A systematic study of the ultra-fast outflow responses to luminosity variations in active galactic nuclei

¹ INAF – IASF Palermo, Via U. La Malfa 153, 90146 Palermo, Italy
² Università degli Studi di Palermo, Dipartimento di Fisica e Chimica, Via Archirafi 36, 90123 Palermo, Italy
e-mail: yerong.xu@inaf.it
³ MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139 USA
⁴ Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, 5640 S Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60637 USA
⁵ Université de Toulouse, CNRS, IRAP, 9 Avenue du colonel Roche, BP 44346, 31028 Toulouse Cedex 4, France
⁶ Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Via della Vasca Navale 84, 00146 Roma, Italy
⁷ ESA European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), Keplerlaan 1, 2201 AZ Noordwijk, The Netherlands
⁸ Telespazio UK for the European Space Agency (ESA), European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC), Camino Bajo del Castillo, s/n, 28692 Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain
⁹ Centre for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield, AL10 9AB UK

Received: 18 December 2023
Accepted: 11 May 2024

Abstract

Context. Ultra-fast outflows (UFOs) have been revealed in a large number of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the past two decades. Their extreme velocities and high ionization states make them a promising candidate for AGN feedback on the evolution of the host galaxy. However, their exact underlying driving mechanism is not yet fully understood.

Aims. Given that the variability of UFOs may be used to distinguish among different launching mechanisms, we aim to search for and characterize the responses of the UFO properties to the variable irradiating luminosity.

Methods. We perform a high-resolution time- and flux-resolved spectroscopy of archival XMM-Newton observations on six highly accreting narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies, selected by UFO detection and sufficient exposure times. The state-of-the-art methods of the blind Gaussian line scan and photoionization model scan are used to identify UFO solutions. We search for ionized winds and investigate the structure of ionized winds and their responses to the luminosity variations. The location, density, and kinetic energy of UFOs are estimated as well.

Results. The powerful photoionization model scan reveals three previously unreported UFOs in RE J1034+396, PG 1244+026 and I ZW 1 with a detection significance above 3σ, and two new warm absorbers (WAs) in RE J1034+396. Five out of six (83%) AGN in our sample host multi-phase ionized winds, where outflows in I ZW 1 are energy-conserved. The relatively low-ionization entrained UFOs are discovered in four (66%) AGN of our sample, supporting the shocked outflow interpretation for ionized winds in AGN. We notice that two out of seven (28%) UFOs in our sample seem to respond to the radiation field and three (43%) UFOs hint at a radiatively accelerated nature, requiring further observations. Combined with published works, we do not find any correlations between UFO responses and AGN properties except for a tentative (∼1.8σ) anti-correlation between the UFO acceleration and the Eddington ratio, to be confirmed by further observations and an enlarged sample. The kinetic energy of UFOs, mostly detected in soft X-rays, is found to have a large uncertainty. We, therefore, cannot conclude whether soft X-ray UFOs have sufficient energy to drive the AGN feedback, although they are very promising based on some reasonable assumptions. The primary UFO in I ZW 1 (detected in the hard X-ray) is the only case in our sample to possess conclusively sufficient energy to affect the host galaxy.