nominal field of
view (FoV) of $3\arcsec\times 3$″ (see Figure 1). In order to fully cover the
star-forming ring ($\sim 4\arcsec$ across), we used the large cycling four-
point dither pattern, which provides a FoV of $4.2\arcsec\times 4.8\arcsec$
corresponding to $1.4\times 1.6$ kpc2 at the distance of NGC 7469 (Fig. 1).
For extended targets, MSA leakage correction (leakcal) exposures are necessary
to account for the leakage from the permanently open micro-shutters. While
observing NGC 7469, we used the same dither pattern for the leakcals as we did
for the science observations. The science exposure times in each
grating/filter combination is 817 s and the total observing time, including
the leakcals and overheads, is 10.5 ks.

###  2.2 Data reduction

We reduce the level-1 data downloaded from MAST using the JWST pipeline
version 1.8.3 (Bushouse et al., 2022) in batch mode. The reference files
follow the context version jwst_12027.pmap. The first reduction step is
Detector1, which generates rate files with detector level correction applied
to them. Both science and leakage calibration files are processed at the
Detector1 step. The second reduction step for spectroscopic data is Spec2,
which applies the distortion, wavelength, and flux calibrations, and other 2D
corrections to the science data, including the leakage subtraction.

The outlier rejection algorithm is not efficient in the current version of the
pipeline. Most of the outliers have fluxes higher than the typical flux of the
brighter emission lines or show negative flux values. We optimized the outlier
rejection by flagging spectral pixels that showed clear contamination in the
calibrated science frames (Hutchison et al., 2023). These corrected frames are
then fed to the last reduction step Spec3 that builds the data cubes by
combining individual exposures taken at each dither position. We obtain three
data cubes corresponding to each grating and filter combination: G140H/100LP,
G235H/170LP and G395H/290LP.

In order to correct the pipeline-processed cubes for astrometry we adopt the
peak of the continuum in each cube as the position of the nucleus. We then
modify the NIRSpec-IFS data cube headers to align with the continuum peak of
CH1-short MIRI-MRS cube. Our final datacubes have a spatial resolution of
$0.14\arcsec$ at $1.12\mu$m as obtained from the FWHM of the O i $1.12\mu$m
emission line image, allowing us to resolve structures down to $\sim 50$ pc at
this wavelength. The spatial resolution is poorer at longer wavelengths, as
demonstrated by Lai et al. (2023) that measure a spatial resolution of
$0.19\arcsec$ for the dust features at 3.3$\mu$m.

Figure 2: Flux (top row, in erg s-1 cm-2, logarithmic scale), velocity (middle
row, in km s-1) and velocity dispersion (bottom row, in km s-1) of three
emission lines: [Fe ii] 1.257$\mu$m, Pa$\alpha$ and H2 2.1218$\mu$m. The cross
indicates the position of the nucleus across all the panels. North is up and
East to left. A connection between the ring and the nucleus, to the southeast
of the latter, is observed in the Pa$\alpha$ flux map. The gas motions are
dominated by rotation, but non-circular motions also contribute to the gas
dynamics as evidenced by the excesses of blueshift and redshifts to the
southeast and northwest of the nucleus, respectively, and regions with
enhanced velocity dispersion close to the nucleus, but with different
morphologies for the three emission lines. The locations of the enhanced
velocity dispersion are signatures of gas disturbed by the outflow, for [Fe
ii] and H2, or gas heated by friction in an inflow, for the Pa$\alpha$. See
Sec. 4.2 for the discussion.

##  3 Analysis and results

The right panels of Fig. 1 show two spectra extracted from the nucleus
($0.4\arcsec$ radius, in black) and from the star-forming ring
($1\arcsec-1.8\arcsec$ radii, in blue) in NGC 7469. In the nuclear spectrum,
we detect prominent emission from the Hydrogen (H) recombination lines,
particularly broad components in the Paschen series, and permitted lines such
as O i and He ii. This broad component may be associated with the broad line
region (BLR) of AGNs and is typical of type 1 sources. The nuclear spectrum
also features coronal lines such as in [Si vii] and [Mg viii] with blueshifted
profiles, similar to observations of higher ionization coronal lines from
Armus et al. (2023), indicative of gas outflows. Narrow lines such as [Fe ii],
H2 , and the PAH band at 3.3$\mu$m are only weakly detected. The strong
continuum radiation from the AGN might be the cause for the reduced equivalent
width of these lines at the nucleus. On the other hand, PAH features and CO
absorption bands are featured prominently in the ring spectrum, while coronal
lines and the broad component of the H recombination lines disappear. We also
see other ionized gas species such as [P ii] and [Fe ii], as well as various
H2 transitions in the ring. Tables 1, 2, 3 present the emission line
integrated fluxes for each grating in both nuclear and ring extractions. The
fluxes are obtained by fitting one, or two in the case of recombination and
coronal lines, Gaussian functions to each line, and a polynomial to the
continuum. Only the lines with at least a $3\sigma$ detection in each
extraction are included. The fluxes of the 3.3$\mu$m PAH and aliphatic feature
are part of our companion paper Lai et al. (2023), which discusses the dust
grain distribution in NGC 7469 in detail.

For the present paper, we focus our analysis on a subset of the emission lines
observed (i.e. [Fe ii], H2, and the H i lines) to highlight the conditions of
the multiphase ISM.

Table 1: Emission Line Fluxes in the nucleus and SF ring in the G140H grating.

Line | $\lambda_{rest}$ | IP | Nucleus | Ring
---|---|---|---|---
[C I] | 0.985 |  | $4.56\pm 0.75$ | $2.35\pm 0.82$
Pa$\delta$ | 1.005 |  | $77.18\pm 8.31$ | $14.81\pm 1.51$
He II | 1.012 | 24.6 | $22.9\pm 7.4$ |
He I | 1.083 |  | $451.52\pm 2.03$ | $57.86\pm 3.54$
Pa$\gamma$ | 1.094 |  | $122.67\pm 2.02$ | $31.64\pm 2.7$
O I | 1.129 |  | $36.86\pm 1.57$ |
$\rm\left[P~{}II\right]$ | 1.147 | 10.5 |  | $2.88\pm 1.24$
$\rm\left[P~{}II\right]$ | 1.188 | 10.5 | $2.44\pm 0.07$ | $5.26\pm 1.24$
$\rm\left[S~{}IX\right]$ | 1.252 | 328.8 | $4.46\pm 0.39$ |
$\rm\left[Fe~{}II\right]$ | 1.257 | 7.9 | $6.62\pm 0.24$ | $27.15\pm 1.19$
Pa$\beta$ | 1.281 |  | $153.6\pm 1.84$ | $75.52\pm 1.1$
$\rm\left[Fe~{}II\right]$ | 1.321 | 7.9 | $3.24\pm 0.36$ | $8.52\pm 2.25$
$\rm\left[Fe~{}II\right]$ | 1.372 | 7.9 |  | $4.6\pm 2.25$
$\rm\left[Fe~{}II\right]$ | 1.644 | 7.9 | $6.76\pm 1.37$ | $25.56\pm 0.25$

Note. — Rest wavelengths ($\lambda_{rest}$) are in units of $\mu$m, ionization
potentials (IPs) in eV and all fluxes are in 10-15 erg s-1 cm-2.

Table 2: Emission Line Flux Densities in the nucleus and SF ring in the G235H
grating.

Line | $\lambda_{rest}$ | IP | Nucleus | Ring
---|---|---|---|---
Br10 | 1.7636 |  |  | $6.94\pm 1.39$
H21-0S(5) | 1.835 |  |  | $2.97\pm 1.61$
Pa$\alpha$ | 1.875 |  | $224.31\pm 0.23$ | $246.57\pm 1.28$
Br$\delta$ | 1.945 |  |  | $9.84\pm 1.28$
H21-0S(3) | 1.957 |  | $7.65\pm 0.03$ | $7.48\pm 1.49$
$\rm\left[Si~{}VI\right]$ | 1.963 | 166.8 | $14.35\pm 0.06$ |
H21-0S(2) | 2.033 |  |  | $3.69\pm 1.51$
He I | 2.058 |  | $1.9\pm 0.09$ | $6.59\pm 0.97$
H21-0S(1) | 2.122 |  | $7.39\pm 0.41$ | $11.23\pm 1.4$
Br$\gamma$ | 2.166 |  | $30.44\pm 2.67$ | $24.51\pm 1.21$
H21-0S(0) | 2.223 |  |  | $6.77\pm 1.4$
H21-0Q(5) | 2.454 |  | $2.99\pm 0.61$ |
$\rm\left[Si~{}VII\right]$ | 2.483 | 205.3 | $17.93\pm 0.96$ |
Br$\beta$ | 2.625 |  | $36.99\pm 6.84$ | $44.29\pm 1.85$
H21-0O(3) | 2.802 |  |  | $7.75\pm 2.15$
$\rm\left[Mg~{}VIII\right]$ | 3.027 | 225.2 | $17.07\pm 0.28$ |
Pf$\zeta$ | 3.039 |  |  | $3.68\pm 1.25$

Note. — Rest wavelengths ($\lambda_{rest}$) are in units of $\mu$m, ionization
potentials (IPs) in eV and all fluxes are in 10-15 erg s-1 cm-2.

Table 3: Emission Line Flux Densities in the nucleus and SF ring in the G395H
grating.

Line | $\lambda_{rest}$ | IP | Nucleus | Ring
---|---|---|---|---
H21-0O(5) | 3.235 |  |  | $5.3\pm 0.59$
Pf$\epsilon$ | 3.297 |  |  | $5.17\pm 1.68$
Pf$\delta$ | 3.740 |  | $12.36\pm 2.98$ | $10.56\pm 0.2$
H20-0S(11) | 4.181 |  | $2.07\pm 0.15$ | $2.81\pm 0.25$
Hu12 | 4.376 |  |  | $3.1\pm 0.38$
$\rm\left[Mg~{}IV\right]$ | 4.486 | 80.1 | $13.51\pm 0.59$ | $0.79\pm 0.22$
$\rm\left[Ar~{}VI\right]$ | 4.529 | 74.8 | $8.97\pm 0.57$ |
Pf$\gamma$ | 4.653 |  | $1.34\pm 0.32$ | $18.56\pm 0.25$
Hu$\epsilon$ | 4.672 |  |  | $2.59\pm 0.25$
H20-0S(9) | 4.694 |  | $3.29\pm 0.27$ | $5.38\pm 0.25$
H20-0S(8) | 5.053 |  | $1.31\pm 0.27$ | $2.49\pm 0.1$
Hu$\delta$ | 5.128 |  |  | $3.27\pm 0.1$

Note. — Rest wavelengths ($\lambda_{rest}$) are in units of $\mu$m, ionization
potentials (IPs) in eV and all fluxes are in 10-15 erg s-1 cm-2.

Due to the under-sampling of the point spread function (PSF) in the NIRSpec
IFS mode, the per-spaxel spectra in the nuclear region exhibit a wiggly
pattern that is different from the fringes characteristic of 1d spectra
extracted from MRS data. To mitigate this effect, we use a spectrum averaged
over an aperture with a radius of $0.2\arcsec$ as representative of the
nuclear region. The chosen aperture size is motivated by the size of the PSF.

In order to obtain emission line moment maps, we use the Python package
IFSCUBE (Ruschel-Dutra & Dall’Agnol De Oliveira, 2020; Ruschel-Dutra et al.,
2021) to fit the emission lines of interest and with Gaussian functions and
underlying continuum with a polynomial function in each spaxel of the data
cube. We fit a broad component ($\sigma\approx 890$ km s-1 at systemic
velocity, corresponding to $FWHM\approx 2095$ km s-1 in agreement with Lu et
al., 2021)typical of Type 1 AGNs, and a narrow component to the hydrogen
recombination lines. In the case of the Pa$\alpha$ line, an extra component
was necessary to reproduce the broad ($\sigma\approx 800$ km s-1) emission
line observed beyond the PSF extension, likely associated with a gas outflow.
A single narrow component is enough to reproduce the emission line profiles of
the forbidden and molecular hydrogen lines. A third-degree polynomial
reproduced the underlying continuum at the gratings G140H and G235H. The
fitting in each grating is performed independently, but within each grating,
we tie the systemic velocity and velocity dispersion of the lines that trace
the same gas phase.

###  3.1 Flux and Line Ratios

The resulting moment maps from our spectral fitting procedure for three
emission lines representative of the atomic ionized — [Fe ii] $1.257\mu$m and
Pa$\alpha$ — and the molecular gas — H2 $2.12\mu$m — phases are shown in
Figure 2. Both [Fe ii] and Pa$\alpha$ have low ionization potentials, with IP
= 7.9 eV and 13.6 eV, respectively, and the integrated flux maps show that
they trace the star-forming ring and the point source at the nucleus. The ring
has knots of star formation to the North, West, and South, but is fainter and
more flocculent to the East of the nucleus. The 0$\farcs$2 resolution from
NIRSpec, at 1.9$\mu$m, reveals a tail southeast of the nucleus in the inner
ISM region that, in projection, connects the ring to the AGN as seen in the
Pa$\alpha$ flux map (see Fig. 2). The inner ISM region has surface brightness
around an order of magnitude lower than the ring and the nucleus, indicating
that the excitation/heating of the gas might be different in this region. The
H2 flux is more concentrated at the center where the peak of the emission is
also observed. It does not show a ring-like pattern; instead, it displays a
more extended and diffuse morphology, resembling a spiral arm to the Southwest
as previously noticed in the warm molecular phase with MIRI (U et al., 2022)
and cool CO gas (Davies et al., 2004). Both H2 $2.12\mu$m and H2 $1.95\mu$m
fluxes have this distribution.

In order to investigate the origin of the gas emitted in the central region of
NGC 7469, we create emission line ratio maps of H2/Br$\gamma$ and [Fe ii]
$1.257\mu$m/Pa$\beta$ (Fig. 3, panels (a) and (b)) which are insensitive to
extinction. The ring shows low line ratio values of $\sim 0.5$ for both
H2/Br$\gamma$ and [Fe ii] $1.257\mu$m/Pa$\beta$. The H2/Br$\gamma$ has the
highest values ($\sim 3.5$) at the nucleus and in the western inner ISM
region. The [Fe ii]/Pa$\beta$ is also the highest in the latter. The gray
regions correspond to spaxels where at least one of the two lines in the ratio
has a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) lower than 2. In the inner-ISM region, the
low SNR spaxels are attributed to Pa$\beta$ and Br$\gamma$ non-detections.

Figure 3: Line ratio diagnostics in the near-IR: H2 2.1218$\mu$m/Br$\gamma$
(a) and [Fe ii] 1.257$\mu$m/Pa$\beta$ (b). Given that the Pa$\beta$ and
Br$\gamma$ lines in the inner-ISM region are only marginally detected
(SNR$<2$), lower limits of the H2/Br$\gamma$ and [Fe ii]/Pa$\beta$ ratios are
estimated using the values inside the blue boxes and presented as the star
symbols in the near-IR excitation diagnostic diagram (c). The bottom panels
show the near-IR excitation diagram ((c); adapted from Riffel et al., 2013)
and the corresponding spatial location of spaxels dominated by different
excitation (d). The spaxels are color-coded by their location on the
excitation diagram: star formation (SF), AGN low excitation (LE), AGN high
excitation (HE), and shocks. The line ratios encompass the complexity of the
gas excitation in the inner kiloparsec of NGC 7469, where evidence of star
formation and, the AGN radiation field and high excitation due to shocks are
present. The typical uncertainties in both line ratios are indicated in the
top right corner of panel (c).

The excitation diagram (Figure 3 (c)) shows data points based on the emission
line ratios presented in panels (a) and (b). To distinguish among the
different mechanisms that regulate these line ratios, we use the thresholds
derived by Riffel et al. (2013), and color-code the spaxels depending on their
location on the excitation diagram (panel (d)). These boundaries are derived
from analyzing single-slit spectra of galaxies previously classified as
starbursts, AGN hosts, or shock-dominated sources such as LINERS. The division
between AGN low excitation (LE) and AGN high excitation (HE) is motivated by
allowing for a finer sampling of the AGN influence on spatial scales. We use
[Fe ii] $1.257\mu$m / Pa$\beta$ $=1$ and H2 $2.12\mu$m / Br$\gamma$ $=2$ as
adopted by Riffel et al. (2021b) which are arbitrary.

Since the recombination lines have low fluxes at the inner-ISM region and the
H2 is detected at the same region, we expect high line ratios in the western
part of the nucleus. The blue box overlaid in the line ratio maps indicates
the region where we extracted average spectra for the G140H and G235H
gratings. From these spectra, we obtain upper limits for the Br$\gamma$ and
Pa$\beta$ emission lines. The ratios are then obtained using the flux per
spaxel from our H2 and [Fe ii] maps and are plotted on the excitation diagram
as stars indicating they are lower limits on the H2 2.12$\mu$m/Br$\gamma$
ratio.

Applying the color-coding from the excitation diagram to the excitation map
(Figure 3 panel (d)), we find that the spaxels with the largest flux ratios
are consistent with photoionization by the AGN. A small number of spaxels may
be shock excited. The inner ISM region has line ratios consistent excitation
by the AGN radiation field and by shocks. With the exception of the
starforming ring itself, the bulk of the ISM probed by the NIRSpec IFS is
photoionized by the AGN.

###  3.2 Velocity and velocity dispersion

In the [Fe ii] $1.257\mu$m, Pa$\alpha$ and H2 $2.1218\mu$m velocity fields
(middle row of Figure 2), rotation is the dominant feature, with amplitudes of
up to 150 km s-1. The rotating disk of hot H2 we measure was first detected
with adaptive optics spectroscopy on the Keck telescope (Hicks & Malkan,
2008). That study found similar rotation velocities to what we see: 100 km s-1
or more out to a radius of about $0.8\arcsec$, almost reaching the starburst
ring. Small-scale kinematic features are also observed as excess blueshifts to
the southeast and redshifts to the northwest of the nucleus. The velocity
field for Pa$\beta$ (not presented here) shows very similar kinematics and gas
distribution as those of Pa$\alpha$, although with a lower SNR.

The velocity dispersion maps show some interesting features previously seen at
lower resolution in the MIRI-MRS data (U et al., 2022). The ring and outer
parts have low dispersion values ($\sim 60-80$ km s-1) indicating that they
are dominated by rotation. In the inner ISM region, we see differences between
the gas species. The [Fe ii] velocity dispersion map shows an arc-shaped
structure with the highest values ($\sigma\approx 140$ km s-1) to the west of
the nucleus. For the Pa$\alpha$ we also see arc-shaped structures peaking in
two different regions, to the northeast and southwest of the nucleus, with a
dual-spiral pattern. Each of the spirals is located $\sim 0.6\arcsec$
($\approx 200$ pc) away from the nucleus. We investigate the nature of this
feature in Section 4.2. The H2 velocity dispersion map displays higher values
($\sigma\approx 120$ km s-1) extending $0.9\arcsec$ northwest of the nucleus.
This feature is also seen in the H2 $1.95\mu$m velocity dispersion map (not
presented here). The fan-shaped feature is consistent with the regions of
enhanced H2 dispersion seen with MIRI-MRS (U et al., 2022) but at a higher
spatial resolution.

Figure 4: (Left to right) Observed Pa$\alpha$ velocity field, modeled velocity
field with rotation described by a thin disk model, and the residual map from
the difference between the observed and modeled velocity fields. The dashed
line indicates the direction of the galaxy’s kinematic major axis. The Near
and Far sides of the disk are labeled, and the arrows indicate the location of
gas that does not follow the galactic rotation and may be inflowing to the
nucleus. The contours show the regions of increased velocity dispersion in
Pa$\alpha$.

One way of investigating the non-rotational motions is by fitting the velocity
fields with a rotating disk model that assumes the gas particles have circular
orbits. We adopt the model described by the following equation (Bertola et
al., 1991):

$\displaystyle V=V_{\rm sys}+$
$\displaystyle\frac{AR\cos(\psi-\psi_{0})\sin\theta\cos^{p}\theta}{\\{R^{2}[\sin^{2}{(\psi-\psi_{0})}+\cos^{2}(\theta)\cos^{2}{(\psi-\psi_{0})}]+C_{0}\cos^{2}{\theta}\\}^{p/2}},$

where $V_{sys}$ is the systemic velocity of the galaxy, $R$ is the distance of
each pixel to the center of rotation, $A$ is the velocity amplitude, $\psi$ is
the position angle of each spaxel, $\psi_{0}$ is the PA of the line of the
nodes, i.e. the kinematical major axis, and $\theta$ is the inclination of the
disk. The parameter $p$ is the slope of the rotation curve, varying from 1 for
an asymptotically flat rotation curve to 1.5 for a system with finite mass,
and $C_{0}$ is the concentration parameter, the radius where the velocity
reaches 70% of the velocity amplitude.

We fit this model to the Pa$\alpha$ velocity field as this emission line has
the most interesting structure. The fitting is performed using the non-linear
least-square minimization routine mpfit2dfun (Markwardt, 2009). The
combination of parameters that best describe the velocity field are
$A=476.9\pm 6.09$ km s-1, $V_{sys}=13.29\pm 0.41$ km s-1 and $C_{0}=0.53\pm
0.01$ arcsec, $\psi_{0}=128.81^{\circ}\pm 0.38$ and $\theta=15.97^{\circ}\pm
0.28$. The position of the center of rotation is adopted as the position of
the nucleus, and $p=1.5$ are fixed during the fitting. Previous studies have
estimated similar values for $\Psi_{0}$ (Davies et al., 2004; Hicks & Malkan,
2008; U et al., 2022) and $\theta$ (Hicks & Malkan, 2008).

Figure 4 shows the modeled velocity field in panel (b), and the residual
velocity map, with the position angle of the galaxy’s major kinematic axis
marked by the black dashed line, in panel (c). The Near and Far side indicate
the orientation of the star-forming ring proposed by U et al. (2022) and by
the optical large-scale image of the galaxy. We observe most of the velocity
residuals as blueshifts on the far side of the galaxy. Such a configuration
may represent streaming motions toward the center.

##  4 Discussion

###  4.1 Gas excitation

Emission line diagnostic diagrams are powerful tools to investigate the origin
of emission lines in galaxies. In the near-IR, empirical diagrams involving
bright lines in the $J$ and $K$ bands have been analyzed in single-aperture
(Larkin et al., 1998; Reunanen et al., 2002; Rodríguez-Ardila et al., 2004,
2005; Riffel et al., 2013) and spatially resolved studies (Colina et al.,
2015; U et al., 2019; Riffel et al., 2021a). The H2 can be excited by soft-UV
photon absorption (non-thermal) or by collisional excitation (thermal). The
thermal processes include shocks (Hollenbach & McKee, 1989; Riffel et al.,
2015), and X-ray heating by the AGN radiation field. The [Fe ii] is produced
in the partially ionized region that, in AGN hosts, is a byproduct of X-rays
or shocks due to the radio jet or gas outflows (Simpson et al., 1996; Forbes &
Ward, 1993). Another source of excitation of the [Fe ii] is due to shocks
caused by supernovae remnants, especially in star-forming regions (Rosenberg
et al., 2012). Previous studies show that there is a correlation between
H2/Br$\gamma$ and [Fe ii]$1.257\mu$m/Pa$\beta$, suggesting that both [Fe ii]
and H2 may have a common excitation mechanism (Larkin et al., 1998; Riffel et
al., 2013, 2021a). A positive trend is observed in Figure 3 (c), suggesting
that in NGC 7469 [Fe ii] and H2 are excited by a common mechanism.

The excitation map (Figure 3 (d)) shows the spatial distribution of the
different line ratios. At the location of the ring, the excitation conditions
show a discontinuity to the east, where AGN-like excitation dominates. A
morphological discontinuity in the ring, at the same location, has previously
been claimed as the result of an outflow-excavated ring (García-Bernete et
al., 2022). However, we do not see clear velocity signatures consistent with
outflowing gas in the spectral transitions we analyze here.

The highest line ratios (color-coded as red and orange) are distributed mostly
in the western part of the inner-ISM. These line ratios are indicative of
shock-excited gas at the same location as in the MIRI-MRS observations of NGC
7469 (U et al., 2022). The authors linked the shock-excited H2 with the fan-
shaped H2 S(5) velocity dispersion map. The lower right panel in Fig. 2 shows
a more clumpy structure than in H2 S(5). Shock models suggest that regions
with fast motions would be expected in a clumpy turbulent medium (Appleton et
al., 2023). Thus, the high-velocity dispersion and the shock-like line ratios
are indicators of the same shocked gas structure at the western part of the
inner-ISM.

NGC 7469 has a compact radio jet-core structure that extends east-west for
$\sim$100 pc, which has been resolved with VLBI observations (Lonsdale et al.,
2003; Alberdi et al., 2006) and high-resolution VLA observations (Orienti &
Prieto, 2010; Song et al., 2022) at multiple frequencies. [Fe ii] is likely
excited by shocks due to the interaction of the jet with the ISM in the
regions color-coded in orange in Figure 3. However, excitation by the AGN
radiation field cannot be ruled out, as the jet is compact and line ratios
consistent with excitation by the AGN are observed over all the FoV. The ring
does show line ratios typical of star-forming galaxies, where non-thermal
processes (UV-fluorescence) might be the mechanism responsible for the H2
excitation. The [Fe ii] emission observed in the SF ring is likely due to
shocks caused by supernovae where the dust grains trapping the Fe are
destroyed by the supernova remnant shocks (Rosenberg et al., 2012).

###  4.2 Gas dynamics: inflows and the feedback driving mechanism

In Figure 2, the velocity dispersion of Pa$\alpha$ shows a dual spiral
pattern, which also appears to exhibit enhanced H2/Br$\gamma$ and [Fe
ii]/Pa$\beta$ ratios. With optical observations of the AGN host Mrk 590,
Raimundo et al. (2019) observe a nuclear dual spiral pattern in the velocity
dispersion and flux maps of optical ionized gas emission lines. The authors
interpret this pattern as due to a gas inflow to the nucleus of the galaxy.
Another example of a nuclear dual spiral is interpreted as a gas inflow in NGC
6951 (Storchi-Bergmann et al., 2007). In the case of NGC 7469, the hypothesis
of an inner dual spiral was proposed by Davies et al. (2004) to explain the
morphology of the CO(2-1) flux distribution. However, the authors did not find
kinematic signatures that could be associated with a gas inflow. In magneto-
hydrodynamical simulations, stellar feedback from a star-forming ring provides
the fuel for gas inflows that star and sustain the AGN-duty cycle (Clavijo-
Bohórquez et al., 2023), which is probably the case in NGC 7469. We
investigate possible deviations from pure circular rotation by inspecting the
velocity residuals in Figure 4 (c). The resolving power of NIRSpec IFU at the
wavelength of the Pa$\alpha$ line is $R\approx 2200$ (Jakobsen et al., 2022),
which corresponds to a velocity resolution of $\approx 130$ km s-1. the
residuals are more prominent closer to the nuclear spiral, reaching $64$ km
s-1 in blueshifts and patchy and with lower amplitudes in the outer regions of
the field. The localized nature of the highest residuals in arm-shaped
morphology leads us to interpret them as a signature of gas inflow. Similar
approaches have been adopted in the literature previously (e.g. Schnorr-Müller
et al., 2016, 2017; Riffel et al., 2023a).

If we indeed are observing inspiraling gas, we follow Storchi-Bergmann et al.
(2007) and compute the mass inflow rate via

$\dot{M}_{\rm in}=N_{e}V_{\rm in}Am_{p}fn_{\rm arms}\quad,$ (1)

where $N_{e}$ is the electron density, $V_{\rm in}$ is the velocity of the
inflowing gas, $A$ is the area of the cross-section of the spiral arm, $m_{p}$
is proton mass, $f$ is the filling factor and $n_{\rm arms}$ is the number of
arms (in our case: $n_{\rm arms}=2$). We estimate the filling factor
considering that

$L_{\rm Pa\alpha}=fj_{\rm Pa\alpha}(T)v\quad,$ (2)

where $L_{\rm Pa\alpha}$ and $j_{Pa\alpha}(T)$ are the luminosity and emission
coefficient of the Pa$\alpha$ line (Osterbrock & Ferland, 2006), and $v$ is
the volume of the emitting region. Assuming a typical density of 500 cm-3 and
a temperature of 10,000 K, we determine $j_{\rm Pa\alpha}=8.29\times 10^{-22}$
erg cm-3 s-1. The Pa$\alpha$ luminoisity is estimated from the flux map in
Fig. 2 as $2.4\times 10^{41}$ erg s-1. Since most of the Pa$\alpha$ emission
is associated with the star-forming ring, we assume that half of the line flux
comes from the gas inflowing to center as $L_{\rm Pa\alpha}=1.2\times 10^{41}$
erg s-1. Assuming that the inflowing gas is distributed in a dual-spiral
structure where one of the arms can be represented by a cylinder of height
$h=1.5\arcsec$ and radius $r=0.3\arcsec$, the filling factor is $f=0.14$. This
value is higher than previously estimated in the nearby Seyfert galaxy NGC
6951 $f=0.004$ (Storchi-Bergmann et al., 2007). The mass inflow calculation
adopts both filling factor values. The velocity is corrected by the
inclination of the galaxy ($V_{\rm in}=\frac{V_{\rm res}}{\sin{i}}$). From the
rotation model residuals (Fig. 4, panel (c)) $V_{\rm res}\approx 40$km s-1. We
consider two possible inclinations for NGC 7469: $i=16^{\circ}$ derived from
the rotation model, and $i=51^{\circ}$ the inclination of the ring (U et al.,
2022). The deprojected inflow velocity is $V_{\rm in}=51-145$ km s-1.

Considering all the assumptions mentioned above, the mass inflow rate is
$\dot{M}_{\rm in}=0.2-17$ M⊙ yr-1. This value is comparable to the mass
outflow rate estimated from the coronal emission lines (Müller-Sánchez et al.,
2011; Armus et al., 2023, $1-5$ M⊙yr-1). The mass inflow rate is at least one
order of magnitude larger than the accretion rate needed to power the AGN
($\sim 4.1\times 10^{-2}$ M⊙yr-1; Armus et al., 2023). Part of the gas mass
moving towards the center might not feed to the supermassive black hole and
could, in fact, be ejected as part of the outflow.

The fitting of the brightest hydrogen recombination line observed in NGC 7469
NIRSpec IFU data reveals the presence of a compact ($R=0.6\arcsec\equiv 205$
pc), high dispersion ($\sigma=800$ km s-1) at systemic velocity ($V=11$ km
s-1) component. We interpret this component as an outflow, as is expected from
the presence of gas outflows in highly (Müller-Sánchez et al., 2011; Armus et
al., 2023) and moderately (Xu & Wang, 2022) ionized gas in this galaxy. In
order to investigate the impact of this outflow in the galaxy, we proceed to
calculate the mass outflow rates following two different methods. The first
follows equation 4 in Bianchin et al. (2022) (see also Harrison et al., 2014;
Fiore et al., 2017; Kakkad et al., 2020; Riffel et al., 2023b). The ionized
outflow gas mass ($M_{\rm out}\approx 10^{6}$ M⊙) is obtained by adapting the
equation 5 from Storchi-Bergmann et al. (2009) where $F_{\rm Pa\alpha}/F_{\rm
Br\gamma}=12.19$, assuming the case B of recombination B recombination, a
temperature of 10,000 K and an electron density of 500 cm-3. The resulting
mass outflow rate is $\dot{M}_{\rm out}=0.18$ M⊙yr-1. The second method
follows Müller-Sánchez et al. (2011); Armus et al. (2023), we use the same
electron density as in the first method, and a filling factor $f=0.001$.
Instead of the biconical geometry adopted by Armus et al. (2023), we adopt a
spherical geometry due to the lack of evidence of a biconical structure in the
outflow. The resulting mass outflow following this method is $\dot{M}_{\rm
out}=0.14$ M⊙yr-1, in good agreement with the previous method. This mass
outflow is consistent with the values derived from the analysis of the
outflows traced by the Pa$\beta$ emission line in local Seyferts (Bianchin et
al., 2022).

The mechanical impact of the outflow in the ISM can be accessed via its
kinetic power determined by $\dot{E}_{out}=\dot{M}_{\rm out}(V_{\rm
max}^{2}+3\sigma^{2})/2$. The $\sigma^{2}$ term is particularly important for
this case, as most of the energy is associated with turbulent motions.
Adopting the velocity, velocity dispersion, and mass outflow rates determined
previously, $\dot{E}_{out}=5.9-7.2\times 10^{36}$ erg s-1. In order to
determine if the small-scale radio jet-core structure is capable of driving
the highly ionized gas outflow, we follow Morganti et al. (2015) and Venturi
et al. (2021) and adopted the scaling relations between 1.4 GHz radio
luminosity and jet power presented in Bîrzan et al. (2008) and Cavagnolo et
al. (2010). The jet component has flux density of 9.4 mJy at 8 GHz (Alberdi et
al., 2006), and 1.3 mJy at 33 GHz (Song et al., 2022), which yield a $8-33$
GHz spectral index of $\alpha\sim-1.4$ and an extrapolated 1.4 GHz flux
density of $\sim$ 120 mJy. This value would be lowered to 40 mJy if a nominal
synchrotron spectral index of $\alpha_{\rm NT}=-0.8$ is assumed between 1.4
and 8 GHz. Using the scaling relations, these values correspond to kinetic jet
power of $0.6-3\times 10^{43}$ erg s-1. As noted in Venturi et al. (2021), jet
power may be underestimated by an order of magnitude using the above scaling
relations compared to values derived from models of jet-ISM interaction (e.g.
Mukherjee et al., 2018). The kinetic power of the outflow is several orders of
magnitude smaller than the jet power implying that the jet can perturb the gas
in its vicinity, increasing its turbulence and thus being the main of the low
velocity and high dispersion outflow observed in the Pa$\alpha$ emission line.

##  5 Summary

In this paper, we report the JWST NIRSpec-IFS observations of NGC 7469. With
the superb spatial and spectral resolutions of NIRSpec, it is now possible to
study in detail the inner kiloparsec of this galaxy. This allows us to unveil
the intricate connection between the feeding, feedback, and gas excitation in
the inner kiloparsec of this luminous Sy 1.5 galaxy. Our conclusions are
summarized below.

  * •

Enhanced line ratios, consistent with shock-heated gas, are observed mostly in
the nuclear region of the galaxy, with the highest line ratios to the west of
the nucleus. The presence of a compact ($<100$ pc) radio jet (e.g. Lonsdale et
al., 2003) indicates that its interaction with the gas in the inner-ISM region
may be the cause of the H2 and [Fe ii] gas excitation. The spatially resolved
excitation map also reveals diffuse AGN-like excitation over the field of view
suggesting that the central source ionizes a significant fraction of the gas
in the inner ISM.

  * •

NGC 7469 kinematics is dominated by rotation (with amplitudes $\sim 150$ km
s-1 at low-velocity dispersion ($60-80$ km s-1), especially in the star-
forming ring region. We identify a nuclear spiral in NGC 7469 in the
Pa$\alpha$ velocity dispersion map. We interpret the nuclear spiral and the
non-rotational motions (observed after modeling the rotation field) as a gas
inflow to the nucleus of the galaxy. We estimate a mass inflow rate of
$0.2-17$ M⊙yr-1 dependent upon the precise geometry and inclination of the
disk. This value is up to two orders of magnitude higher than the gas
accretion rate needed to power the central AGN but comparable with the mass
outflow rate.

  * •

The Pa$\alpha$ emission line has a kinematical component consistent with an
ionized gas outflow. This outflow is dominated by turbulent motions. It
carries a kinetic power of $5.9-7.2\times 10^{36}$ erg s-1 which is consistent
with being driven by the compact nuclear radio jet with a power of $10^{43}$
erg s-1.

We thank Sandra Raimundo and Rogemar A. Riffel for the discussion that added
to the interpretations in the paper. This work is based on observations made
with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The data were obtained from
the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes at the Space Telescope Science
Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research
in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-03127 for JWST. These
observations are associated with program #JWST-ERS-01328 and can be accessed
via https://doi.org/10.17909/w7ea-wx90 (catalog DOI: 10.17909/w7ea-wx90).
Research at UCI by M.B. and V.U was supported by funding from program #JWST-
GO-01717, which was provided by NASA through a grant from the Space Telescope
Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for
Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-03127. V.U further
acknowledges partial funding support from NASA Astrophysics Data Analysis
Program (ADAP) grants #80NSSC20K0450 and #80NSSC23K0750, and HST grants #HST-
AR-17063.005-A and #HST-GO-17285.001, and had partially performed work for
this project at the Aspen Center for Physics, which is supported by National
Science Foundation grant PHY-2210452. The Flatiron Institute is supported by
the Simons Foundation. H.I. and T.B. acknowledge support from JSPS KAKENHI
grant No. JP21H01129 and the Ito Foundation for Promotion of Science. A.M.M.
acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation under grant No.
2009416. A.S.E. and S.L. acknowledge support from NASA grant HST-GO15472. Y.S.
was funded in part by the NSF through the Grote Reber Fellowship Program
administered by Associated Universities, Inc./National Radio Astronomy
Observatory. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the
National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated
Universities, Inc. S.A. gratefully acknowledges support from an ERC Advanced
grant 789410, from the Swedish Research Council and from the Knut and Alice
Wallenberg (KAW) Foundation. S.T.L was partially supported thorough NASA grant
HST-GO16914. K.I. acknowledges support by the Spanish MCIN under grant PID2019
105510GBC33/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. F.M-S. acknowledges support from NASA
through ADAP award 80NSSC19K1096. This work was also partly supported by the
Spanish program Unidad de Excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2020-001058-M,
financed by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. Finally, this research has made
use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED), which is operated by the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract
with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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