Digital Commons Network^™

On Outflows Due To Radiation, Randall Cody Dannen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Observations of ionized AGN outflows have provided compelling evidence that the radiation field transfers both momentum and energy to the plasma. At parsec scale distances in AGN, energy transfer can dominate, in which case the only force needed to launch an outflow is due to gas pressure. Much closer to the black hole, gravity dominates thermal energy due to insufficient heating by the radiation and the gas is in the so-called ’cold wind solution’ regime. Only magnetic or radiation forces can lead to outflow, but it is unclear how these forces depend on the spectral energy distribution (SED) and the …