http://arxiv.org/abs/2112.06483
Super-massive black holes (SMBHs) spend most of their lifetime accreting from ambient matter at a rate well below the Eddington limit, manifesting themselves as low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (LLAGNs). The prevalence of a hot wind from LLAGNs is a generic prediction by theories and numerical simulations of black hole accretion and is recently becoming a crucial ingredient of AGN kinetic feedback in cosmological simulations of galaxy evolution. However, direct observational evidence for this hot wind is still scarce. In this work, from high-resolution {\it Chandra} grating spectra of the LLAGN in NGC 7213, a nearby Sa galaxy hosting a $\sim10^8\rm~M_\odot$ SMBH, we identify significant Fe XXVI Ly$\alpha$ and Fe XXV K$\alpha$ emission lines with a blueshifted line-of-sight velocity of $\sim1100\rm~km~s^{-1}$. The measured flux ratio between Fe XXVI Ly$\alpha$ and Fe XXV K$\alpha$ suggests that these lines arise from a $\sim16$ keV hot plasma. By confronting these spectral features with synthetic X-ray spectra based on our custom magnetohydrodynamical simulations, we find that the high-velocity, hot plasma in this LLAGN is naturally explained by the putative hot wind driven by the hot accretion flow onto the SMBH. Alternative plausible origins of this hot plasma, including stellar activities, AGN photoionization and the hot accretion flow itself, can be quantitatively ruled out. A mass outflow rate $\sim0.08{\rm~M_{\odot}~yr^{-1}}$ is inferred for the hot wind. This is comparable to an independent estimate of the mass inflow rate, consistent with the prediction of the theory of hot wind. The wind carries a kinetic energy of $\sim3\times10^{42}\rm~erg~s^{-1}$, accounting for 15% of the LLAGN’s bolometric luminosity, and a momentum flux of $\sim4\times10^{33}\rm~g~cm~s^{-1}$, about 6 times the photon momentum flux. (abridged)
F. Shi, B. Zhu, Z. Li, et. al.
Tue, 14 Dec 21
37/98
Comments: 20 pages, 12 figures, submitted