High velocity X-ray outflows in Active Galactic Nuclei

Evidence for high velocity, massive outflows in AGN and quasars will be presented. The increased sensitivity of XMM-Newton has allowed us to detect the highest known ionisation components to the AGN warm absorber, in the form of deep iron K-shell absorption lines and edges. In the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 3783, we detect high ionisation absorption from He-like iron, which appears to vary on short timescales of <1 day, constraining the location of the high ionisation absorber to <0.1 pc from the nucleus. The warm absorber also adds sufficient opacity to the X-ray spectrum above 2 keV, reducing the requirement for the relativistic iron line from the accretion disc. In some higher luminosity AGN, such as in the quasars PG 1211+143 and PDS 456, we find extreme X-ray absorbers, with large column densities (10²⁴ cm^-2) and high ionisation parameters (log ξ∼3), whilst the outflow velocities can reach 0.1-0.15c. For these AGN, a large fraction of the total energy budget arises from the bulk kinetic outflow, driven from the accretion disc, with mass outflow rates near Eddington. We will also discuss the impact of these outflows on the local AGN environment.