3-D Radiative Transfer Calculations of Radiation Feedback from Massive Black Holes: Outflow of Mass from the Dusty "Torus"

TL;DR

This study uses 3D radiative transfer simulations to show that dust-driven winds from supermassive black holes can carry significant momentum and mass away from the nucleus, influencing galaxy evolution.

Contribution

It provides detailed Monte Carlo radiative transfer calculations of dust-driven outflows near black holes, quantifying momentum flux and mass-loss rates as functions of various parameters.

Findings

Dust-driven winds carry 1-5 times L/c momentum flux.

Mass-loss rates are 10-100 solar masses per year.

Results explain high-velocity outflows in ULIRGs.

Abstract

Observational and theoretical arguments suggest that the momentum carried in mass outflows from AGN can reach several times L / c, corresponding to outflow rates of hundreds of solar masses per year. Radiation pressure on lines alone may not be sufficient to provide this momentum deposition, and the transfer of reprocessed IR radiation in dusty nuclear gas has been postulated to provide the extra enhancement. The efficacy of this mechanism, however, will be sensitive to multi-dimensional effects such as the tendency for the reprocessed radiation to preferentially escape along sight-lines of lower column density. We use Monte Carlo radiative transfer calculations to determine the radiation force on dusty gas residing within approximately 10 parsecs from an accreting super-massive black hole. We calculate the net rate of momentum deposition in the surrounding gas and estimate the mass-loss rate in the resulting outflow as a function of solid angle for different black hole luminosities, sightline-averaged column densities, clumping parameters, and opening angles of the dusty gas. We find that these dust-driven winds carry momentum fluxes of 1-5 times L / c and correspond to mass-loss rates of 10-100 solar masses per year for a 10^8 solar mass black hole radiating at or near its Eddington limit. These results help to explain the origin of high velocity molecular and atomic outflows in local ULIRGs, and can inform numerical simulations of galaxy evolution including AGN feedback.