Line-driven disc wind in near-Eddington active galactic nuclei: decrease of mass accretion rate due to powerful outflow

Understand

Based on recent X-ray observations, ultra-fast outflows from supermassive black holes are expected to have enough energy to dramatically affect their host galaxy but their launch and acceleration mechanisms are not well understood.

• We perform two-dimensional radiation hydrodynamics simulations of UV line-driven disc winds in order to calculate the mass loss rates and kinetic power in these models.
• We develop a new iterative technique which reduces the mass accretion rate through the inner disc in response to the wind mass loss.
• This makes the inner disc is less UV bright, reducing the wind power compared to previous simulations which assumed a constant accretion rate with radius.