ترغب بنشر مسار تعليمي؟ اضغط هنا

A Physical Model of FeLoBALs: Implications for Quasar Feedback

56   0   0.0 ( 0 )
 نشر من قبل Claude-Andre Faucher-Giguere
 تاريخ النشر 2011
  مجال البحث فيزياء
والبحث باللغة English




اسأل ChatGPT حول البحث

Photoionization modeling of the low-ionization broad absorption lines of certain quasars, known as FeLoBALs, has recently revealed the number density of the wind absorbers and their distance from the central supermassive black hole. From these, the feedback efficiency of the quasars can in principle be derived. The implied properties of the FeLoBALs are, however, surprising, with the thickness of the absorbers relative to their distance from the black hole, Delta R/R, as small as ~10^-5. Such absorbers are unlikely to survive the journey from the supermassive black hole to their inferred location. We show that the observed FeLoBAL properties are readily explained if they are formed in situ in radiative shocks produced when a quasar blast wave impacts a moderately dense interstellar clump along the line of sight. This physical picture differs significantly from the thin shell approximation often assumed, and implies outflow rates, kinetic luminosities and momentum fluxes that differ correspondingly, in some cases at the order of magnitude level. Using the radiative shock model, we estimate the ratio of the outflow kinetic luminosity to bolometric luminosity for three bright FeLoBAL quasars in the literature. We find Edot/Lbol~2-5% (and corresponding momentum fluxes Pdot~2-15 Lbol/c), similar to what is adopted in models reproducing the M-sigma relation. These outflow properties are also comparable to those recently inferred for molecular outflows in local ultra-luminous infrared galaxies, suggesting that active galactic nuclei are capable of driving such outflows.

قيم البحث

اقرأ أيضاً

Several analytic and numerical studies have indicated that the interstellar medium of a quasar host galaxy heated by feedback can contribute to a substantial secondary signal in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) through the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldov ich (SZ) effect. Recently, many groups have tried to detect this signal by cross-correlating CMB maps with quasar catalogs. Using a self-similar model for the gas in the intra-cluster medium and a realistic halo occupation distribution (HOD) prescription for quasars we estimate the level of SZ signal from gravitational heating of quasar hosts. The bias in the host halo signal estimation due to unconstrained high mass HOD tail and yet unknown redshift dependence of the quasar HOD restricts us from drawing any robust conclusions at low redshift (z<1.5) from our analysis. However, at higher redshifts (z>2.5), we find an excess signal in recent observations than what is predicted from our model. The excess signal could be potentially generated from additional heating due to quasar feedback.
Most galaxy evolutionary models require quasar feedback to regulate star formation in their host galaxies. In particular, at high redshift, models expect that feedback associated with quasar-driven outflows is so efficient that the gas in the host ga laxy is largely swept away or heated up, hence suppressing star formation in massive galaxies. We observationally investigate this phenomenon by using VLT-SINFONI integral field spectroscopy of the luminous quasar 2QZJ002830.4-281706 at z=2.4. The spectra sample the optical emission lines redshifted into the near-IR. The [OIII]5007 emission-line kinematics map reveals a massive outflow on scales of several kpc. The detection of narrow Halpha emission reveals star formation in the quasar host galaxy, with SFR=100 Msun/yr. However, the star formation is not distributed uniformly, but is strongly suppressed in the region with the highest outflow velocity and highest velocity dispersion. This result indicates that star formation in this region is strongly quenched by the quasar outflow, which is cleaning the galaxy disk of its molecular gas. This is one of the first direct observational proofs of quasar feedback quenching the star formation at high redshift.
By means of zoom-in hydrodynamic simulations we quantify the amount of neutral hydrogen (HI) hosted by groups and clusters of galaxies. Our simulations, which are based on an improved formulation of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH), include radi ative cooling, star formation, metal enrichment and supernova feedback, and can be split in two different groups, depending on whether feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN) is turned on or off. Simulations are analyzed to account for HI self-shielding and the presence of molecular hydrogen. We find that the mass in neutral hydrogen of dark matter halos monotonically increases with the halo mass and can be well described by a power-law of the form $M_{rm HI}(M,z)propto M^{3/4}$. Our results point out that AGN feedback reduces both the total halo mass and its HI mass, although it is more efficient in removing HI. We conclude that AGN feedback reduces the neutral hydrogen mass of a given halo by $sim50%$, with a weak dependence on halo mass and redshift. The spatial distribution of neutral hydrogen within halos is also affected by AGN feedback, whose effect is to decrease the fraction of HI that resides in the halo inner regions. By extrapolating our results to halos not resolved in our simulations we derive astrophysical implications from the measurements of $Omega_{rm HI}(z)$: halos with circular velocities larger than $sim25~{rm km/s}$ are needed to host HI in order to reproduce observations. We find that only the model with AGN feedback is capable of reproducing the value of $Omega_{rm HI}b_{rm HI}$ derived from available 21cm intensity mapping observations.
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 reds hift 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 n_e (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 U_H = -1.93 +/- 0.21 and a hydrogen column density of log N_H (cm^-2) = 20.80 +/- 0.28. This places the outflow at 3.3+1.5-1.0 kpc from the central 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) x 10^45 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.
We use supernovae measurements, calibrated by the local determination of the Hubble constant $H_0$ by SH0ES, to interpolate the distance-redshift relation using Gaussian process regression. We then predict, independent of the cosmological model, the distances that are measured with strong lensing time delays. We find excellent agreement between these predictions and the measurements. The agreement holds when we consider only the redshift dependence of the distance-redshift relation, independent of the value of $H_0$. Our results disfavor the possibility that lens mass modeling contributes a 10% bias or uncertainty in the strong lensing analysis, as suggested recently in the literature. In general our analysis strengthens the case that residual systematic errors in both measurements are below the level of the current discrepancy with the CMB determination of $H_0$, and supports the possibility of new physical phenomena on cosmological scales. With additional data our methodology can provide more stringent tests of unaccounted for systematics in the determinations of the distance-redshift relation in the late universe.
التعليقات
جاري جلب التعليقات جاري جلب التعليقات
سجل دخول لتتمكن من متابعة معايير البحث التي قمت باختيارها
mircosoft-partner

هل ترغب بارسال اشعارات عن اخر التحديثات في شمرا-اكاديميا