Probing AGN Outflows with Variability Smita Mathur Ohio State Collaborators: Yair Krongold, Fabrizio Nicastro, Anjali Gupta Nancy Brickhouse, Martin Elvis

Outburst in NGC 2617

Seyfert 1.8  Seyfert 1

Swift monitoring + XMM

Outflows are ubiquitous Seen in 50% of Seyfert galaxies. Seen in 50% of Seyfert galaxies. NGC 3783 HST and FUSE

Kaspi +

Physical models of outflow Accretion disk winds: Proga et al. Accretion disk winds: Proga et al. - small physical scale - small physical scale Winds off obscuring torus: Krolik & Kriss Winds off obscuring torus: Krolik & Kriss - on pc to 10s of pc scale - on pc to 10s of pc scale Outflowing NLR Outflowing NLR Host galaxy ISM Host galaxy ISM

Disk winds Elvis 2000

Proga +

AGN outflows Ubiquitous Ubiquitous Location, physical properties not well known until recently Location, physical properties not well known until recently Accretion disk winds? Accretion disk winds? Dependence on black hole mass/ Eddington luminosity ratio Dependence on black hole mass/ Eddington luminosity ratio

What is the distance of the absorber from the nucleus? Proposals span a factor of > 10 6 from accretion disk to Kpc scale from accretion disk to Kpc scale narrow line region narrow line region n R 2

How to measure the density? Metastable absorption lines. Metastable absorption lines. - He I *, C II *, C III * - He I *, C II *, C III * - low ionization lines : distinct parameter - low ionization lines : distinct parameter space space - Non-detection NOT constraining - Non-detection NOT constraining Variability Variability

Variability DensityDistance

There can be variability due to absorber crossing line of sight. But But Absorber must vary in responses to changes in ionizing continuum.

Why is this a hard measurement? X-rays: Integration times too large X-rays: Integration times too large (one day = 86.4 ks) (one day = 86.4 ks) UV: need many observations with dense time sampling  lots of HST orbits UV: need many observations with dense time sampling  lots of HST orbits

XMM Observations of NGC 4051 RGS  High resolution spectrum RGS  High resolution spectrum EPIC  Variability EPIC  Variability

The Powerful UTA

Time 10 4 s Log U Log count rate

Krongold et al. 2007

R (HIP) = lt days. ( R S ) R (LIP) = < 3.5 lt days. (< R S ) BH mass in NGC 4051 is 2 x 10 6 M ⊙

The outflow is clearly compact …consistent with an accretion disk origin. Rule out various models: - wind off torus edge (Krolik & Kriss) - wind off torus edge (Krolik & Kriss) - continuous range of ionization - continuous range of ionization parameter (Ogle et al.) parameter (Ogle et al.)

Mass & Energy outflow rates HIP & LIP mass outflow rates: ~ 1 x M ⊙ yr -1 ~ 1 x M ⊙ yr -1 c.f. accretion rate: ~ 5 x M ⊙ yr -1

Kinetic power released: ~10 38 erg/s c.f. bolometric luminosity: 2.5 x erg/s Energy injection rate in the surrounding medium is significantly smaller than that required by feedback models Scannapieco Silk

Observational evidence for accretion disk winds is scarce Short time-scale variability remains an unexplored region of the parameter space.

Sparse sampling naturally leads to large radial distance. Sparse sampling naturally leads to large radial distance. Often radial distance is assumed to be that with escape velocity = outflow velocity. Often radial distance is assumed to be that with escape velocity = outflow velocity. Distance derived from metastable states is assumed for high ionization outflow. Distance derived from metastable states is assumed for high ionization outflow.

…..But what about luminous quasars? Dietrich et al. in prep.

L Z Merger Secular Seyferts are NOT scaled down Quasars

Future directions Intra-day time resolved spectroscopy Intra-day time resolved spectroscopy X-ray: XMM advantage X-ray: XMM advantage -- CCD and gratings -- CCD and gratings UV: HST COS UV: HST COS -- exquisite sensitivity -- exquisite sensitivity

Discovery of relativistic outflows in soft X-rays

Robust detection V ~ 0.1c Gupta et al. 2013

Magneto-hydrodynamic wind? Gupta et al. 2013b

Stay tuned….