Both observational and theoretical evidence point at outflows originating from accretion disks as fundamental ingredients of active galactic nuclei (AGN). These outflows can have more than one component, for example an unbound supersonic wind and a failed wind (FW). The latter is a prediction of the simulations of radiation-driven disk outflows which show that the former is accompanied by an inner failed component, where the flow struggles to escape from the strong gravitational pull of the supermassive black hole. This FW component could provide a physical framework to interpret various phenomenological components of AGN. Here we briefly discuss a few of them: the broad line region, the X-ray obscurer, and the X-ray corona.
It has been recently proposed that the broad line region in active galactic nuclei originates from dusty clouds driven from the accretion disk by radiation pressure, at a distance from the black hole where the disk is cooler than the dust sublimation temperature. We test this scenario by checking the consistency of independent broad line region and accretion disk reverberation measurements, for a sample of 11 well studied active galactic nuclei. We show that independent disk and broad line region reverberation mapping measurements are compatible with a universal disk temperature at the Hβ radi…
We report on Chandra gratings spectra of the stellar-mass black hole GRS 1915+105 obtained during a novel, highly obscured state. As the source entered this state, a dense, massive accretion disk wind was detected through strong absorption lines. Photionization modeling indicates that it must originate close to the central engine, orders of magnitude from the outer accretion disk. Strong, nearly sinusoidal flux variability in this phase yielded a key insight: the wind is blue-shifted when its column density is relatively low, but red-shifted as it approaches the Compton-thick threshold. At no …
We calculate profiles of spectral lines from an extended outflow from the compact object (a black hole or a neutron star). We assume that the bulk velocity of the flow increases during a short phase of acceleration and then rapidly decreases forming a failed wind. We also study the wind which is only decelerating. We show that depending on the relative strength of the gravitational redshifting line profiles from such winds may be of several types: distorted P-Cygni (emission and blueshifted absorption); W-shaped (absorption-emission-absorption) and inverted P-Cygni (emission-redshifted absorpt…
Delving into the depths of NGC 3783 with XRISM VI. Evidence for a failed wind based on Fe xxv absorption line variability
Leiden University(莱顿大学);SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research(荷兰空间研究所);University of Michigan(密歇根大学);James Madison University(詹姆斯麦迪逊大学);ESA European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC)(欧洲空间研究与技术中心);University of Teacher Education Fukuoka(福冈教育大学);Technion(以色列理工学院);Massachusetts Institute of Technology(麻省理工学院);Tokyo University of Science(东京科学大学)
High resolution X-ray spectroscopy of the warm absorber in the nearby X-ray bright Seyfert 1 galaxy, Mrk 1040 is presented. The observations were carried out in the 2013-2014 timeframe using the Chandra High Energy Transmission Grating with a total exposure of 200 ks. A multitude of absorption lines from Ne, Mg and Si are detected from a wide variety of ionization states. In particular, the detection of inner K-shell absorption lines from Ne, Mg and Si, from charge states ranging from F-like to Li-like ions, suggests the presence of a substantial amount of low ionization absorbing gas, illumin…
Changing look active galactic nuclei (CLAGNs) show complex nature in their X-ray spectral shape and line of sight column density variation. The physical mechanisms responsible for these variations are unclear. Here, we study the spectral properties of a CLAGN, NGC\,1365 using combined {\it XMM-Newton} and {\it NuSTAR} observations to understand the CL behavior. The model fitted mass accretion rate varied between $0.003\pm 0.001$ and $0.009\pm0.002$ $\dot M_{\rm Edd}$ and the dynamic corona changed from $28\pm 3$ to $10\pm1$ $r_g$. We found that the variable absorption column density correlates…
We predict the observational signatures of galaxy scale outflows powered by active galactic nuclei (AGN). Most of the emission is produced by the forward shock driven into the ambient interstellar medium (ISM) rather than by the reverse shock. AGN powered galactic winds with energetics suggested by phenomenological feedback arguments should produce spatially extended 1-10 keV X-ray emission of 10^(41-44) erg/s, significantly in excess of the spatially extended X-ray emission associated with normal star forming galaxies. The presence of such emission is a direct test of whether AGN outflows sig…
We perform simulations to study the effects of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) radiation and wind feedback on the properties of slowly rotating accretion flow at parsec scale. We find that when only radiative feedback is considered, outflows can be produced by the radiation pressure due to Thomson scattering. The mass flux of outflow is comparable to that of inflow. Although strong outflow is present, the luminosity of AGN can be easily super-Eddington. When wind feedback is also taken into account, the mass flux of outflow does not change much. Consequently, the luminosity of the central AGN ca…
We construct a radiation-hydrodynamics model for the obscuring toroidal structure in active galactic nuclei. In this model the obscuration is produced at parsec scale by a dense, dusty wind which is supported by infrared radiation pressure on dust grains. To find the distribution of radiation pressure, we numerically solve the 2D radiation transfer problem in a flux limited diffusion approximation. We iteratively couple the solution with calculations of stationary 1D models for the wind, and obtain the z-component of the velocity. Our results demonstrate that for AGN luminosities greater than …
The warm absorbers observed in more than half of all nearby active galactic nuclei (AGN) are tracers of ionized outflows located at parsec scale distances from the central engine. If the smallest inferred ionization parameters correspond to plasma at a few $10^4$~K, then the gas undergoes a transition from being bound to unbound provided it is further heated to $\sim 10^6$~K at larger radii. Dannen et al. recently discovered that under these circumstances, thermally driven wind solutions are unsteady and even show very dense clumps due to thermal instability. To explore the observational conse…
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) represent the growth phases of the supermassive black holes in the center of almost every galaxy. Powerful, highly ionized winds, with velocities $\sim 0.1- 0.2c$ are a common feature in X--ray spectra of luminous AGN, offering a plausible physical origin for the well known connections between the hole and properties of its host. Observability constraints suggest that the winds must be episodic, and detectable only for a few percent of their lifetimes. The most powerful wind feedback, establishing the $M -σ$ relation, is probably not directly observable at all. The…
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) drive fast winds in the interstellar medium of their host galaxies. It is commonly assumed that the high ambient densities and intense radiation fields in galactic nuclei imply short cooling times, thus making the outflows momentum-conserving. We show that cooling of high-velocity, shocked winds in AGN is in fact inefficient in a wide range of circumstances, including conditions relevant to ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs), resulting in energy-conserving outflows. We further show that fast energy-conserving outflows can tolerate a large amount of mixing wi…
Based on recent X-ray observations, ultra-fast outflows from supermassive black holes are expected to have enough energy to dramatically affect their host galaxy but their launch and acceleration mechanisms are not well understood. We perform two-dimensional radiation hydrodynamics simulations of UV line-driven disc winds in order to calculate the mass loss rates and kinetic power in these models. We develop a new iterative technique which reduces the mass accretion rate through the inner disc in response to the wind mass loss. This makes the inner disc is less UV bright, reducing the wind pow…
Powerful winds driven by active galactic nuclei (AGN) are often invoked to play a fundamental role in the evolution of both supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and their host galaxies, quenching star formation and explaining the tight SMBH-galaxy relations. A strong support of this "quasar mode" feedback came from the recent X-ray observation of a mildly relativistic accretion disk wind in a ultraluminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) and its connection with a large-scale molecular outflow, providing a direct link between the SMBH and the gas out of which stars form. Spectroscopic observations, especia…
TeV Gamma Rays and Neutrinos from Winds Driven by Radiatively Inefficient Accretion Flows of Low-Luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei
The University of Osaka(大阪大学);The Ohio State University(俄亥俄州立大学);The Pennsylvania State University(宾夕法尼亚州立大学);Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University(京都大学汤川理论物理研究所)
本研究针对LHAASO探测到的LLAGN NGC 4278宁静期TeV伽马射线,提出RIAF驱动风的新机制,建模重现其辐射,还可推广至Sgr A*,为LLAGN辐射机制提供新解释。
Ultraviolet (UV) line driven winds may be an important part of the active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback process, but understanding their impact is hindered by the complex nature of the radiation hydrodynamics. Instead, we have taken the approach pioneered by Risaliti & Elvis, calculating only ballistic trajectories from radiation forces and gravity, but neglecting gas pressure. We have completely re-written their QWIND code using more robust algorithms, and can now quickly model the acceleration phase of these winds for any AGN spectral energy distribution spanning UV and X-ray wavebands. We…
The spectra of active galactic nuclei exhibit broad-emission lines that presumably originate in the Broad-Line Region (BLR) with gaseous-dusty clouds in a predominantly Keplerian motion around the central black hole. Signatures of both inflow and outflow motion are frequently seen. The dynamical character of BLR is consistent with the scenario that has been branded as the Failed Radiatively Accelerated Dusty Outflow (FRADO; Czerny & Hryniewicz 2011). In this scheme, frequent high-velocity impacts of BLR clouds falling back onto the underlying accretion disk are predicted. The impact velocities…
We perform non-hydrodynamical 2.5D simulations to study the dynamics of material above accretion disk based on the disk radiation pressure acting on dust. We assume a super-accreting underlying disk with the accretion rate of 10 times the Eddington rate with central black hole mass ranging from $10^7$ up to $10^9 M_{\odot}$. Such high accretion rates are characteristic for extreme sources. We show that for high accretors radiatively dust-driving mechanism based on FRADO model always leads to a massive outflow from the disk surface, and the failed wind develops only at larger radii. The outflow…
We perform three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations of magnetospheric accretion in a T Tauri star to study the accretion and wind structures in the close vicinity of the star. The gas accreting onto the star consists of the gas from the magnetospheric boundary and the failed disk winds. The accreting gas is commonly found as a multi-column accretion, which is consistent with observations. A significant fraction of the angular momentum of the accreting flows is removed by the magnetic fields of conical disk winds and turbulent failed winds inside and near the magnetosphere. As a result…
We present the results of the uniform analysis of 46 XMM-Newton observations of six BAL and seven mini-BAL QSOs belonging to the Palomar-Green Quasar catalogue. Moderate-quality X-ray spectroscopy was performed with the EPIC-pn, and allowed to characterise the general source spectral shape to be complex, significantly deviating from a power law emission. A simple power law analysis in different energy bands strongly suggests absorption to be more significant than reflection in shaping the spectra. If allowing for the absorbing gas to be either partially covering the continuum emission source o…
Various observations are revealing the widespread occurrence of fast and powerful winds in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) that are distinct from relativistic jets, likely launched from accretion disks and interacting strongly with the gas of their host galaxies. During the interaction, strong shocks are expected to form that can accelerate non-thermal particles to high energies. Such winds have been suggested to be responsible for a large fraction of the observed extragalactic gamma-ray background (EGB) in the GeV-TeV range and the diffuse neutrino background in the PeV range, via the decay of …
We show that for supergiants, net angular momentum is not a necessary condition for forming accretion discs during core-collapse. Even absent net rotation, convective motions in the outer parts of supergiants generate mean horizontal flows at a given radius with velocities of order 1 km/s; the direction of the mean flow will vary as a function of height through the convection zone. We confirm these analytic estimates using Cartesian Boussinesq convection simulations. These mean horizontal flows lead to a random angular momentum in supergiant convection zones that exceeds that of the last stabl…
We study the effects of collective neutrino oscillations on $νp$ process nucleosynthesis in proton-rich neutrino-driven winds by including both the multi-angle $3\times3$ flavor mixing and the nucleosynthesis network calculation. The number flux of energetic electron antineutrinos is raised by collective neutrino oscillations in a $1$D supernova model for $40 M_{\odot}$ progenitor. When the gas temperature decreases down to $\sim2-3\times10^{9}$ K, the increased flux of electron antineutrinos promotes $νp$ process more actively, resulting in the enhancement of $p$-nuclei. In the early phase of…
We report on a Chandra/HETG X-ray spectrum of the black hole candidate MAXI J1305-704. A rich absorption complex is detected in the Fe L band, including density-sensitive lines from Fe XX, XXI, and XXII. Spectral analysis over three bands with photoionization models generally requires a gas density of n > 1 E+17 cm^-3. Assuming a luminosity of L = 1 E+37 erg/s, fits to the 10-14 A band constrain the absorbing gas to lie within r = 3.9(7) E+3 km from the central engine, or about r = 520 +/- 90 (M/5 Msun) r_g, where r_g = GM/c^2. At this distance from the compact object, gas in Keplerian orbits …
In order to reveal the origin of the ultra-fast outflows (UFOs) that are frequently observed in active galactic nuclei (AGNs), we perform two-dimensional radiation hydrodynamics simulations of the line-driven disk winds, which are accelerated by the radiation force due to the spectral lines. The line-driven winds are successfully launched for the range of $M_{\rm BH}=10^{6-9}M_\odot$ and $\varepsilon$=0.1-0.5, and the resulting mass outflow rate ($\dot{M_{\rm w}}$), momentum flux ($\dot{p_{\rm w}}$), and kinetic luminosity ($\dot{E_{\rm w}}$) are in the region containing 90% of the posterior p…
The radio emission mechanism in active galactic nuclei (AGN) with high accretion rates is unclear. It has been suggested that low-power jets may explain the observed radiation at sub-parsec scales. The mechanisms for jet formation at super-Eddington rates, however, are not well understood. On the same scale, clouds from the broad-line region (BLR) propagating with supersonic velocities in the wind launched by the accretion disk may lead to the production of nonthermal radiation. We aim to characterize the nonthermal emission produced by the propagation of clouds through the wind of the accreti…
Galactic outflows, driven by active galactic nuclei (AGN), play a crucial role in galaxy formation and in the self-regulated growth of supermassive black holes (BHs). AGN feedback couples to and affects gas, rather than stars, and in many, if not most, gas-rich galaxies cold gas is rotationally supported and settles in a disc. We present a 2D analytical model for AGN-driven outflows in a gaseous disc and demonstrate the main improvements, compared to existing 1D solutions. We find significant differences for the outflow dynamics and wind efficiency. The outflow is energy-driven due to ineffici…
Understanding the origin of AGN absorption line profiles and their diversity could help to explain the physical structure of the accretion flow, and also to assess the impact of accretion on the evolution of the AGN host galaxies. Here we present our first attempt to systematically address the issue of the origin of the complexities observed in absorption profiles. Using a simple method, we compute absorption line profiles against a continuum point source for several simulations of accretion disk winds. We investigate the geometrical, ionization, and dynamical effects on the absorption line sh…
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are complex phenomena. At the heart of an AGN is a relativistic accretion disk around a spinning supermassive black hole (SMBH) with an X-ray emitting corona and, sometimes, a relativistic jet. On larger scales, the outer accretion disk and molecular torus act as the reservoirs of gas for the continuing AGN activity. And on all scales from the black hole outwards, powerful winds are seen that probably affect the evolution of the host galaxy as well as regulate the feeding of the AGN itself. In this review article, we discuss how X-ray spectroscopy can be used to st…
X-ray spectroscopy offers an opportunity to study the complex mixture of emitting and absorbing components in the circumnuclear regions of active galactic nuclei, and to learn about the accretion process that fuels AGN and the feedback of material to their host galaxies. We describe the spectral signatures that may be studied and review the X-ray spectra and spectral variability of active galaxies, concentrating on progress from recent Chandra, XMM-Newton and Suzaku data for local type 1 AGN. We describe the evidence for absorption covering a wide range of column densities, ionization and dyna…
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are remarkable astronomical sources emitting over the whole electromagnetic spectrum, with different bands providing unique windows on distinct sub-structures and their related physics. AGN come in a large number of types only partially related to intrinsic differences. I highlight here the most important AGN classes, namely jetted and non-jetted, radiatively efficient and inefficient, and face-on and edge-on, the source types selected by different bands together with the most important selection effects and biases, and the underlying emission processes, emphasisin…
The innermost ejecta of core-collapse supernovae are considered to be the sources of some iron-group and heavier nuclei. The ejecta are predominantly driven by neutrino heating, principally due to neutrino capture on free neutrons and protons. Such neutrino interaction plays a crucial role for setting neutron richness in the ejecta. Recent hydrodynamics work with sophisticated neutrino transport indicates that the ejecta are only mildly neutron rich or even proton rich. In such conditions a wide variety of trans-iron isotopes are synthesized, while the neutron richness is insufficient for the …
Observations of many dim galactic nuclei in local universe give good estimation of gas density and temperature at Bondi radius. If we assume the black hole accretes at Bondi accretion rate and radiates at efficiency of low-luminosity hot accretion flow, the predicted nuclei luminosity can be significantly higher than observations. Therefore, the real black hole mass accretion rate in these sources may be significantly smaller than the Bondi value. Active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback may be responsible for decreasing black hole accretion rate to values much smaller than Bondi rate. We perform…
We investigate the effects of AGN feedback on the cosmological evolution of an isolated elliptical galaxy by performing two-dimensional high-resolution hydrodynamical numerical simulations. The inner boundary of the simulation is chosen so that the Bondi radius is resolved. Compared to previous works, the two accretion modes, namely hot and cold, which correspond to different accretion rates and have different radiation and wind outputs, are carefully discriminated and the feedback effects by radiation and wind in each mode are taken into account. The most updated AGN physics, including the de…
We discuss the acceleration and escape of secondary cosmic-ray (CR) nuclei, such as lithium, beryllium and boron, produced by spallation of primary CR nuclei like carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen accelerated at the shock in supernova remnants (SNRs) surrounded by the interstellar medium (ISM) or a circumstellar medium (CSM). We take into account the energy-dependent escape of CR particles from the SNR shocks, which is supported by gamma-ray observations of SNRs, to calculate the spectra of primary and secondary CR nuclei running away into the ambient medium. We find that if the SNR is surrounded b…
Long-lived radioactive nuclei play an important role as nucleo-cosmochronometers and as cosmic tracers of nucleosynthetic source activity. In particular nuclei in the actinide region like thorium, uranium, and plutonium can testify to the enrichment of an environment by the still enigmatic astrophysical sources that are responsible for the production of neutron-rich nuclei by the rapid neutron-capture process (r-process). Supernovae and merging neutron-star (NS) or NS-black hole binaries are considered as most likely sources of the r-nuclei. But arguments in favour of one or the other or both …
The wind driven by the intense neutrino emission from a protoneutron star (PNS) is an important site for producing nuclei heavier than the Fe group. Because of certain features in the neutrino angular distributions, the so-called fast flavor oscillations may occur very close to the PNS surface, effectively resetting the neutrino luminosities and energy spectra that drive the wind. Using the unoscillated neutrino emission characteristics from two core-collapse supernova simulations representative of relevant progenitors at the lower and higher mass end, we study the potential effects of fast fl…
Magnetars are proposed to be peculiar neutron stars powered by their super strong magnetic field. Observationally, anomalous X-ray pulsars and soft gamma-ray repeaters are believed to be magnetar candidates. While more and more multiwave observations of magnetars are available, unfortunately, we see accumulating failed predictions of the traditional magnetar model. These challenges urge rethinking of magnetar. Wind braking of magnetars is one of the alternative modelings. The release of magnetic energy may generate a particle outflow (i.e., particle wind), that results in both an anomalous X-r…
Features and applications of quasi-spherical settling accretion onto rotating magnetized neutron stars in high-mass X-ray binaries are discussed. The settling accretion occurs in wind-fed HMXBs when the plasma cooling time is longer than the free-fall time from the gravitational capture radius, which can take place in low-luminosity HMXBs with $L_x\lesssim 4\times 10^{36}$ erg/s. We briefly review the implications of the settling accretion, focusing on the SFXT phenomenon, which can be related to instability of the quasi-spherical convective shell above the neutron star magnetosphere due to ma…
Quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) are coherent peaks of variability power observed in the X-ray power spectra (PSDs) of stellar mass X-ray binaries (XRBs). A scale invariance of the accretion process implies they should be present in the active galactic nuclei. The first robust detection was a $\sim 1$ hr periodicity in the Seyfert galaxy RE J1034+396 from a $\sim 90$ ks XMM-Newton observation, however, subsequent observations failed to detect the QPO in the $0.3-10.0$ keV band. In this talk we present the recent detection of the $\sim 1$ hr periodicity in the $1.0-4.0$ keV band of 4 further …
Neutron star merger accretion discs can launch neutron-rich winds of $>10^{-2}\,\mathrm{M}_\odot$. This ejecta is a prime site for r-process nucleosynthesis, which will produce a range of radioactive heavy nuclei. The decay of these nuclei releases enough energy to accelerate portions of the wind by ~0.1c. Here, we investigate the effect of r-process heating on the dynamical evolution of disc winds. We extract the wind from a 3D general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulation of a disc from a post-merger system. This is used to create inner boundary conditions for 2D hydrodynamic simulatio…
We present an analysis of ionized X-ray disk winds observed in the Fe K band of four stellar-mass black holes observed with Chandra, including 4U 1630-47, GRO J1655-40, H 1743-322, and GRS 1915+105. High-resolution photoionization grids were generated in order to model the data. Third-order gratings spectra were used to resolve complex absorption profiles into atomic effects and multiple velocity components. The Fe XXV line is found to be shaped by contributions from the intercombination line (in absorption), and the Fe XXVI line is detected as a spin-orbit doublet. The data require 2-3 absorp…
We use numerical hydrodynamics simulations to study line driven winds launched from an accreting alpha-disc. Building on previous work where the driving radiation field is static, we compute a time-dependent radiation flux from the local, variable accretion rate of the disc. We find that prior to the establishment of a steady state in the disc, variations of ~ 15% in disc luminosity correlate with variations of ~ 2-3 in the mass flux of the wind. After a steady state is reached, when luminosity variations drop to ~ 3%, these correlations vanish as the variability in the mass flux is dominated …
UltraFast Outflows (UFO) are observed in some active galactic nuclei (AGN), with blueshifted and highly ionised Fe-K absorption features. AGN typically have a UV bright accretion flow, so UV line driving is an obvious candidate for launching these winds. However this mechanism requires material with UV opacity, in apparent conflict with the observed high ionisation state of the wind. In this paper we synthesise the X-ray energy spectra resulting from different lines of sight through a state of the art radiation hydrodynamics UV line driven disc wind simulation. We demonstrate that there are so…
We briefly describe some recent observational results, mainly at X-ray wavelengths, on the winds of luminous active galactic nuclei (AGNs). These winds likely play a significant role in galaxy feedback. Topics covered include (1) Relations between X-ray and UV absorption in Broad Absorption Line (BAL) and mini-BAL quasars; (2) X-ray absorption in radio-loud BAL quasars; and (3) Evidence for relativistic iron K BALs in the X-ray spectra of a few bright quasars. We also mention some key outstanding problems and prospects for future advances; e.g., with the International X-ray Observatory (IXO).