2003/05/31 by K. A. Pounds, A. R. King, K. L. Page +2 · 7 citations
Decision Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Accretion (finance) #Active galactic nucleus #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Ion #Ionization #Line (geometry) #Outflow #Physics #Quasar #Radiation pressure #Scientific Measurement and Uncertainty Evaluation #Spectral line #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2003.07164.x
published as Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 346 (2003) 1025 · 7 pages, 4 figures, accepted by MNRAS
arxiv created 2003/08/26 · openalex publication_date 2003/12/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Following the discovery of X-ray absorption in a high-velocity outflow from the bright quasar PG 1211 + 143 we have searched for similar features in XMM–Newton archival data of a second (high accretion rate) quasar PG 0844+349. Evidence is found for several faint absorption lines in both the EPIC and RGS spectra, whose most likely identification with resonance transitions in H-like Fe, S and Ne implies an origin in highly ionized matter with an outflow velocity of order ∼0.2c. The line equivalent widths require a line-of-sight column density of NH∼ 4 × 1023 cm−2, at an ionization parameter of log ξ∼ 3.7. Assuming a radial outflow being driven by radiation pressure from the inner accretion disc, as suggested previously for PG 1211 + 143, the flow in PG 0844+349 is also likely to be optically thick, in this case within ∼25 Schwarzschild radii. Our analysis suggests that a high-velocity, highly ionized outflow is likely to be a significant component in the mass and energy budgets of active galactic nuclei accreting at or above the Eddington rate.