Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Time-Dependent Photoionization Of Gas Outflows In Agn, Ehab Elhoussieny, Manuel A. Bautista, J. Garcia, T. R. Kallman

Research and Creative Activities Poster Day

Gas outflows are fundamental components of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) activity. Time-variability of ionizing radiation, which is characteristic of AGN in various different time scales, may produce non-equilibrium photoionization conditions over a significant fraction of the flow and yields supersonically moving cooling/heating fronts. These fast fronts create pressure imbalances that can only be resolved by fragmentation of the flow and acceleration of such fragments. This mechanism can explain the kinematic structure of low ionization BAL systems (FeLoBAL). We will study these effects in detail by constructing time-dependent photoionization models of the outflows and incorporating these models into radiative-hydrodynamic simulations.