QUASAR OUTFLOW CONTRIBUTION TO AGN FEEDBACK: OBSERVATIONS OF QSO SDSS J0838+2955

By M. Moe, N. Arav, M. Bautista, K. Korista. 2009

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We present a detailed analysis of the Astrophysical Research Consortium 3.5 m telescope spectrum of QSO SDSS J0838+2955. The object shows three broad absorption line (BAL) systems at 22,000, 13,000, and 4900 km s−1 blueshifted from the systemic redshift of z = 2.043. Of particular interest is the lowest velocity system that displays absorption from low-ionization species such as Mg ii, Al ii, Si ii, Si ii*, Fe ii, and Fe ii*. Accurate column densities were measured for all transitions in this lowest velocity BAL using an inhomogeneous absorber model. The ratio of column densities of Si ii* and Fe ii* with respect to their ground states gave an electron number density of log ne (cm−3) = 3.75 ± 0.22 for the outflow. Photoionization modeling with careful regards to chemical abundances and the incident spectral energy distribution predicts an ionization parameter of log UH = −1.93 ± 0.21 and a hydrogen column density of log NH (cm−2) = 20.80 ± 0.28. This places the outflow at 3.3+1.5−1.0 kpc from the central active galactic nucleus (AGN). Assuming that the fraction of solid angle subtended by the outflow is 0.2, these values yield a kinetic luminosity of (4.5+3.1−1.8) × 1045 erg s−1, which is (1.4+1.1−0.6)% the bolometric luminosity of the QSO itself. Such large kinetic luminosity suggests that QSO outflows are a major contributor to AGN feedback mechanisms.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/337361704bc308f7fab4107108f8b060dd6db643

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X-shooter reveals powerful outflows in z ∼ 1.5 X-ray selected obscured quasi-stellar objects (2014, background): “Extensive works in the past years uniquely contributed to our understanding of the winds physics, in terms of spatial location, ionization level and energetics involved (see, e.g., Moe et al. 2009; Borguet et al. 2013 and Arav et al. 2013).”
Quasar outflows and AGN feedback in the extreme UV: HST/COS observations of HE 0238−1904 (2013, methodology): “In Table 4 we give the data for 3 representative types of quasar outflow: trough B in HE0238-1904 from this analysis; the high ionization outflow in SDSS J1106+1939 from Borguet et al. (2013); and the low-ionization outflow in SDSS J0838+2955 from Moe et al. (2009).”
THE QUASAR OUTFLOW CONTRIBUTION TO AGN FEEDBACK: VLT MEASUREMENTS OF SDSS J0318-0600 (2009, background): “This outflow component is probably much closer and therefore represents a very young mass ejection episode that in time may evolve to something resembling component i. Similar situation exists in other objects (e.g., SDSS J0838+2955; Moe et al. 2009).”
Quasar feedback revealed by giant molecular outflows (2010, background): “High–velocity energetic winds, whose kinetic energy is comparable to the bolometric energy of the quasar, are observed in the galactic nuclei (Reeves et al. 2009, Moe et al. 2009, Dunn et al. 2010, Bautista et al. 2010).”
THE MULTIPHASE STRUCTURE AND POWER SOURCES OF GALACTIC WINDS IN MAJOR MERGERS (2013, background): “The spatial constraints in other radio-quiet QSOs depend on detailed photoionization modeling and are thus not as direct as the measurements presented here.”
The Coevolution of Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes: Insights from Surveys of the Contemporary Universe (2014, background): “In series of papers, Arav and collaborators (Arav et al. 2008, Korista et al. 2008, Moe et al. 2009, Dunn et al. 2010, Bautista et al. 2010, Edmonds et al. 2011, Aoki et al. 2011, Borguet et al. 2013, Arav et al. 2013) have been able to determine the main physical properties of outflows in high-z…”
Observations of feedback from radio-quiet quasars - I. Extents and morphologies of ionized gas nebulae (2013, background): “Careful photo-ionization modeling of specific absorption features (Arav et al. 2008) demonstrated that in several objects the outflow appears to extend out to several kpc from the nucleus and to carry a large amount of kinetic energy and momentum (Moe et al. 2009; Dunn et al. 2010).”
DRIVING OUTFLOWS WITH RELATIVISTIC JETS AND THE DEPENDENCE OF ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS FEEDBACK EFFICIENCY ON INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM INHOMOGENEITY (2012, background): “From observational estimates of the energetics of AGN outflows, one would expect this factor to be of order 0.001–0.01 (e.g., McKernan et al. 2007; Moe et al. 2009; Tombesi et al. 2010), which is also found in disk-wind simulations (Kurosawa et al. 2009; Takeuchi et al. 2010; Ohsuga & Mineshige…”
The physics of galactic winds driven by active galactic nuclei (2012, background): “Photoionization modeling of a subset of low-ionization absorbers indicates that the kinetic luminosity of the outflowing gas can reach a few percent of LAGN (Moe et al. 2009; Dunn et al. 2010; Bautista et al. 2010).”
MOMENTUM DRIVING: WHICH PHYSICAL PROCESSES DOMINATE ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS FEEDBACK? (2010, background): “…Naab & Burkert (2009), hereafter SDMH05 and JNB09 respectively, McCarthy et al. (2010) and other authors, and we take vw = 10 4 km/s (vw,10) (Moe et al. 2009), then we have from Equation 4, η = 9v−2w,10 and all of the neglected effects may in fact be dominant; the bulk of the inflowing…”
Quasar feedback and the origin of radio emission in radio-quiet quasars (2014, background): “…active galaxies, where the radiativelydriven wind would get quenched by the interaction with the interstellar medium, but could be typical of quasardriven winds (Moe et al. 2009; Zubovas & King 2012; Faucher-Giguère & Quataert 2012) even on galaxy-wide scales (Arav et al. 2013; Liu et al. 2013b).”
FEEDBACK IN LUMINOUS OBSCURED QUASARS (2011, background): “In a few rare objects the outflow appears to extend out to large distances from the nucleus (Moe et al. 2009), but it is unclear whether most of these outflows have any impact beyond hundreds of Schwarzschild radii.”
THE ULTRAVIOLET-BRIGHT, SLOWLY DECLINING TRANSIENT PS1-11af AS A PARTIAL TIDAL DISRUPTION EVENT (2013, background): “While the high-ionization absorption lines in BALQSOs may be formed coincident with the BLR (Murray et al. 1995), recent photoionization work has determined that the low-ionization absorbers are located several kpc from the central black hole (e.g., Moe et al. 2009).”
Cool outflows in galaxies and their implications (2020, methodology): “UH is derived independently by comparing the measured column densities with the predictions of photoionization models under the assumption of ionization equilibrium (e.g. Moe et al. 2009; Dunn et al. 2010).”
Stellar and Quasar Feedback in Concert: Effects on AGN Accretion, Obscuration, and Outflows (2015, background): “…5× 103 kms−1, outflow rates up to ∼ 100− 1000 times the BH accretion rate, and spatial extents of ∼ 0.1−10 kpc (Tremonti et al. 2007; Prochaska & Hennawi 2009; Moe et al. 2009; Wild et al. 2009; Fischer et al. 2010; Humphrey et al. 2010; Dunn et al. 2010; Bautista et al. 2010; Feruglio et al.…”
Neutral hydrogen in galaxy haloes at the peak of the cosmic star formation history (2014, background): “Recently, direct observational evidence for powerful, wide-angle, galaxy-scale, quasar-driven outflows has emerged (e.g., Moe et al. 2009; Feruglio et al. 2010; Sturm et al. 2011; Rupke & Veilleux 2011; Greene et al. 2012; Maiolino et al. 2012; Harrison et al. 2014; Cicone et al. 2014).”
FEEDBACK FROM CENTRAL BLACK HOLES IN ELLIPTICAL GALAXIES. III. MODELS WITH BOTH RADIATIVE AND MECHANICAL FEEDBACK (2010, result): “This means that during the burst, mechanical feedback plays a major role in the model evolution, a conclusion that seems to be supported also by observations (Moe et al. 2009, Dunn et al. 2010.”