1. Quasar outflow energetics from broad absorption line variability
- Author
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Joseph C. Shields, H. Herbst, Fred Hamann, Sean McGraw, and Daniel M. Capellupo
- Subjects
Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena ,media_common.quotation_subject ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics ,Astrophysics ,01 natural sciences ,Spectral line ,Luminosity ,0103 physical sciences ,Astrophysics::Solar and Stellar Astrophysics ,010303 astronomy & astrophysics ,Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics ,media_common ,Physics ,Supermassive black hole ,Line-of-sight ,010308 nuclear & particles physics ,Astronomy and Astrophysics ,Quasar ,Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies ,Galaxy ,13. Climate action ,Space and Planetary Science ,Sky ,Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) ,Outflow - Abstract
Quasar outflows have long been recognized as potential contributors to the co-evolution between supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and their host galaxies. The role of outflows in AGN feedback processes can be better understood by placing observational constraints on wind locations and kinetic energies. We utilize broad absorption line (BAL) variability to investigate the properties of a sample of 71 BAL quasars with P$\thinspace$V broad absorption. The presence of P$\thinspace$V BALs indicates that other BALs like C$\thinspace$IV are saturated, such that variability in those lines favours clouds crossing the line of sight. We use these constraints with measurements of BAL variability to estimate outflow locations and energetics. Our data set consists of multiple-epoch spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and MDM Observatory. We detect significant (4$��$) BAL variations from 10 quasars in our sample over rest frame time-scales between < 0.2-3.8 yr. Our derived distances for the 10 variable outflows are nominally < 1-10 pc from the SMBH using the transverse-motion scenario, and < 100-1000 pc from the central source using ionization-change considerations. These distances, in combination with the estimated high outflow column densities (i.e. $N_{\textrm{H}}$ > 10$^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$), yield outflow kinetic luminosities between ~ 0.001-1 times the bolometric luminosity of the quasar, indicating that many absorber energies within our sample are viable for AGN feedback., 19 pages, 3 figures, 4 tables, 1 supplementary figure, accepted to MNRAS
- Published
- 2017
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