Unveiling the inner morphology and gas kinematics of NGC 5135 with ALMA

Active galactic nuclei are thought to play a major role in the formation and evolution of galaxies, providing mechanisms for feedback from the supermassive black hole (SMBH) to its hosting galaxy and the intergalactic medium. In co-evolutionary scenarios, the SMBH properties are strictly connected to those of the host galaxy, in either high redshift quasars and in local Seyfert nuclei. Local Seyfert galaxies hosting both SMBHs and star forming regions, can be considered as the nearest counterparts of high redshift sub-mm heavily dust obscured star forming galaxies, where a significant fraction of the optical and UV photons are absorbed by dust are re-emitted in the IR and sub-mm bands. In the absence of major merging events and companions, the mechanisms that link the star formation (SF) and the accretion onto the black hole (BH) lie in the inner galactic regions (within ~1 kpc from the BH) and are responsible for the feeding of the BH and the quenching of the SF through feedback mechanisms from the BH itself. On the one hand, high resolution observations in the sub-mm band suggest that feeding might happen through the formation of bars at the inner end of the spiral galactic arms. On the other hand, outflows from the SMBHs have been observed and seem to be responsible for halting the gas infall and the SF in the inner galactic regions. Fuelling and outflows seem to constitute a self-regulating combination of processes on the small scales that determine the galaxy morphology and dynamics. How the small scales dynamics influences the overall galaxy morphology, what is the timescale on which different processes happen, and if the different evolutionary stages justify the different observed morphologies, are still open questions. This thesis project develops within the above astrophysical context, with the main goal of studying the morphology, the kinematics and the physical processes at play in the inner regions of the nearby Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 5135 with ALMA.