Jet acceleration of the fast molecular outflows in the Seyfert galaxy
  IC5063
  Massive outflows driven by active galactic nuclei (AGN) are widely recognised
to play a key role in the evolution of galaxies, heating the ambient gas,
expelling it from the nuclear regions, and thereby affecting the star formation
histories of the galaxy bulges. It has been proposed that the powerful jets of
relativistic particles launched by some AGN can both accelerate and heat the
molecular gas, which often dominates the mass budgets of the outflows. However,
clear evidence for this mechanism in the form of detailed associations between
the molecular gas kinematics and features in the radio-emitting jets has been
lacking. Here we show that the warm molecular hydrogen gas in the western radio
lobe of the Seyfert galaxy IC5063 is moving at high velocities - up to 600 km/s
- relative to the galaxy disk. This suggests that the molecules have been
accelerated by fast shocks driven into the interstellar medium (ISM) by the
expanding radio jets. These results demonstrate the general feasibility of
accelerating molecular outflows in fast shocks driven by AGN.
