Breakthrough Tracker record

XRISM measured unusually vigorous gas motions around a radio-quiet quasar

XRISM spectroscopy of the H1821+643 cluster measured iron-line broadening corresponding to gas motions of about 300 kilometres per second, mostly 20–100 kiloparsecs from its central radio-quiet quasar. Under the authors’ shock-driven interpretation, the quasar coupled at least roughly 1–10% of its radiative energy into the surrounding intracluster medium.

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Stable ID: astronomy-xrism-quasar-feedback-cluster-turbulence-2026
Revision: astronomy-xrism-quasar-feedback-cluster-turbulence-2026.v1
Field: Astronomy · Galaxy clusters, quasars and high-energy astrophysics
Evidence: Tier 1 · Peer reviewed: Yes
Record state: Current · Peer-reviewed result
Last checked: 2026-07-29

AI role

No AI role was disclosed in the inspected article.

Record details

Problem or result: Direct constraints on the reach and efficiency of quasar-mode feedback in a galaxy-cluster core
Authors: Satoshi Yamada, Shutaro Ueda, Hirofumi Noda, Yutaka Fujita, Misaki Mizumoto, Kentaro Nagamine, Claudio Ricci, Shoji Ogawa, Taiki Kawamuro, Shinya Yamada, Yuichi Terashima and Yoshihiro Ueda
Institutions: Tohoku University; University of Geneva; RIKEN; Kanazawa University; The University of Osaka; ISAS/JAXA; Kyoto University; collaborating institutions
Result date: Published July 28, 2026

Why it matters

Cosmological simulations require powerful black holes to inject substantial energy beyond their host galaxies, but direct constraints on quasar-mode coupling at cluster scales have been sparse. The measurement reaches the efficiency range used in leading simulations.

Limits

The large line width is directly measured, but its division among turbulence, velocity shear, sloshing and radial flows is not unique. The 1–10% feedback efficiency depends strongly on a quasar-driven-shock interpretation and assumed shock radius; it is not a model-independent measurement.

Sources

Primary: Yamada and colleagues, Vigorous turbulence driven by quasar-mode feedback in a cluster core
Official observation record: ISAS/JAXA record for XRISM observation 201030010

Correction and revision history

2026-07-29 — Added as a peer-reviewed measurement with the direct linewidth result separated from the model-dependent feedback-efficiency interpretation.

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