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Editorial
. 2023 Jan 2;4(1):100376.
doi: 10.1016/j.xinn.2023.100376. eCollection 2023 Jan 30.

Tracing the massive inflows feeding super-massive black holes in quasars

Peng Jiang  1 , Xiheng Shi  1 , Hongyan Zhou  1   2
Affiliations
Free PMC article
Editorial

Tracing the massive inflows feeding super-massive black holes in quasars

Peng Jiang et al. Innovation (Camb). .
Free PMC article
No abstract available

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic diagram of the quasar nucleus In the unification model of quasars, the accretion disk around an super-massive black hole, the broad line region, the narrow line region, and the dusty torus are well-known components. The outflows are commonly observed with their blueshifted BALs. However, unambiguous observations of the long-sought inflows, which feed the accretion disk as fuels, have been elusive. In a small sample of quasars, a large amount of cold, dense, and high-column-density infalling gas is revealed by the redshifted H I and He I∗ BALs. The spectrum observed in the quasar J1035 + 2422 is illustrated for an example. The wide Doppler velocity structure essentially represents the gravitational acceleration by the super-massive black hole. Analysis of photo-ionization locates the gas in a few thousand gravitational radii, close to the outer edge of the accretion disk. The redshifted H I and He I∗ BALs provide compelling evidence for the massive inflows directly feeding the accretion disk in quasars.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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