Observing the launch of an Eddington wind in the luminous Seyfert galaxy PG1211+143

TL;DR

This paper reports the detection of a new ultra-fast outflow in the Seyfert galaxy PG1211+143, originating from an ultra-fast inflow, providing insights into accretion and wind launching mechanisms in active galactic nuclei.

Contribution

It presents the first observation of an ultra-fast outflow launched after an ultra-fast inflow, linking inflow and outflow processes in AGN accretion dynamics.

Findings

Detection of a new outflow at v ~ 0.27c

Observation of a sustained inflow delivering 10 Earth masses

Evidence linking inflow to subsequent outflow launch

Abstract

The luminous narrow line Seyfert galaxy PG1211+143 was the first non-BAL AGN to reveal a powerful ionized wind, based on early observations with ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray Observatory. Subsequent observations, mainly with XMM-Newton and the Japanese Suzaku Observatory, found such winds to be a common feature of luminous AGN. Typical outflow velocities of v ~ 0.1c and flow momenta mv ~ L_Edd /c are consistent with winds being launched by continuum driving from a disc when the local mass accretion rate is super-Eddington. Here we report the launch of a new, ultra-fast outflow component in PG1211+143, near the end of a 5-week XMM-Newton observing campaign, and discuss its origin in an ultra-fast {\it inflow} detected some 3 weeks earlier. We note that the inflow lasted for at least 3 days and delivered at least 10 Earth mass of fresh material into the innermost region of the source. While this mass by itself is insufficient to cause a complete inner disc restructuring - a prediction supported by lack of change in simultaneous UV fluxes - we suggest that a ring of matter at R ~ 20 R_g, located via its gravitational redshift (Pounds and Page 2024), was subsequently accreted, leading to the launch of a new outflow at a velocity of v ~ 0.27c.