No Arabic abstract
Recent advances in observations have provided a wealth of measurements of the expansions of outflows in galactic discs out to large radii in a variety of galactic hosts. To provide an updated baseline for the interpretation of such data, and to assess to what extent the present status of the modeling is consistent with the existing observations, we provide a compact two-dimensional description for the expansion of AGN-driven shocks in realistic galactic discs with exponential gas density profiles in a disc geometry. We derive solutions for the outflow expansion and the mass outflow rates in different directions with respect to the plane of the disc. These are expressed in terms of the global properties of the host galaxy and of the central AGN to allow for an easy and direct comparison with existing observations in a variety of galactic hosts with measured properties, and out to distances $sim 10$ kpc from the centre. The results are compared with a state-of-the-art compilation of observed outflows in 19 galaxies with different measured gas and dynamical mass, allowing for a detailed, one-by-one comparison with the model predictions. The agreement we obtain for a wide range of host galaxy gas mass and AGN bolometric luminosity provides a quantitative systematic test for the modeling of AGN-driven outflows in galactic discs. We also consider a larger sample of galaxies with no reliable measurements of the gas and dynamical mass. In this case we perform a comparison of the model predictions for different bins of AGN luminosities assuming values for the gas mass and dynamical mass derived from scaling relations. The encouraging, quantitative agreement of the model predictions with a wide set of existing observations constitutes a baseline for the interpretation of forthcoming data, and for a more detailed treatment of AGN feedback in galaxy formation models.
The highly energetic outflows from Active Galactic Nuclei detected in X-rays are one of the most powerful mechanisms by which the central supermassive black hole (SMBH) interacts with the host galaxy. The last two decades of high resolution X-ray spectroscopy with XMM and Chandra have improved our understanding of the nature of these outflowing ionized absorbers and we are now poised to take the next giant leap with higher spectral resolution and higher throughput observatories to understand the physics and impact of these outflows on the host galaxy gas. The future studies on X-ray outflows not only have the potential to unravel some of the currently outstanding puzzles in astronomy, such as the physical basis behind the MBH$-sigma$ relation, the cooling flow problem in intra-cluster medium (ICM), and the evolution of the quasar luminosity function across cosmic timescales, but also provide rare insights into the dynamics and nature of matter in the immediate vicinity of the SMBH. Higher spectral resolution ($le 0.5$ eV at $1$ keV) observations will be required to identify individual absorption lines and study the asymmetries and shifts in the line profiles revealing important information about outflow structures and their impact. Higher effective area ($ge 1000 rm ,cm^{2}$) will be required to study the outflows in distant quasars, particularly at the quasar peak era (redshift $1le zle 3$) when the AGN population was the brightest. Thus, it is imperative that we develop next generation X-ray telescopes with high spectral resolution and high throughput for unveiling the properties and impact of highly energetic X-ray outflows. A simultaneous high resolution UV + X-ray mission will encompass the crucial AGN ionizing continuum, and also characterize the simultaneous detections of UV and X-ray outflows, which map different spatial scales along the line of sight.
Outflows from active galactic nuclei (AGN) are one of the fundamental mechanisms by which the central supermassive black hole interacts with its host galaxy. Detected in $ge 50%$ of nearby AGN, these outflows have been found to carry kinetic energy that is a significant fraction of AGN power, and thereby give negative feedback to their host galaxies. To understand the physical processes that regulate them, it is important to have a robust estimate of their physical and dynamical parameters. In this review we summarize our current understanding on the physics of the ionized outflows detected in absorption in the UV and X-ray wavelength bands. We discuss the most relevant observations and our current knowledge and uncertainties in the measurements of the outflow parameters. We also discuss their origin and acceleration mechanisms. The commissioning and concept studies of large telescope missions with high resolution spectrographs in UV/optical and X-rays along with rapid advancements in simulations offer great promise for discoveries in this field over the next decade.
The role of starburst winds versus active galactic nuclei (AGN) jets/winds in the formation of the kiloparsec scale radio emission seen in Seyferts is not yet well understood. In order to be able to disentangle the role of various components, we have observed a sample of Seyfert galaxies exhibiting kpc-scale radio emission suggesting outflows, along with a comparison sample of starburst galaxies, with the EVLA B-array in polarimetric mode at 1.4 GHz and 5~GHz. Polarization is clearly detected in three Seyfert galaxies and one starburst galaxy. The Seyfert galaxy NGC,2639, shows highly polarized secondary radio lobes, not observed before, which are aligned perpendicular to the known pair of radio lobes. The additional pair of lobes represent an older epoch of emission. A multi-epoch multi-frequency study of the starburst-Seyfert composite galaxy NGC,3079, reveals that the jet together with the starburst superwind and the galactic magnetic fields might be responsible for the well-known 8-shaped radio lobes observed in this galaxy. We find that many of the Seyfert galaxies in our sample show bubble-shaped lobes, which are absent in the starburst galaxies that do not host an AGN.
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 energy using the mm/sub-mm published data and the X-ray archival data. Among fourteen Seyfert galaxies whose molecular outflows are detected in the IRAM/PdBI data, eight targets are bright enough to perform spectral fitting in X-ray, and we have detected UFO absorption lines in six targets with 90% significance level, using XMM-Newton and Suzaku satellites. The time-averaged UFO kinetic energy was derived from the spectral fitting. As a result, we have found that the energy-transfer rate (kinetic energy ratio of the molecular outflow to the UFO) ranges from $sim7times10^{-3}$ to $sim$1, and has a negative correlation with the BH mass, which shows that the AGN feedback is more efficient in the lower mass BHs. This tendency is consistent with the theoretical prediction that the cooling time scale of the outflowing gas becomes longer than the flow time scale when the BH mass is smaller.
We study the properties of the host galaxies of Changing-Look Active Galactic Nuclei (CL AGNs) with the aim of understanding the conditions responsible for triggering CL activity. We find that CL AGN hosts primarily reside in the so-called green valley that is located between spiral-like star-forming galaxies and dead ellipticals, implying that CL AGNs are activated during distinct periods of quenching and galaxy transformation processes. CL AGN hosts have low galaxy asymmetry indicators, suggesting that secular evolutionary processes (the influence of bars and spirals, and possibly minor mergers) might be the primary mechanism for transporting gas to the vicinity of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) rather than major mergers. Similar to tidal disruption events (TDEs) and highly variable AGNs, we find that CL AGN hosts are associated with SMBHs residing in high density pseudo-bulges and appear to overlap most significantly with the population of low-ionization nuclear emission-line region (LINER) galaxies. As such, CL AGN are likely fueled by strong episodic bursts of accretion activity, which appear to take place preferentially as the amount of material accessible for star formation and accretion dwindles. We also identify that CL AGN hosts are characterized by either large Sersic indices or high bulge fractions, which suggests a simple metric for identifying candidates for spectroscopic follow-up observations in forthcoming synoptic surveys.