English

Magnetically-Driven Accretion-Disk Winds and Ultra-Fast Outflows in PG1211+143

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2015-05-27 v3

Abstract

We present a study of X-ray ionization of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) accretion-disk winds in an effort to constrain the physics underlying the highly-ionized ultra-fast outflows (UFOs) inferred by X-ray absorbers often detected in various sub-classes of Seyfert active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Our primary focus is to show that magnetically-driven outflows are indeed physically plausible candidates for the observed outflows accounting for the AGN absorption properties of the present X-ray spectroscopic observations. Employing a stratified MHD wind launched across the entire AGN accretion disk, we calculate its X-ray ionization and the ensuing X-ray absorption line spectra. Assuming an appropriate ionizing AGN spectrum, we apply our MHD winds to model the absorption features in an {\it XMM-Newton}/EPIC spectrum of the narrow-line Seyfert, \pg. We find, through identifying the detected features with Fe Kα\alpha transitions, that the absorber has a characteristic ionization parameter of log(ξc[erg cm s\log (\xi_c [erg~cm~s^{-1}])56]) \simeq 5-6 and a column density on the order of NH1023N_H \simeq 10^{23} cm2^{-2}, outflowing at a characteristic velocity of vc/c0.10.2v_c/c \simeq 0.1-0.2 (where cc is the speed of light). The best-fit model favors its radial location at rc200Ror_c \simeq 200 R_o (RoR_o is the black hole innermost stable circular orbit), with an inner wind truncation radius at Rt30RoR_{\rm t} \simeq 30 R_o. The overall K-shell feature in the data is suggested to be dominated by \fexxv\ with very little contribution from \fexxvi\ and weakly-ionized iron, which is in a good agreement with a series of earlier analysis of the UFOs in various AGNs including \pg.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1503.04074,
  title  = {Magnetically-Driven Accretion-Disk Winds and Ultra-Fast Outflows in PG1211+143},
  author = {Keigo Fukumura and Francesco Tombesi and Demosthenes Kazanas and Chris Shrader and Ehud Behar and Ioannis Contopoulos},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1503.04074},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

v.3 as of 5/6/15 with eliminating extra figs: accepted to ApJ, 28 pages, figs.1-6 (color), 3 tables

R2 v1 2026-06-22T08:52:20.175Z