ABSTRACT
In the Hubble Space Telescope/Cosmic Origins Spectrograph spectrum of the Seyfert 1 galaxy 2MASX J14292507+4518318, we have identified a narrow absorption line outflow system with a velocity ...of −151 km s−1. This outflow exhibits absorption troughs from the resonance states of ions like C iv, N v, S iv, and Si ii, as well as excited states from C ii* and Si ii*. Our investigation of the outflow involved measuring ionic column densities and conducting photoionization analysis. These allow the total column density of the outflow to be estimated as log NH = 19.84 cm−2, its ionization parameter to be log UH = −2.0, and its electron number density to be log ne = 2.75 cm−3. These measurements enabled us to determine the mass-loss rate and the kinetic luminosity of the outflow system to be $\dot{M}$ = 0.22 $\mathrm{ M}_{\odot } \, \mathrm{ yr}^{-1}$ and $\log \dot{E_{\mathrm{ K}}}$ = 39.3 erg s−1, respectively. We have also measured the location of the outflow system to be at ∼275 pc from the central source. This outflow does not contribute to the active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback processes due to the low ratio of the outflow’s kinetic luminosity to the AGN’s Eddington luminosity ($\dot{E_{\mathrm{ K}}}/{L_{\mathrm{ Edd}}}\approx 0.00025 {{\, \rm per\, cent}}$). This outflow is remarkably similar to the two bipolar lobe outflows observed in the Milky Way by XMM–Newton and Chandra.
In 2014 the NGC 5548 Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping campaign discovered a two-month anomaly when variations in the absorption and emission lines decorrelated from continuum ...variations. During this time the soft X-ray part of the intrinsic spectrum had been strongly absorbed by a line-of-sight (LOS) obscurer, which was interpreted as the upper part of a disk wind. Our first paper showed that changes in the LOS obscurer produces the decorrelation between the absorption lines and the continuum. A second study showed that the base of the wind shields the broad emission-line region (BLR), leading to the emission-line decorrelation. In that study, we proposed the wind is normally transparent with no effect on the spectrum. Changes in the wind properties alter its shielding and affect the spectral energy distribution (SED) striking the BLR, producing the observed decorrelations. In this work we investigate the impact of a translucent wind on the emission lines. We simulate the obscuration using XMM-Newton, NuSTAR, and Hubble Space Telescope observations to determine the physical characteristics of the wind. We find that a translucent wind can contribute a part of the He ii and Fe K emission. It has a modest optical depth to electron scattering, which explains the fainter far-side emission in the observed velocity-delay maps. The wind produces the very broad base seen in the UV emission lines and may also be present in the Fe K line. Our results highlight the importance of accounting for the effects of such winds in the analysis of the physics of the central engine.
The 180 day Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping campaign on NGC 5548 discovered an anomalous period, the broad-line region (BLR) holiday, in which the emission lines decorrelated from ...the continuum variations. This is important since the correlation between the continuum-flux variations and the emission-line response is the basic assumption for black hole (BH) mass determinations through reverberation mapping. During the BLR holiday the high-ionization intrinsic absorption lines also decorrelated from the continuum as a result of the variable covering factor of the line-of-sight (LOS) obscurer. The emission lines are not confined to the LOS, so this does not explain the BLR holiday. If the LOS obscurer is a disk wind, its streamlines must extend down to the plane of the disk and the base of the wind would lie between the BH and the BLR, forming an equatorial obscurer. This obscurer can be transparent to ionizing radiation, or can be translucent, blocking only parts of the spectral energy distribution, depending on its density. An emission-line holiday is produced if the wind density increases only slightly above its transparent state. Both obscurers are parts of the same wind, so they can have associated behavior in a way that explains both holidays. A very dense wind would block nearly all ionizing radiation, producing a Seyfert 2 and possibly providing a contributor to the changing-look active galactic nucleus phenomenon. Disk winds are very common and we propose that the equatorial obscurers are too, but mostly in a transparent state.
The Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project (AGN STORM) on NGC 5548 in 2014 is one of the most intensive multiwavelength AGN monitoring campaigns ever. For most of the campaign, the ...emission-line variations followed changes in the continuum with a time lag, as expected. However, the lines varied independently of the observed UV-optical continuum during a 60-70 day "holiday," suggesting that unobserved changes to the ionizing continuum were present. To understand this remarkable phenomenon and to obtain an independent assessment of the ionizing continuum variations, we study the intrinsic absorption lines present in NGC 5548. We identify a novel cycle that reproduces the absorption line variability and thus identify the physics that allows the holiday to occur. In this cycle, variations in this obscurer's line-of-sight covering factor modify the soft X-ray continuum, changing the ionization of helium. Ionizing radiation produced by recombining helium then affects the level of ionization of some ions seen by the Hubble Space Telescope. In particular, high-ionization species are affected by changes in the obscurer covering factor, which does not affect the optical or UV continuum, and thus appear as uncorrelated changes, a "holiday." It is likely that any other model that selectively changes the soft X-ray part of the continuum during the holiday can also explain the anomalous emission-line behavior observed.
ABSTRACT
At intermediate to high densities, electron (de-)excitation collisions are the dominant process for populating or depopulating high Rydberg states. In particular, the accurate knowledge of ...the energy changing (n-changing) collisional rates is determinant for predicting the radio recombination spectra of gaseous nebula. The different data sets present in the literature come either from impact parameter calculations or semi-empirical fits and the rate coefficients agree within a factor of 2. We show in this paper that these uncertainties cause errors lower than 5 per cent in the emission of radio recombination lines of most ionized plasmas of typical nebulae. However, in special circumstances where the transitions between Rydberg levels are amplified by maser effects, the errors can increase up to 20 per cent. We present simulations of the optical depth and Hnα line emission of active galactic nuclei broad-line regions and the Orion Nebula Blister to showcase our findings.
Abstract
The unusual behavior of the spectral lines of NGC5548 during the STORM campaign demonstrated a missing piece in the structure of AGNs. For a two-month period in the middle of the campaign, ...the spectral lines showed a deficit in flux and a reduced response to the variations of the UV continuum. This was the first time that this behavior was unequivocally observed in an AGN. Our previous papers explained this as being due to a variable disk wind that acts as a shield and alters the SED. Here, we use Cloudy to create an atlas of photoionization models for a variety of disk winds, in order to study their effects on the SED. We show that the winds have three different cases: Case 1 winds are transparent, fully ionized, and have minimal effects on the intrinsic SED, although they can produce some line emission, especially He
ii
or FeK
α
. We propose that this is the situation in most of the AGNs. Case 2 winds, which have a He
++
–He
+
ionization front, block part of the XUV continuum but transmit much of the Lyman continuum. They lead to the observed abnormal behavior. Case 3 winds have a H
+
ionization front and block much of the Lyman continuum. The results show that the presence of these winds has important effects on the spectral lines of AGNs. They will thus have an effect on the measurements of the black hole mass and the geometry of the AGN. This atlas of spectral simulations can serve as a guide to future reverberation campaigns.
We present geometric and dynamical modeling of the broad line region (BLR) for the multi-wavelength reverberation mapping campaign focused on NGC 5548 in 2014. The data set includes photometric and ...spectroscopic monitoring in the optical and ultraviolet, covering the Hβ, C iv, and Ly broad emission lines. We find an extended disk-like Hβ BLR with a mixture of near-circular and outflowing gas trajectories, while the C iv and Ly BLRs are much less extended and resemble shell-like structures. There is clear radial structure in the BLR, with C iv and Ly emission arising at smaller radii than the Hβ emission. Using the three lines, we make three independent black hole mass measurements, all of which are consistent. Combining these results gives a joint inference of log 10 ( M BH M ) = 7.64 − 0.18 + 0.21 . We examine the effect of using the V band instead of the UV continuum light curve on the results and find a size difference that is consistent with the measured UV-optical time lag, but the other structural and kinematic parameters remain unchanged, suggesting that the V band is a suitable proxy for the ionizing continuum when exploring the BLR structure and kinematics. Finally, we compare the Hβ results to similar models of data obtained in 2008 when the active galactic nucleus was at a lower luminosity state. We find that the size of the emitting region increased during this time period, but the geometry and black hole mass remained unchanged, which confirms that the BLR kinematics suitably gauge the gravitational field of the central black hole.
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