AGN-driven winds through IR emission. II.

DOI

The global influence of AGN-driven outflows remains uncertain, due to a lack of large samples with accurately-determined outflow properties. In the second paper of this series, we determine the mass and energetics of ionized outflows is 234 type II AGN, the largest such sample to date, by combining the infrared emission of the dust in the wind (Paper I, Baron & Netzer, 2019MNRAS.482.3915B) with the emission line properties. We provide new general expressions for the properties of the outflowing gas, which depend on the ionization state of the gas. We also present a novel method to estimate the electron density in the outflow, based on optical line ratios and on the known location of the wind. The inferred electron densities, n_e_~10^4.5^cm^^-3^, are two orders of magnitude larger than typically assumed in most other cases of ionized outflows. We argue that the discrepancy is due to the fact that the commonly-used [SII]-based method underestimates the true density by a large factor. As a result, the inferred mass outflow rates and kinetic coupling efficiencies are dM/dt_out_~10^-2^(dM_{sun}/yr) and epsilon=dE/dt_kin/L_bol_~10^-5^ respectively, 1-2 orders of magnitude lower than previous estimates. Our analysis suggests the existence of a significant amount of neutral atomic gas at the back of the outflowing ionized gas clouds, with mass that is a factor of a few larger than the observed ionized gas mass. This has significant implications for the estimated mass and energetics of such flows.

Cone search capability for table J/MNRAS/486/4290/table (Properties of the 234 type II AGN sample)

Identifier
DOI http://doi.org/10.26093/cds/vizier.74864290
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/486/4290
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/MNRAS/486/4290
Related Identifier https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/486/4290
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/486/4290
Provenance
Creator Baron D.; Netzer H.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 2019
Rights https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.html
OpenAccess true
Contact CDS support team <cds-question(at)unistra.fr>
Representation
Resource Type Dataset; AstroObjects
Discipline Astrophysics and Astronomy; Cosmology; Galactic and extragalactic Astronomy; High Energy Astrophysics; Interdisciplinary Astronomy; Natural Sciences; Observational Astronomy; Physics