AGN and Dwarf Galaxy Gas Kinematics
  We present spatially resolved kinematic measurements of stellar and ionized
gas components of dwarf galaxies in the stellar mass range $10^{8.5} - 10^{10}
M_{\odot}$, selected from SDSS DR7 and DR8 and followed-up with Keck/LRIS
spectroscopy. We study the potential effects of active galactic nuclei (AGN) on
galaxy-wide gas kinematics by comparing rotation curves of 26 galaxies
containing AGN, and 19 control galaxies with no optical or infrared signs of
AGN. We find a strong association between AGN activity and disturbed gas
kinematics in the host galaxies. While star forming galaxies in this sample
tend to have orderly gas discs that co-rotate with the stars, 73\% of the AGN
have disturbed gas. We find five out of 45 galaxies have gaseous components in
counter-rotation with their stars, and all galaxies exhibiting counter-rotation
contain AGN. Six out of seven isolated galaxies with disturbed ionized gas host
AGN. At least three AGN fall clearly below the stellar-halo mass relation,
which could be interpreted as evidence for ongoing star formation suppression.
Taken together, these results provide new evidence supporting the ability of
AGN to influence gas kinematics and suppress star formation in dwarf galaxies.
This further demonstrates the importance of including AGN as a feedback
mechanism in galaxy formation models in the low-mass regime.
