UV and X-ray Observations of Mass Outflows in AGN

Abstract

More than half of all low-redshift AGN exhibit UV and X-ray absorption by highly ionized gas. The observed UV and X-ray absorption lines are almost always blue-shifted at velocities of hundreds of km/s, indicating that the absorbing gas is outflowing from the active nucleus. In some cases the inferred mass flux rivals the Eddington limit of the central black hole, an indication that these outflows are intimately related to the mass accretion and energy generation mechanism in AGN. The ejected material can also have an affect on the interstellar medium of the host galaxy and the surrounding intergalactic medium. Over the past several years, coordinated UV and X-ray observations of several bright AGN at high spectral resolution using HST, FUSE, Chandra, and XMM-Newton have contributed greatly to our understanding of these outflows. I will give an overview of these recent observations, summarize our {\it FUSE} survey of low-redshift AGN, and interpret the results in the context of models of winds from accretion disks and thermally driven winds from the obscuring torus.