Magnetohydrodynamic Winds Driven by the Line Force from the Standard Thin Disk around Supermassive Black Holes. I. The Case of Weak Magnetic Field

TL;DR

This study uses two-dimensional MHD simulations to explore how weak magnetic fields influence line-driven winds around supermassive black holes, revealing that magnetic fields enhance wind velocity and structure without directly driving the winds.

Contribution

It demonstrates that magnetic fields indirectly support high-velocity winds and broaden wind opening angles, advancing understanding of AGN outflows with weak magnetic fields.

Findings

Magnetic fields increase wind velocity and structure.

Line force alone does not drive highly ionized winds.

Magnetic pressure enhances wind collimation and shielding.

Abstract

Absorption lines with high blue-shifted velocities are frequently found in the ultraviolet (UV) and X-ray spectra of luminous active galactic nuclei (AGNs). This implies that high-velocity winds/outflows are common in AGNs. In order to study the formation of high-velocity winds, especially ultrafast outflows (UFOs), we perform two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations. Initially, a magnetic field is set to be weaker than the gas pressure at the disk surface. In our simulations, line force operates on the region like filaments because the X-ray radiation from corona is shielded by dense gas in the inner region at some angle. The location of filaments changes with time and then the line-driven winds are exposed to X-ray and become highly ionized. The line force at the UV bands does not directly drive the highly ionized winds. In the sense of time average, the properties of high-velocity winds meet the formation condition of UFOs. Compared with line force, the function of magnetic field is negligible in directly driving winds. In the MHD model, the region around the rotational axis becomes magnetic-pressure dominated, which prevents gases from spreading to higher latitudes and then enhances the gas column density at middle and low latitudes (20$^{\rm o}$--70$^{\rm o}$). Higher column density is helpful to shield X-ray photons, which causes the line force to be more effective in the MHD model than in the hydrodynamic model. Higher-velocity winds with a broader opening angle are produced in the MHD model.