Gamma-ray calorimetry of Seyfert winds
Abstract
Two stacking analyses with the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) detected GeV emission from radio-quiet Seyferts, one selected by an X-ray ultra-fast outflow (UFO) and one hard-X-ray-bright, with similar luminosities attributed to different mechanisms: wind shocks and the accretion-disk corona. We investigate how efficiently Seyfert outflows convert mechanical power into GeV photons, whether the two detections require distinct mechanisms, and how Seyferts compare with low-ionization nuclear emission-line regions (LINERs). Without new Fermi-LAT data reduction, we homogenize published measurements to 0.1-100 GeV, place local mechanical accelerators on one L_gamma-Edot diagram, and express eta = L_gamma/Edot as a fraction rho of the complete-calorimetry efficiency eta_max ~ 2.5%, inverting rho for the ambient density required by pp losses. Winds from Seyfert active galactic nuclei (AGN) have rho = 0.020 (+0.018/-0.011) for acceleration efficiency 0.1, a factor of ~13.5 below starburst superwinds (rho = 0.26 (+0.37/-0.16)). The difference exceeds a factor of three with probability 0.95 and is independent of acceleration parameters common to both classes; it is conditional on the wind kinetic powers, collapsing only if every wind sits at its minimum launch radius. The implied densities, ~10 and ~100 cm^-3, are consistency values: density, shock radius and speed are degenerate. The two stacking detections agree within a factor of 1.75 in gamma-ray output per unit Eddington luminosity, but the 95% interval, 0.26-24, is too wide to distinguish them. A third stack, of 186 low-luminosity AGN, extends the comparison 1.5 dex lower, ordered by AGN power. GeV detectability of non-jetted AGN is set by the product of mechanical power and calorimetric fraction. LINER outflows fail on power; for the adopted wind energetics, Seyfert UFO winds fail on calorimetry; starburst superwinds succeed on both.
Related
- Hunting the nature of the Seyfert 1 galaxy GRS 1734-292: can it be a gamma-ray emitter?
- TeV Gamma Rays and Neutrinos from Winds Driven by Radiatively Inefficient Accretion Flows of Low-Luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei
- Investigating X-ray emission from radio-detected broad- and narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies
- Multimessenger Constraints on Nuclear Acceleration in Neutrino-Emitting Seyfert Coronae
- NGC 3227 Blinks: An Extreme Changing-look Event in a Seyfert Galaxy
BibTeX
@misc{dominguez2026gammaray,
title = {{Gamma-ray calorimetry of Seyfert winds}},
author = {Alberto Domínguez},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.23028},
eprint = {2610.23028},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.23028},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Gamma-ray calorimetry of Seyfert winds
AU - Alberto Domínguez
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/16
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.23028
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.23028
AB - Two stacking analyses with the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) detected GeV emission from radio-quiet Seyferts, one selected by an X-ray ultra-fast outflow (UFO) and one hard-X-ray-bright, with similar luminosities attributed to different mechanisms: wind shocks and the accretion-disk corona. We investigate how efficiently Seyfert outflows convert mechanical power into GeV photons, whether the two detections require distinct mechanisms, and how Seyferts compare with low-ionization nuclear emission-line regions (LINERs). Without new Fermi-LAT data reduction, we homogenize published measurements to 0.1-100 GeV, place local mechanical accelerators on one L_gamma-Edot diagram, and express eta = L_gamma/Edot as a fraction rho of the complete-calorimetry efficiency eta_max ~ 2.5%, inverting rho for the ambient density required by pp losses. Winds from Seyfert active galactic nuclei (AGN) have rho = 0.020 (+0.018/-0.011) for acceleration efficiency 0.1, a factor of ~13.5 below starburst superwinds (rho = 0.26 (+0.37/-0.16)). The difference exceeds a factor of three with probability 0.95 and is independent of acceleration parameters common to both classes; it is conditional on the wind kinetic powers, collapsing only if every wind sits at its minimum launch radius. The implied densities, ~10 and ~100 cm^-3, are consistency values: density, shock radius and speed are degenerate. The two stacking detections agree within a factor of 1.75 in gamma-ray output per unit Eddington luminosity, but the 95% interval, 0.26-24, is too wide to distinguish them. A third stack, of 186 low-luminosity AGN, extends the comparison 1.5 dex lower, ordered by AGN power. GeV detectability of non-jetted AGN is set by the product of mechanical power and calorimetric fraction. LINER outflows fail on power; for the adopted wind energetics, Seyfert UFO winds fail on calorimetry; starburst superwinds succeed on both.
ER -