2012ApJ...759...36R

Observational and theoretical arguments suggest that the momentum carried in mass outflows from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) can reach several times L/c, corresponding to outflow rates of hundreds of solar masses per year. Radiation pressure on resonant absorption lines alone may not be sufficient to provide this momentum deposition, and the transfer of reprocessed IR radiation in dusty nuclear gas has been postulated to provide the extra enhancement. The efficacy of this mechanism, however, will be sensitive to multi-dimensional effects such as the tendency for the reprocessed radiation to preferentially escape along sightlines of lower column density. We use Monte Carlo radiative transfer calculations to determine the radiation force on dusty gas residing within approximately 30 parsecs from an accreting supermassive black hole. We calculate the net rate of momentum deposition in the surrounding gas and estimate the mass-loss rate in the resulting outflow as a function of solid angle for different black hole luminosities, sightline-averaged column densities, clumping parameters, and opening angles of the dusty gas. We find that these dust-driven winds carry momentum fluxes of 1-5 times L/c and correspond to mass-loss rates of 10-100 M_☉ per year for a 10⁸ M_☉ black hole radiating at or near its Eddington limit. These results help to explain the origin of high velocity molecular and atomic outflows in local ultraluminous infrared galaxies and can inform numerical simulations of galaxy evolution including AGN feedback.