Relativistic outflows power a quasi-periodic eruption: constraints on energetics, mass loss, and emission mechanisms
Abstract
Quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs) are recurring bursts of X-ray radiation originating from supermassive black holes (SMBHs). They are an unprecedented type of structured, high-amplitude SMBH variability, but the physical origins of their regularity, timescales, energetics, and emission are uncertain. We present new XMM-Newton observations of the QPEs in ZTF19acnskyy/"Ansky", constituting the deepest observations of individual bursts in any source thus far. The X-ray spectra reveal time-evolving P Cygni profiles comprising blueshifted absorption and redshifted emission from L-shell transitions of Fe XIX-XXIV, with column densities NH∼ 1022−23 cm−2 and bulk velocities of |vw/c|∼ 0.2, indicating relativistic mass ejections during each eruption. We construct a time-dependent analytical model of a wind turning on to self-consistently compute its evolving luminosity and ionization properties, and find that the light curve and spectral lines can be simultaneously produced by a wide-angle outflow with Ṁ∼ 10−9−10−8 M⊙ s−1 kinetically powering the X-rays with an efficiency of LX/ĖK∼ 0.1. For a covering fraction fΩ∼0.5, each eruption ejects ∼ 10−3 M⊙ and ≳ 1049 erg of kinetic energy, setting an upper bound on the QPE lifetime of ≲1000 bursts if the underlying mass reservoir is ∼1 M⊙, and implying that the bursts may result in detectable multiwavelength signatures of reverberation and feedback. These measurements provide new quantitative constraints on QPE energetics, emission mechanisms, and the mass/energy they recycle into their circumnuclear environments, as well as an observational probe for direct comparison with physical models and hydrodynamical simulations of QPEs.
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BibTeX
@misc{chakraborty2026relativistic,
title = {{Relativistic outflows power a quasi-periodic eruption: constraints on energetics, mass loss, and emission mechanisms}},
author = {Joheen Chakraborty and Erin Kara and Wenbin Lu and Brian D. Metzger and Peter Kosec and Riccardo Arcodia and Itai Linial and Olivia Aspegren and Ehud Behar and Sudip Bhattacharyya and Margherita Giustini and Lorena Hernandez-Garcia and Daniel Kasen and Giovanni Miniutti and Frits Paerels and Erwan Quintin and Claudio Ricci and Daniele Rogantini and Paula Sanchez-Saez and Fatima Zaidouni},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.28507},
eprint = {2608.28507},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.28507},
note = {CC BY-SA 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Relativistic outflows power a quasi-periodic eruption: constraints on energetics, mass loss, and emission mechanisms
AU - Joheen Chakraborty
AU - Erin Kara
AU - Wenbin Lu
AU - Brian D. Metzger
AU - Peter Kosec
AU - Riccardo Arcodia
AU - Itai Linial
AU - Olivia Aspegren
AU - Ehud Behar
AU - Sudip Bhattacharyya
AU - Margherita Giustini
AU - Lorena Hernandez-Garcia
AU - Daniel Kasen
AU - Giovanni Miniutti
AU - Frits Paerels
AU - Erwan Quintin
AU - Claudio Ricci
AU - Daniele Rogantini
AU - Paula Sanchez-Saez
AU - Fatima Zaidouni
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.28507
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.28507
AB - Quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs) are recurring bursts of X-ray radiation originating from supermassive black holes (SMBHs). They are an unprecedented type of structured, high-amplitude SMBH variability, but the physical origins of their regularity, timescales, energetics, and emission are uncertain. We present new XMM-Newton observations of the QPEs in ZTF19acnskyy/"Ansky", constituting the deepest observations of individual bursts in any source thus far. The X-ray spectra reveal time-evolving P Cygni profiles comprising blueshifted absorption and redshifted emission from L-shell transitions of Fe XIX-XXIV, with column densities N_H∼ 10^22−23 cm^−2 and bulk velocities of |v_w/c|∼ 0.2, indicating relativistic mass ejections during each eruption. We construct a time-dependent analytical model of a wind turning on to self-consistently compute its evolving luminosity and ionization properties, and find that the light curve and spectral lines can be simultaneously produced by a wide-angle outflow with Ṁ∼ 10^−9−10^−8 M_⊙ s^−1 kinetically powering the X-rays with an efficiency of L_X/Ė_K∼ 0.1. For a covering fraction f_Ω∼0.5, each eruption ejects ∼ 10^−3 M_⊙ and ≳ 10^49 erg of kinetic energy, setting an upper bound on the QPE lifetime of ≲1000 bursts if the underlying mass reservoir is ∼1 M_⊙, and implying that the bursts may result in detectable multiwavelength signatures of reverberation and feedback. These measurements provide new quantitative constraints on QPE energetics, emission mechanisms, and the mass/energy they recycle into their circumnuclear environments, as well as an observational probe for direct comparison with physical models and hydrodynamical simulations of QPEs.
ER -