Structured ionized winds shooting out from a quasar at relativistic speeds

Creators: XRISM collaboration; Audard, Marc^{1, 2}; Awaki, Hisamitsu^{1, 3}; Ballhausen, Ralf^{1, 4, 5}; Bamba, Aya^{1, 6}; Behar, Ehud^{1, 7}; Boissay-Malaquin, Rozenn^{1, 5, 8}; Brenneman, Laura^{1, 9}; Brown, Gregory V.^{1, 10}; Corrales, Lia^{1, 11}; Costantini, Elisa^{1, 12}; Cumbee, Renata^{1, 5}; Trigo, María Díaz^{1, 13}; Done, Chris^{1, 14, 6}; Dotani, Tadayasu^{1, 15}; Ebisawa, Ken^{1, 15}; Eckart, Megan^{1, 10}; Eckert, Dominique^{1, 2}; Enoto, Teruaki^{1, 16}; Eguchi, Satoshi^{1, 17}; Ezoe, Yuichiro^{1, 18}; Foster, Adam^{1, 9}; Fujimoto, Ryuichi^{1, 15}; Fujita, Yutaka^{1, 18}; Fukazawa, Yasushi^{1, 19}; Fukushima, Kotaro^{1, 15}; Furuzawa, Akihiro^{1, 20}; Gallo, Luigi^{1, 21}; García, Javier A.^{1, 5, 22}; Gu, Liyi^{1, 12}; Guainazzi, Matteo^{1, 23}; Hagino, Kouichi^{1, 6}; Hamaguchi, Kenji^{1, 5, 8}; Hatsukade, Isamu^{1, 24}; Hayashi, Katsuhiro^{1, 15}; Hayashi, Takayuki^{1, 5, 8}; Hell, Natalie^{1, 10}; Hodges-Kluck, Edmund^{1, 5}; Hornschemeier, Ann^{1, 5}; Ichinohe, Yuto^{1, 25}; Ishida, Manabu^{1, 15}; Ishikawa, Kumi^{1, 18}; Ishisaki, Yoshitaka^{1, 18}; Kaastra, Jelle^{1, 12, 26}; Kallman, Timothy^{1, 5}; Kara, Erin^{1, 7}; Katsuda, Satoru^{1, 27}; Kanemaru, Yoshiaki^{1, 15}; Kelley, Richard^{1, 5}; Kilbourne, Caroline^{1, 5}; Kitamoto, Shunji^{1, 28}; Kobayashi, Shogo^{1, 29}; Kohmura, Takayoshi^{1, 29}; Kubota, Aya^{1, 30}; Leutenegger, Maurice^{1, 5}; Loewenstein, Michael^{1, 4, 5}; Maeda, Yoshitomo^{1, 15}; Markevitch, Maxim^{1, 5}; Matsumoto, Hironori^{1, 31}; Matsushita, Kyoko^{1, 29}; McCammon, Dan^{1, 32}; McNamara, Brian^{1, 33}; Mernier, François^{1, 4, 5}; Miller, Eric D.^{1, 7}; Miller, Jon M.^{1, 11}; Mitsuishi, Ikuyuki^{1, 34}; Mizumoto, Misaki^{1, 35}; Mizuno, Tsunefumi^{1, 19}; Mori, Koji^{1, 24}; Mukai, Koji^{1, 5, 8}; Murakami, Hiroshi^{1, 36}; Mushotzky, Richard^{1, 4}; Nakajima, Hiroshi^{1, 37}; Nakazawa, Kazuhiro^{1, 34}; Ness, Jan-Uwe^{1, 38}; Nobukawa, Kumiko^{1, 39}; Nobukawa, Masayoshi^{1, 40}; Noda, Hirofumi^{1, 41}; Odaka, Hirokazu^{1, 31}; Ogawa, Shoji^{1, 15}; Ogorzalek, Anna^{1, 4, 5}; Okajima, Takashi^{1, 5}; Ota, Naomi^{1, 42}; Paltani, Stephane^{1, 2}; Petre, Robert^{1, 5}; Plucinsky, Paul^{1, 9}; Porter, Frederick Scott^{1, 5}; Pottschmidt, Katja^{1, 5, 8}; Sato, Kosuke^{1, 27, 43}; Sato, Toshiki^{1, 44}; Sawada, Makoto^{1, 28}; Seta, Hiromi^{1, 18}; Shidatsu, Megumi^{1, 3}; Simionescu, Aurora^{1, 12}; Smith, Randall^{1, 9}; Suzuki, Hiromasa^{1, 15}; Szymkowiak, Andrew^{1, 45}; Takahashi, Hiromitsu^{1, 19}; Takeo, Mai^{1, 27}; Tamagawa, Toru^{1, 25}; Tamura, Keisuke^{1, 5, 8}; Tanaka, Takaaki^{1, 46}; Tanimoto, Atsushi^{1, 47}; Tashiro, Makoto^{1, 15, 27}; Terada, Yukikatsu^{1, 15, 27}; Terashima, Yuichi^{1, 3}; Tsuboi, Yohko^{1, 48}; Tsujimoto, Masahiro^{1, 15}; Tsunemi, Hiroshi^{1, 31}; Tsuru, Takeshi G.^{1, 16}; Uchida, Hiroyuki^{1, 16}; Uchida, Nagomi^{1, 15}; Uchida, Yuusuke^{1, 29}; Uchiyama, Hideki^{1, 49}; Ueda, Yoshihiro^{1, 16}; Uno, Shinichiro^{1, 50}; Vink, Jacco^{1, 51}; Watanabe, Shin^{1, 15}; Williams, Brian J.^{1, 5}; Yamada, Satoshi^{1, 41}; Yamada, Shinya^{1, 28}; Yamaguchi, Hiroya^{1, 15}; Yamaoka, Kazutaka^{1, 34}; Yamasaki, Noriko^{1, 15}; Yamauchi, Makoto^{1, 24}; Yamauchi, Shigeo^{1, 42}; Yaqoob, Tahir^{1, 5, 8}; Yoneyama, Tomokage^{1, 48}; Yoshida, Tessei^{1, 15}; Yukita, Mihoko^{1, 5, 52}; Zhuravleva, Irina^{1, 53}; Braito, Valentina^{1, 54, 55, 56}; Condò, Pierpaolo^{1, 57}; Fukumura, Keigo^{1, 58}; Gonzalez, Adam^{1, 21}; Luminari, Alfredo^{1, 59, 60}; Miyamoto, Aiko^{1, 31}; Mizukawa, Ryuki^{1, 27}; Reeves, James^{1, 54, 55}; Sato, Riki^{1, 6}; Tombesi, Francesco^{1, 57}; Xu, Yerong^{1, 21}

1. Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
2. University of Geneva
3. Ehime University
4. University of Maryland, College Park
5. Goddard Space Flight Center
6. University of Tokyo
7. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
8. University of Maryland, Baltimore
9. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
10. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
11. University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
12. Netherlands Institute for Space Research
13. European Southern Observatory
14. Durham University
15. Institute of Space and Astronautical Science
16. Kyoto University
17. Kumamoto Gakuen University
18. Tokyo Metropolitan University
19. Hiroshima University
20. Fujita Health University
21. Saint Mary's University
22. California Institute of Technology
23. European Space Research and Technology Centre
24. University of Miyazaki
25. RIKEN Nishina Center
26. Leiden University
27. Saitama University
28. Rikkyo University
29. Tokyo University of Science
30. Shibaura Institute of Technology
31. Osaka University
32. University of Wisconsin–Madison
33. University of Waterloo
34. Nagoya University
35. University of Teacher Education Fukuoka
36. Tohoku Gakuin University
37. Kanto Gakuin University
38. European Space Astronomy Centre
39. Kindai University
40. Nara University of Education
41. Tohoku University
42. Nara Women's University
43. Kyoto Sangyo University
44. Meiji University
45. Yale University
46. Konan University
47. Kagoshima University
48. Chuo University
49. Shizuoka University
50. Nihon Fukushi University
51. University of Amsterdam
52. Johns Hopkins University
53. University of Chicago
54. Brera Astronomical Observatory
55. Catholic University of America
56. University of Trento
57. University of Rome Tor Vergata
58. James Madison University
59. Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology
60. Astronomical Observatory of Rome

Abstract

Evidence indicates that supermassive black holes (SMBHs) exist at the centres of most galaxies. Their mass correlates with the galactic bulge mass1, suggesting a coevolution with their host galaxies2, most likely through powerful winds3. X-ray observations have detected highly ionized winds outflowing at sub-relativistic speeds from the accretion disks around SMBHs4,5. However, the limited spectral resolution of present X-ray instruments has left the physical structure and location of the winds poorly understood, hindering accurate estimates of their kinetic power6,7. Here the first X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) observation of the luminous quasar PDS 456 is reported. The high-resolution spectrometer Resolve aboard XRISM enabled the discovery of five discrete velocity components outflowing at 20–30% of the speed of light. This demonstrates that the wind structure is highly inhomogeneous, which probably consists of up to a million clumps. The mass outflow rate is estimated to be 60–300 solar masses per year, with the wind kinetic power exceeding the Eddington luminosity limit. Compared with the galaxy-scale outflows, the kinetic power is more than three orders of magnitude larger, whereas the momentum flux is ten times larger. These estimates disfavour both energy-driven and momentum-driven outflow models. This suggests that such wind activity occurs in less than 10% of the quasar phase and/or that its energy/momentum is not efficiently transferred to the galaxy-scale outflows owing to the clumpiness of the wind and the interstellar medium.

Copyright and License

Acknowledgement

We thank J. Mao for fruitful discussions and comments and Y. Mochizuki for his technical advice on XSTAR table models. This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI grant numbers JP22H00158, JP22H01268, JP22K03624, JP23H04899, JP21K13963, JP24K00638, JP24K17105, JP21K13958, JP21H01095, JP23K20850, JP24H00253, JP21K03615, JP24K00677, JP20K14491, JP23H00151, JP19K21884, JP20H01947, JP20KK0071, JP23K20239, JP24K00672, JP24K17104, JP24K17093, JP20K04009, JP21H04493, JP20H01946, JP23K13154, JP19K14762 and JP20H05857, JP2 Examples of the convolved emission line p3K03459 and NASA grant numbers 80NSSC24K1148, 80NSSC24K1774, 80NSSC20K0733, 80NSSC18K0978, 80NSSC20K0883, 80NSSC20K0737, 80NSSC24K0678, 80NSSC18K1684 and 80NNSC22K1922. M. Mizumoto acknowledges support from Yamada Science Foundation. L.C. acknowledges support from NSF award 2205918. C.D. acknowledges support from STFC through grant ST/T000244/1 and a Leverhulme Trust International Fellowship. L. Gallo acknowledges financial support from Canadian Space Agency grant 18XARMSTMA. A.T. is supported in part by the Kagoshima University postdoctoral research programme (KU-DREAM). Satoshi Yamada acknowledges support by the RIKEN SPDR Program. I.Z. acknowledges partial support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation through the Sloan Research Fellowship. F.T. acknowledges funding from the European Union – Next Generation EU, PRIN/MUR 2022 (2022K9N5B4). J.R. acknowledges support from NASA XRISM grant 80NSSC23K0645. Part of this work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. The material is based on work supported by NASA under award number 80GSFC21M0002. This work has been partially supported by the ASI-INAF programme I/004/11/6. This work was supported by the JSPS Core-to-Core Program, JPJSCCA20220002. The material is based on work supported by the Strategic Research Center of Saitama University.

Data Availability

The observational data analysed during this study will be available at NASA’s High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC; https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/) in the summer of 2025.

Code Availability

The codes used for the data reduction are available from the HEASARC website (https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/software/heasoft) and the ESA’s website (https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/sas). The spectral fitting tools are freely available online (https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/xanadu/xspec for XSPEC and https://www.sron.nl/astrophysics-spex for SPEX).

Supplemental Material

Supplementary Information

This file contains Supplementary Methods 1–4, Supplementary References, Supplementary Figs. 1–8 and Supplementary Tables 1–4.

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