Wide-Angle Quasar Feedback

Abstract

We present results from the detection of relativistic winds launched near the innermost stable circular orbits of supermassive black holes. A recent detection of a powerful wind in the X-ray-bright narrow absorption line (NAL) z=1.51 quasar HS 0810+2554 strengthens the case that quasars play a significant role in feedback. In both deep Chandra and XMM-Newton observations of HS 0810 we detected blueshifted absorption lines implying outflowing velocities ranging from 0.1c and 0.4c. The presence of both an emission line at 6.8 keV and an absorption line at 7.8 keV in the spectral line profile of HS 0810 is a characteristic feature of a P-Cygni profile supporting the presence of an expanding outflowing highly ionized Fe absorber. A hard excess component is detected in the XMM-Newton observation of HS 0810 possibly originating from reflection off the disk. Modelling of the XMM-Newton spectrum constrains the inclination angle to be < 35° (68% confidence). The presence of relativistic winds in both low inclination angle NAL quasars as well as in high inclination angle BAL quasars implies that the solid angle of quasar winds may be quite large. The larger solid angle of quasar winds would also indicate that their contribution to the regulation of the host galaxy may be more important than previously thought.