Evidence for quasar fast outflows being accelerated at the scale of tens of parsecs

He, Zhicheng; Liu, Guilin; Wang, Tinggui; Mou, Guobin; Green, Richard F.; Bian, Wei-Hao; Wang, Huiyuan; Ho, Luis C.; Shen, Lu; Arav, Nahum; Chen, Chen; Wu, Qingwen; Guo, Hengxiao; Lin, Zhoubin; Li, Junyao; Yi, Weimin

doi:10.1126/sciadv.abk3291

Cited by 19 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…We initiate the outflowing motion by artificially placing a nozzle in the galactic center. The initial kinetic energy (at the nozzle) is chosen on the basis of the observed power of broad absorption line (BAL) outflows found in the range of 1 to 10% of their L Edd (29,34,(42)(43)(44)(45). The half-opening angle of the wind and the ionization cones are assumed to be the same (Φ = 45°).…”

Section: Simulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discovery of spectacular quasar-driven superbubbles in red quasars

Shen

Liu

et al. 2023

Sci. Adv.

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Quasar-driven outflows on galactic scales are a routinely invoked ingredient for galaxy formation models. We report the discovery of ionized gas nebulae surrounding three luminous red quasars at z ~ 0.4 from Gemini integral field unit observations. All these nebulae feature unprecedented pairs of “superbubbles” extending ~20 kpc in diameter, and the line-of-sight velocity difference between the red- and blueshifted bubbles reaches up to ~1200 km/s. Their spectacular dual-bubble morphology (in analogy to the galactic “Fermi bubbles”) and their kinematics provide unambiguous evidence for galaxy-wide quasar-driven outflows, in parallel with the quasi-spherical outflows similar in size from luminous type 1 and type 2 quasars at concordant redshift. These bubble pairs manifest themselves as a signpost of the short-lived superbubble “break-out” phase, when the quasar wind drives the bubbles to escape the confinement from the dense environment and plunge into the galactic halo with a high-velocity expansion.

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Section: Simulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discovery of spectacular quasar-driven superbubbles in red quasars

Shen

Liu

et al. 2023

Sci. Adv.

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“…In terms of the theory, although some hydrodynamic simulations demonstrate that the outflow could be accelerating on the scale of 10 kpc (Mitchell et al 2020), most simulations of the accelerating outflow only focus on the scale of 1 kpc (Tanner & Weaver 2022). In terms of the observations, the accelerating outflows are only observed on the scale of hundreds of parsec to 1 kpc (Santoro et al 2020;He et al 2022). Although Rupke et al (2019) directly image the AGN feedback on the physical scale of 100 kpc at z ≈ 0.5, previous observations reveal that the outflow is mostly decelerating on the large scale (Kacprzak et al 2019;Ng et al 2019;Rupke et al 2019).…”

Section: Outflow Scenariomentioning

confidence: 99%

Revealing the Gas Recycling in the Circumgalactic Medium (CGM) Utilizing a Luminous Lya Nebula around a Type II Quasar at z = 2.6 with the Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI)

Zhang

Cai

et al. 2023

ApJ

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How galaxies acquire material from the circumgalactic medium is a key question in galaxy evolution. Recent observations and simulations show that gas recycling could be an important avenue for star formation. This paper presents Keck Cosmic Web Imager integral field unit spectroscopic observations on a type II quasar, Q1517 + 0055 at z = 2.65, a pilot study of our Lyα nebulae sample at z ≈ 2. We revealed diffuse emission of the Lyα 1216, He ii 1640, and C iv 1549 on the projected physical scale of 122, 45, and 79 kpc, respectively. The total Lyα luminosity is L Lyα = 3.04 ± 0.02 × 1044 erg s−1. The line ratio diagnostics shows that He II/Lyα ≈ 0.08, and C IV/Lyα ≈ 0.28, consistent with the photoionization including recombination and photon pumping. We also identify the associated H i and C iv absorption from the spectra. By fitting the spectra, we derive both the column density and the velocity. We find that the velocity profile from both the absorption and the He ii emission exhibit increasing trends. Moreover, both the line ratio diagnostic from the emission and the column density ratio from the absorption confirm that the cool gas metallicity is ≥Z ⊙. From detailed modeling and estimation, gas recycling might be a more plausible interpretation compared with the scenario of a powerful outflow.

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“…The supermassive black hole and powerful outflows-jets of quasars might significantly affect surrounding environments via strong feedbacks (e.g., Chen et al 2022a;Zhu et al 2022), leading to the properties of quasar CGMs substantially differing from those of normal galaxies. The strong radiation originated from quasar might photoionize, and even photoevaporate surrounding gas from tens of kiloparsecs to a few megaparsecs (e.g., Wild et al 2008;Tytler et al 2009;Prochaska et al 2014;Johnson et al 2015;Jalan et al 2019;He et al 2022). In addition, the strong directional jet probably gives rise to an anisotropic gas halo around quasar (e.g., Antonucci 1993;Elvis 2000;Hennawi & Prochaska 2007;Farina et al 2014;Almeyda et al 2017;Jalan et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Study of the Circumgalactic Medium with Quasar Pairs

Chen¹,

Qin²,

Cai³

et al. 2023

ApJS

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We have collected 10,025 foreground–background quasar pairs with projected distances d p < 500 kpc from the large quasar catalog of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR16Q. We investigate the properties of the Mg ii absorption lines with W r > 0.15 Å around foreground quasars, including both the line of sight (LOS; of foreground quasars) and transverse (TRA; perpendicular to the LOS) absorptions. Both the equivalent width (the correlation coefficient ρ = −0.915 and the probability P < 10−4 of no correlation) and incident rate (ρ = −0.964 and P < 10−6) of TRA Mg ii absorption lines are obviously anticorrelated with projected distance. The incident rate of TRA Mg ii absorption lines is obviously (>4σ) greater than that of LOS Mg ii absorption lines at projected distances d p < 200 kpc, while the TRA and LOS Mg ii both have similar (<3σ) incident rates at scales d p > 200 kpc. The anisotropic radiation from quasars would be the most possible interpretation for the anisotropic absorption around quasars. This could also indicate that the quasar radiation is not obviously impacting the gas halos of quasars at scales d p > 200 kpc.

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Evidence for quasar fast outflows being accelerated at the scale of tens of parsecs

Cited by 19 publications

References 76 publications

Discovery of spectacular quasar-driven superbubbles in red quasars

Discovery of spectacular quasar-driven superbubbles in red quasars

Revealing the Gas Recycling in the Circumgalactic Medium (CGM) Utilizing a Luminous Lya Nebula around a Type II Quasar at z = 2.6 with the Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI)

The Study of the Circumgalactic Medium with Quasar Pairs

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