A dust condensation instability in AGN atmospheres: failed winds and the broad line region

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new instability mechanism in AGN atmospheres where dust condensation leads to failed outflows, potentially explaining the structure of the broad-line region through combined modeling and hydrodynamic simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a linear dust condensation instability in AGN atmospheres and demonstrates its nonlinear evolution into clumpy, failed outflows via hydrodynamic simulations.

Findings

Extended dusty atmospheres become unstable due to dust condensation.

The instability results in failed outflows with high velocity dispersions.

Simulations support the FRADO model for the broad-line region.

Abstract

Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are important drivers of galactic evolution; however, the underlying physical processes governing their properties remain uncertain. In particular, the specific cause for the generation of the broad-line region is unclear. There is a region where the underlying accretion disc atmosphere becomes cool enough for dust condensation. Using models of the disc's vertical structure, accounting for dust condensation and irradiation from the central source, we show that their upper atmospheres become extended, dusty, and radiation-pressure-supported. Due to the density--temperature dependence of dust condensation, this extended atmosphere forms as the dust abundance slowly increases with height, resulting in density and temperature scale heights considerably larger than the gas pressure scale height. We show that such an atmospheric structure is linearly unstable. An increase in the gas density raises the dust sublimation temperature, leading to an increased dust abundance, a higher opacity, and hence a net vertical acceleration. Using localised 2D hydrodynamic simulations, we demonstrate the existence of our linear instability. In the non-linear state, the disc atmosphere evolves into ``fountains'' of dusty material that are vertically launched by radiation pressure before being exposed to radiation from the central source, which sublimates the dust and shuts off the radiative acceleration. These dust-free clumps then evolve ballistically, continuing upward before falling back towards the disc under gravity. This clumpy ionized region has velocity dispersions $\gtrsim 1000$ km/s. This instability and our simulations are representative of the Failed Radiatively Accelerated Dusty Outflow (FRADO) model proposed for the AGN broad-line region.