UV line driven disc wind as the origin of ultrafast outflows in AGN
Misaki Mizumoto, Mariko Nomura, Chris Done, Ken Ohsuga, Hirokazu Odaka
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17 pages, 19 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS. Please ignore the figure in the last page (I tried to remove it but cannot. Please let me know how if you know...)
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 some lines of sight which only intercept highly ionised and fast outflowing material. The cooler material required for the UV line driving acceleration is out of the line of sight, close to the disc, shielded from the X-rays by a failed wind. We fit these simulated wind spectra to data from the archetypal UFO source PG 1211+143 and show that they broadly reproduce the depth and velocity of the iron absorption lines seen. This directly demonstrates that UV line driving is a viable mechanism to launch even the fastest UFOs. We simulate microcalorimeter observations of this wind and show that their high energy resolution can resolve the detailed structure in the wind and recover the wind energetics when combined with models which correctly estimate the line formation radius of the wind. New data from microcalorimeters will pave the way for physical predictions of AGN wind feedback in cosmological simulations.
We present results from a deep, coordinated $XMM$-$Newton$+$NuSTAR$ observation of the Seyfert 2 galaxy IRAS 00521-7054. The $NuSTAR$ data provide the first detection of this source in high-energy X-rays ($E > 10$ keV), and the broadband data show this to be a highly complex source which exhibits relativistic reflection from the inner accretion disc, further reprocessing by more distant material, neutral absorption, and evidence for ionised absorption in an extreme, ultrafast outflow ($v_{\rm{out}} \sim 0.4c$). Based on lamppost disc reflection models, we find evidence that the central superma…
The discovery of an ultrafast outflow has been reported in the z=0.0658 narrow line Seyfert galaxy IRAS 13224-3809 (Parker et al. 2017a). The ultrafast outflow was first inferred through the detection of highly blueshifted absorption lines (Parker et al. 2017a) and then confirmed with a principal component analysis (PCA) (Parker et al. 2017b). Two of the reported properties of this outflow differed from those typically detected in other AGN with ultrafast outflows. First, the outflow velocity was found not to vary with v=0.236c +/- 0.006c. Second, the equivalent width of the highly blueshifted…
At only 90 Mpc, ASASSN-14li is one of the nearest tidal disruption event (TDE) ever discovered, and because of this, it has been observed by several observatories at many wavelengths. In this paper, we present new results on archival XMM-Newton observations, three of which were taken at early times (within 40 days of the discovery), and three of which were taken at late times, about one year after the peak. We find that, at early times, in addition to the ~1e5 K blackbody component that dominates the X-ray band, there is evidence for a broad, P Cygni-like absorption feature at around 0.7 keV i…
Ultraluminous pulsars are a definite proof that persistent super-Eddington accretion occurs in nature. They support the scenario according to which most Ultraluminous X-ray Sources (ULXs) are super-Eddington accretors of stellar mass rather than sub-Eddington intermediate mass black holes. An important prediction of theories of supercritical accretion is the existence of powerful outflows of moderately ionized gas at mildly relativistic speeds. In practice, the spectral resolution of X-ray gratings such as RGS onboard XMM-Newton is required to resolve their observational signatures in ULXs. Us…
We present the detection of an absorpton feature at $E=8.77^{+0.05}_{-0.06}$ keV in the combined X-ray spectrum of the ultraluminous X-ray source NGC 1313 X-1 observed with XMM-Newton and NuSTAR, significant at the 3$σ$ level. If associated with blueshifted ionized iron, the implied outflow velocity is ~0.2$c$ for Fe XXVI, or ~0.25$c$ for Fe XXV. These velocities are similar to the ultrafast outflow seen in absorption recently discovered in this source at lower energies by XMM-Newton, and we therefore conclude that this is an iron component to the same outflow. Photoionization modeling margina…
We present $Chandra$ ACIS imaging spectroscopy of the nucleus of the Seyfert 2 Galaxy Mrk 34. We identify spatially and spectrally resolved features in the band that includes Fe K$α$, Fe XXV and Fe XXVI. These features indicate high-velocity ($\gtrsim15,000\,\rm{km\,s}^{-1}$ line-of-sight) material separated spanning $\sim$0.5 arcsec, within $\sim200$ pc of the nucleus. This outflow could have deprojected velocities $\sim12-28\times$ greater than the [O III] emitting outflows, and could potentially dominate the kinetic power in the outflow. This emission may point to the origins of the optical…
UltraFast Outflows (UFOs), seen as X-ray blueshifted absorption lines in active galactic nuclei (AGNs), are considered to be a key mechanism for AGN feedback. In this scenario, UFO kinetic energy is transferred into the cold and extended molecular outflow observed at the mm/sub-mm wavelength, which blows away the gas and suppresses star formation and accretion onto the central black hole (BH). However, the energy transfer between the inner UFO and the outer molecular outflow has not yet fully studied mainly due to the limited sample. In this paper, we performed comparison of their kinetic ener…
We present results from an observation of the gravitationally lensed z=1.51 narrow absorption line AGN HS 0810+2554 performed with the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The factor of ~100 lensing magnification of HS 0810+2554 makes this source exceptionally bright. Absorption lines are detected at rest-frame energies of ~ 7.7 keV and ~11.0 keV at >97% significance. By interpreting these lines to arise from highly ionized iron the implied outflow velocities of the X-ray absorbing gas corresponding to these lines are 0.13c and 0.41c, respectively. The presence of these relativistic outflows and the abs…
Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are bright extragalactic sources with X-ray luminosities above 10^39 erg/s powered by accretion onto compact objects. According to the first studies performed with XMM-Newton ULXs seemed to be excellent candidates to host intermediate-mass black holes (10^2-4 solar masses). However, in the last years the interpretation of super-Eddington accretion onto stellar-mass black holes or neutron stars for most ULXs has gained a strong consensus. One critical missing piece to confirm the super-Eddington scenario was the direct detection of the massive, radiatively-dri…
Ultrafast outflows (UFOs) have recently been found in the spectra of a number of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and are strong candidates for driving AGN feedback. 1H0707-495 is a highly accreting narrow line Seyfert 1 and the second most X-ray variable bright AGN. Previous studies found evidence of blueshifted absorption at 0.1-0.2c in its spectrum. We perform a flux-resolved analysis of the full XMM-Newton dataset on this AGN using both CCD and grating data, focusing on the low flux spectrum. We find strong evidence for an ultrafast outflow in absorption at $\sim$0.13c, with an ionisation para…
The nature of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) -- off-nuclear extra-galactic sources with luminosity, assumed isotropic, $\gtrsim 10^{39}$ erg s$^{-1}$ -- is still debated. One possibility is that ULXs are stellar black holes accreting beyond the Eddington limit. This view has been recently reinforced by the discovery of ultrafast outflows at $\sim 0.1$-$0.2c$ in the high resolution spectra of a handful of ULXs, as predicted by models of supercritical accretion discs. Under the assumption that ULXs are powered by super-Eddington accretion onto black holes, we use the properties of the observ…
Recently, the direct detection of gravitational waves from black hole (BH) mergers was announced by the Advanced LIGO Collaboration. Multi-messenger counterparts of stellar-mass BH mergers are of interest, and it had been suggested that a small disk or celestial body may be involved in the binary of two BHs. To test such possibilities, we consider the fate of a wind powered by an active mini-disk in a relatively short, super-Eddington accretion episode onto a BH with ~10-100 solar masses. We show that its thermal emission could be seen as a fast optical transient with the duration from hours t…
Ultrafast outflows (UFOs) are the most extreme winds launched by active galactic nuclei (AGN) due to their mildly-relativistic speeds (~0.1-0.3c) and are thought to significantly contribute to galactic evolution via AGN feedback. Their nature and launching mechanism are however not well understood. Recently, we have discovered the presence of a variable UFO in the narrow-line Seyfert 1 IRAS 13224-3809. The UFO varies in response to the brightness of the source. In this work we perform flux-resolved X-ray spectroscopy to study the variability of the UFO and found that the ionisation parameter i…
The origin of narrow line region (NLR) outflows remains unknown. In this paper, we explore the scenario in which these outflows are circumnuclear clouds driven by energetic accretion disk winds. We choose the well-studied nearby Seyfert galaxy NGC 4151 as an example. By performing 3D hydrodynamical simulations, we are able to reproduce the radial distributions of velocity, mass outflow rate and kinetic luminosity of NLR outflows in the inner 100 pc deduced from spatial resolved spectroscopic observations. The demanded kinetic luminosity of disk winds is about two orders of magnitude higher tha…
Winds are commonly observed in luminous active galactic nuclei (AGNs). A plausible model of those winds is magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) disc winds. In the case of disc winds from a thin accretion disc, isothermal or adiabatic assumption is usually adopted in such MHD models. In this work we perform two-dimensional MHD simulations implementing different thermal treatments (isothermal, adiabatic and radiative) to study their effects on winds from a thin accretion disc. We find that both the isothermal model and the adiabatic model overestimate the temperature, underestimate the power of disc winds,…
We report on the discovery of an absorption line at $E=8.56^{+0.05}_{-0.11}$ keV detected with a significance of $>3.3σ$ in the NuSTAR and XMM-Newton spectra of a newly discovered hyperluminous X-ray source (HLX, $L_{\rm X}>10^{41}$ ergs$^{-1}$) in the galaxy NGC 4045 at a distance of 32 Mpc. The source was first discovered serendipitously in a Swift/XRT observation of the galaxy, and Swift monitoring reveals a highly variable source changing by over an order of magnitude from maximum to minimum. The origin of the absorption line appears likely to be by highly ionized iron with a blue shift of…
We present results from X-ray observations of the gravitationally lensed z = 1.51 AGN HS 0810+2554 performed with the Chandra X-ray Observatory and XMM-Newton. Blueshifted absorption lines are detected in both observations at rest-frame energies ranging between ~1-12 keV at > 99% confidence. The inferred velocities of the outflowing components range between ~0.1c and ~0.4c. A strong emission line at ~6.8 keV accompanied by a significant absorption line at ~7.8 keV is also detected in the Chandra observation. The presence of these lines is a characteristic feature of a P-Cygni profile supportin…
In some radio-quiet active galaxies (AGN), high-energy absorption features in the x-ray spectra have been interpreted as Ultrafast Outflows (UFOs) -- highly ionised material (e.g. Fe XXV and Fe XXVI) ejected at mildly relativistic velocities. In some cases, these outflows can carry energy in excess of the binding energy of the host galaxy. Needless to say, these features demand our attention as they are strong signatures of AGN feedback and will influence galaxy evolution. For the same reason, alternative models need to be discussed and refuted or confirmed. Gallo & Fabian proposed that some o…
Eddington outflows probably regulate the growth of supermassive black holes (SMBH) in AGN. I show that effect of the Rayleigh--Taylor instability on these outflows means that SMBH masses are likely to be a factor of a few below the $M - σ$ relation in AGN. This agrees with the suggestion by Batcheldor (2010) that the $M - σ$ relation defines an upper limit to the black hole mass. I further argue that observed AGN black holes must spend much of their lives accreting at the Eddington rate. This is already suggested by the low observed AGN fraction amongst all galaxies despite the need to grow to…
Outflows launched from a remnant disc of compact binary merger may have essential contribution to the kilonova emission. Numerical calculations are conducted in this work to study the structure of accretion flows and outflows. By the incorporation of limited-energy advection in the hyper-accretion discs, outflows occur naturally from accretion flows due to imbalance between the viscous heating and the sum of the advective and radiative cooling. Following this spirit, we revisit the properties of the merger outflow ejecta. Our results show that around $10^{-3} \sim 10^{-1} M_\odot$ of the disc …
We present the spectral analysis of three Suzaku XIS observations of 3C 111 requested to monitor the predicted variability of its ultra-fast outflow on ~7 days time-scales. We detect an ionized iron emission line in the first observation and a blue-shifted absorption line in the second, when the flux is ~30% higher. The location of the material is constrained at <0.006pc from the variability. Detailed modelling support an identification with ionized reflection off the accretion disc at ~20-100r_g from the black hole and a highly ionized and massive ultra-fast outflow with velocity ~0.1c, respe…
Warm absorbers and related phenomena are one of the observable manifestations of outflows or winds from active galactic nuclei (AGN). Warm absorbers are common in low luminosity AGN, they have been extensively studied observationally, and are well described by simple phenomenological models. However, major open questions remain: What is the driving mechanism? What is the density and geometrical distribution? How much associated fully ionized gas is there? What is the relation to the quasi-relativistic 'ultrafast outflows' (UFOs)? In this paper we present synthetic spectra for the observable pr…
We studied the outflow behaviour from accretion discs around black holes taking into account the vertical equilibrium accretion flow model. The outflow rate is found to depend crucially on flow composition. Our approach is to study the outflow behaviour as function of inflow around black holes with an equation of state which allows flow to be thermally relativistic close to black holes and non relativistic far away from black holes. We studied shock ejection model. A pure electron positron pair flow never undergoes shock transition while presence of some baryons (common in outflows and jets) m…
Short-term variability and multiple velocity components in the powerful highly ionized wind of the archetypal UFO PG 1211+143 are indicative of inner disc instabilities or short-lived accretion events. The detection of a high velocity (~ 0.3c) inflow of highly ionized matter, located at 20 R_g, offered the first direct observational support for the latter scenario, where matter approaching at a high inclination to the black hole spin plane may result in warping and tearing of the inner accretion disc, with subsequent inter-ring collisions producing shocks, loss of rotational support and rapid …
We explore a disc origin for the highly-blueshifted, variable absorption lines seen in the X-ray spectrum of the Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxy IRAS13224-3809. The blueshift corresponds to a velocity of about 0.25c. Such features in other Active Galactic Nuclei are often interpreted as UltraFast Outflows (UFOs). The velocity is of course present in the orbital motions of the inner disk. The absorption lines in IRAS13224-3809 are best seen when the flux is low and the reflection component of the disk is strong relative to the power-law continuum. The spectra are consistent with a model in which t…
We present \chandra high energy transmission grating spectra of the narrow-line Seyfert-1 galaxy Ark 564. The spectrum shows numerous absorption lines which are well modeled with low velocity outflow components usually observed in Seyfert galaxies \citep{Gupta2013}. There are, however, some residual absorption lines which are not accounted for by low-velocity outflows. Here we present identifications of the strongest lines as $Kα$ transitions of \oviin (two lines) and \ovin at outflow velocities of $\sim 0.1c$. These lines are detected at $6.9σ$, $6.2σ$, and $4.7σ$ respectively and cannot be d…
We study viscous accretion disc around black holes, and all possible accretion solutions, including shocked as well as shock free accretion branches. Shock driven bipolar outflows from a viscous accretion disc around a black hole has been investigated. One can identify two critical viscosity parameters $α_{cl}$ and $α_{cu}$, within which the stationary shocks may occur, for each set of boundary conditions. Adiabatic shock has been found for upto viscosity parameter $α=0.3$, while in presence of dissipation and massloss we have found stationary shock upto $α=0.15$. The mass outflow rate may inc…
In accretion systems, outflows may have significant influence on the luminosity fluctuations. In this paper, following the Lyubarskii's general scheme, we revisit the power spectral density of luminosity fluctuations by taking into account the role of outflows. Our analysis is based on the assumption that the coupling between the local outflow and inflow is weak on the accretion rate fluctuations. We find that, for the inflow mass accretion rate $\dot M \propto r^{s}$, the power spectrum of flicker noise component will present a power-law distribution $p(f) \propto f^{-(1+4s/3)}$ for advection…
We study the radiatively driven fluid jets around a non-rotating black hole. The radiation arising from the inner compact corona and outer sub-Keplerian part of the disc accelerates the jets. We obtain the steady state, semi-analytical, radiatively driven outflow solutions. The thermodynamics of the outflow is described by a variable adiabatic index equation of state. We develop a TVD routine to investigate the time dependent behaviour of the radiatively driven bipolar outflow. We inject with flow variables from the steady state outflow solutions in the TVD code and allow the code to settle in…
We study the properties of the dissipative accretion flow around rotating black holes in presence of mass loss. We obtain the complete set of global inflow-outflow solutions in the steady state by solving the underlying conservation equations self-consistently. We observe that global inflow-outflow solutions are not the isolated solution, instead such solutions are possible for wide range of inflow parameters. Accordingly, we identify the boundary of the parameter space for outflows, spanned by the angular momentum ($λ_{\rm in}$) and the energy (${\cal E}_{\rm in}$) at the inner sonic point ($…
We investigate the role of radiative driving of shock ejected bipolar outflows from advective accretion discs in a self consistent manner. Radiations from the inner disc affects the subsonic part of the jet while those from the pre-shock disc affects the supersonic part, and there by constitutes a multi stage acceleration process. We show that the radiation from the inner disc not only accelerate but also increase the mass outflow rate, while the radiation from the pre-shock disc only increases the kinetic energy of the flow. With proper proportions of these two radiations, very high terminal …
The existence of outflow in accretion flows is confirmed by observations and magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations. In this paper, we study outflows of accretion flows in the presence of resistivity and toroidal magnetic field. The mechanism of energy dissipation in the flow is assumed to be the viscosity and the magnetic diffusivity due to turbulence in the accretion flow. It is also assumed that the magnetic diffusivity and the kinematic viscosity are not constant and vary by position and $α$-prescription is used for them. The influence of outflow emanating from accretion disc is considered…
15 years of XMM-Newton observations have established that ultra-fast, highly ionized winds are common in radio-quiet AGN. A simple theory of Eddington-limited accretion correctly predicts the typical velocity (~0.1c) and high ionization of such winds, with observed flow energy capable of ejecting star-forming gas. With a recent extended XMM-Newton observation of the archetypal UFO, PG1211+143, revealing a more complex flow pattern, we suggest that targetted observations over the next decade offer unique potential for probing the inner accretion disc structure and SMBH growth.
Observations of jets from young stellar objects reveal the asymmetric outflows from some sources. A large set of $2.5$D MHD simulations has been carried out for axisymmetric viscous/diffusive disc accretion to rotating magnetized stars for the purpose of assessing the conditions where the outflows or jets are asymmetric relative to the equatorial plane. We consider initial magnetic fields that are symmetric about the equatorial plane and consist of a radially distributed field threading the disc (disc-field) and a stellar dipole field.({\bf 1}). For pure disc-fields the symmetry or asymmetry o…
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…
How are accretion discs affected by their outflows? To address this question for white dwarfs accreting from cool giants, we performed optical, radio, X-ray, and ultraviolet observations of the outflow-driving symbiotic star MWC 560 (=V694 Mon) during its 2016 optical high state. We tracked multi-wavelength changes that signalled an abrupt increase in outflow power at the initiation of a months-long outflow fast state, just as the optical flux peaked: (1) an abrupt doubling of Balmer absorption velocities; (2) the onset of a $20$ $μ$Jy/month increase in radio flux; and (3) an order-of-magnitud…
We unify the feeding and feedback of supermassive black holes with the global properties of galaxies, groups, and clusters, by linking for the first time the physical mechanical efficiency at the horizon and Mpc scale. The macro hot halo is tightly constrained by the absence of overheating and overcooling as probed by X-ray data and hydrodynamic simulations ($\varepsilon_{\rm BH} \simeq$ 10$^{-3}\, T_{\rm x,7.4}$). The micro flow is shaped by general relativistic effects tracked by state-of-the-art GR-RMHD simulations ($\varepsilon_\bullet \simeq$ 0.03). The SMBH properties are tied to the X-r…
We consider $r$-process nucleosynthesis in outflows from black hole accretion discs formed in double neutron star and neutron star -- black hole mergers. These outflows, powered by angular momentum transport processes and nuclear recombination, represent an important -- and in some cases dominant -- contribution to the total mass ejected by the merger. Here we calculate the nucleosynthesis yields from disc outflows using thermodynamic trajectories from hydrodynamic simulations, coupled to a nuclear reaction network. We find that outflows produce a robust abundance pattern around the second $r$…