XRISM Spectroscopy of Accretion-driven Wind Feedback in NGC 4151
The hottest, most ionized, and fastest winds driven by accretion onto massive black holes have the potential to reshape their host galaxies. Calorimeter-resolution X-ray spectroscopy is the ideal tool to understand this feedback mode, as it enables accurate estimates of the physical characteristics...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | The Astrophysical Journal Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/adee9b |
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| Summary: | The hottest, most ionized, and fastest winds driven by accretion onto massive black holes have the potential to reshape their host galaxies. Calorimeter-resolution X-ray spectroscopy is the ideal tool to understand this feedback mode, as it enables accurate estimates of the physical characteristics needed to determine the wind’s kinetic power. We report on a photoionization analysis of five observations of the Seyfert 1.5 galaxy NGC 4151, obtained with XRISM/Resolve in 2023 and 2024. In the Fe K band, individual spectra require as many as six wind absorption components. Slow “warm absorbers” (WAs; v _out ∼ 100–1000 km s ^−1 ), “very fast outflows” (VFOs; v _out ∼ 10 ^3 –10 ^4 km s ^−1 ), and “ultrafast outflows” (UFOs; v _out ∼ 10 ^4 –10 ^5 km s ^−1 or 0.033–0.33 c ) are detected simultaneously and indicate a stratified, multiphase wind. Fast and variable emission components suggest that the wind is axially asymmetric. All of the wind components have mass flow rates comparable to or in excess of the mass accretion rate, though the slowest zones may be “failed” winds that do not escape. Two UFO components have kinetic luminosities that exceed the theoretical threshold of L _kin ≥ 0.5% L _Edd necessary to strip the host bulge of gas and halt star formation, even after corrections for plausible filling factors. The bulk properties of the observed winds are consistent with magnetocentrifugal driving, where the density depends on the radius as n ∝ r ^−1.5 , but radiative driving and other mechanisms may also be important. Numerous complexities and variability require further analysis. |
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| ISSN: | 2041-8205 |