Black Hole Outflows

By A. King. 2009

198 citations recorded by the source corpus.

I show that Eddington accretion episodes in active galactic nuclei (AGN) are likely to produce winds with velocities υ ~ 0.1c and ionization parameters up to ξ ~ 10 4 (cgs), implying the presence of resonance lines of helium- and hydrogen-like iron. These properties are direct consequences of momentum and mass conservation, respectively, and agree with recent X-ray observations of fast outflows from AGN. Because the wind is significantly subluminal, it can persist long after the AGN is observed to have become sub-Eddington. The wind creates a strong cooling shock as it interacts with the interstellar medium of the host galaxy, and this cooling region may be observable in an inverse Compton continuum and lower excitation emission lines associated with lower velocities. The shell of matter swept up by the ('momentum-driven') shocked wind must propagate beyond the black hole's sphere of influence on a time-scale of ≲ 3 x 10 5 yr. Outside this radius, the shell stalls unless the black hole mass has reached the value M σ implied by the M-a relation. If the wind shock did not cool, as suggested here, the resulting ('energy-driven') outflow would imply a far smaller supermassive black hole mass than actually observed. In galaxies with large bulges the black hole may grow somewhat beyond this value, suggesting that the observed M-σ relation may curve upwards at large M. Minor accretion events with small gas fractions can produce galaxy-wide outflows with velocities significantly exceeding σ, including fossil outflows in galaxies where there is little current AGN activity. Some rare cases may reveal the energy-driven outflows which sweep gas out of the galaxy and establish the black hole-bulge mass relation. However, these require the quasar to be at the Eddington luminosity.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ec7087311e33985b862169a5e433501d02a8b97a

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Citations in the corpus

Observational evidence of quasar feedback quenching star formation at high redshift (2011, background): “…are expectedto drive powerful outflows that eventually expel most of the gas in their host galaxies, thereby quenching both star formation and further black hole accretion (Granato et al., 2004; Di Matteo etal., 2005; Menci et al., 2005; Bower et al., 2006; Hopkins et al., 2008; King, 2010, e.g. ).”
The physics of galactic winds driven by active galactic nuclei (2012, background): “In terms of both luminosity and energy band, the most promising signature of the thermal electrons is the inverse Compton continuum that they should produce at ∼ kTX ∼ keV when they interact with the AGN radiation field (see also King 2010).”
Unification of X-ray winds in Seyfert galaxies: from ultra-fast outflows to warm absorbers (2012, background): “Regarding this last point, we note that King (2010b) discussed the possibility that bright AGNs, such as those discussed here, could actually be closer to Eddington due to uncertainties on the black hole mass and bolometric luminosity estimates.”
What drives the growth of black holes (2011, methodology): “This model also predicts that BHs in AGN should in general be accreting near the Eddington limit, and growing up toward the MBH–σ relation that is observed for passive systems (King, 2010a).”
Energy, momentum and mass outflows and feedback from thick accretion discs around rotating black holes (2013, background): “Given the very large size ratio ∼108 and mass ratio ∼103 between the galaxy bulge and the SMBH, it is reasonable to assume that the coupling occurs via feedback of energy or momentum (e.g. Silk & Rees 1998; King 2003, 2005, 2010; Hopkins, Murray & Thompson 2009).”
Very extended cold gas, star formation and outflows in the halo of a bright QSO at z>6 (2014, methodology): “…scale outflows are generated by hydrodynamical coupling of the AGN with the galaxy ISM through fast winds originating from the accretion disk (e.g. King 2003, 2005, 2010; Lapi et al. 2005; Menci et al. 2006, 2008; Zubovas & King 2012, 2014; Faucher-Giguère & Quataert 2012; Costa et al. 2014b…”
Massive molecular outflows and evidence for AGN feedback from CO observations (2013, background): “…still being debated (e.g. Silk & Rees 1998; Granato et al. 2004; Lapi et al. 2005; Di Matteo et al. 2005; Springel et al. 2005; Croton et al. 2006; Hopkins et al. 2008; Menci et al. 2008; Narayanan et al. 2008; Fabian et al. 2009; King 2010; Zubovas & King 2012; Faucher-Giguère & Quataert 2012).”
Cold Molecular Outflows in the Local Universe and Their Feedback Effect on Galaxies (2018, background): “Radiation pressure-driven outflows can reach (voutfṀoutf )/(LAGN/c) ∼ 5:1.”
Ionised outflows in z $\sim$ 2.4 quasar host galaxies (2015, methodology): “…drive energetic outflows that expel gas at large scales from their host galaxies (e.g Granato et al. 2004, Di Matteo et al. 2005, Menci et al. 2008, King 2010, Zubovas & King 2012, Fabian 2012, FaucherGiguère & Quataert 2012, Zubovas & King 2014, Nayakshin 2014, Costa et al. 2014, Costa et al.…”
Observations of feedback from radio-quiet quasars – II. Kinematics of ionized gas nebulae (2013, result): “Our derived values of outflow velocities and mass outflow rates are not dissimilar from those predicted by models of feedback necessary to regulate the black hole/galaxy correlations (King 2010; Zubovas & King 2012).”
FEEDBACK FROM CENTRAL BLACK HOLES IN ELLIPTICAL GALAXIES. III. MODELS WITH BOTH RADIATIVE AND MECHANICAL FEEDBACK (2010, methodology): “…of radiation feedback we consider, in addition to radiation pressure (whose importance is well recognized, e.g, see Nayakshin & Power 2010, King 2010, and references therein), calculated by solving the trasport equation for the SMBH accretion luminosity and the starburst luminosity (CO07…”
Hot Accretion Flows Around Black Holes (2014, background): “However, momentum feedback can more effectively push the surrounding gas and may be equally important for controlling the growth of the black hole and switching off star formation (King 2003, 2005, 2010; Ostriker et al. 2010; Debuhr et al. 2010; Silk 2013).”
STELLAR VELOCITY DISPERSION MEASUREMENTS IN HIGH-LUMINOSITY QUASAR HOSTS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE AGN BLACK HOLE MASS SCALE (2013, methodology): “The idea of a nonuniversal MBH–σ∗ relation has been supported by theoretical work as well (e.g., King 2010; Zubovas & King 2012), which has also suggested that the relation may depend on environment.”
Powerful Outflows and Feedback from Active Galactic Nuclei (2015, unknown): “…model for the shocked wind in NGC 4051 More complete modelling of both RGS and EPIC pn absorption spectra of NGC 4051 found a highly significant correlation of outflow velocity and ionization state (figure 5), as expected from mass conservation in a post–shock flow (King 2010, Pounds & King 2013).”
Evidence for ultra-fast outflows in radio-quiet AGNs - I. Detection and statistical incidence of Fe K-shell absorption lines (2010, background): “…here we focus our analysis on the blue-shifted Fe K absorption lines because their less ambiguous interpretation and modeling make them a fundamental diagnostic tool for the study of accretion disk winds/outflows in AGNs (e.g., Sim et al. 2008; Schurch et al. 2009; King 2010; Sim et al. 2010).”
Evidence of strong quasar feedback in the early Universe (2012, background): “…the bulk of their gas, therefore quenching star formation (Silk & Rees 1998; Granato et al. 2004; Di Matteo et al. 2005; Springel et al. 2005; Croton et al. 2006; Narayanan et al. 2008; Hopkins et al. 2008; Fabian et al. 2009; King 2010; King et al. 2011; Hopkins & Elvis 2010; Zubovas & King 2012).”