High Velocity Outflows in Quasars

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High Velocity Outflows in Quasars

• Paola Rodriguez Hidalgo
• Advisor Fred Hamann
• University of Florida
• Collaborators Daniel Nestor,
• Joseph Shields

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Classification of Absorption Lines

• Based on similar redshift to the quasar
• Associated
• Non-associated
• Based on the absorber is ejected from the quasar
• Intrinsic
• Non-intrinsic
• Based on the width of the line
• BAL
• NAL
• miniBAL

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Classification of Absorption Lines

• Based on similar redshift to the quasar
• Associated
• Non-associated
• Based on the absorber is ejected from the quasar
• Intrinsic
• Non-intrinsic
• Based on the width of the line
• BAL form in winds
• NAL origin? Most AALs are intrinsic (see Leah
  Simon, Daniel Nestor and Rajib Ganguly posters),
  how many at High Velocity (HV) are intrinsic?
  (36 ? - Richards et al. 1999, 2001)
• miniBAL barely studied how common are they?,
  how often do they appear at HV?

High Velocity
Outflows
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Example of a High Velocity Outflow
PG 0935417
Ly?NV
v 51,000 km/s
SiIVOIV
CIV
CIV!
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Goals

• Account for types of outflows to input
  information into physical/geometrical models.
• Understand miniBAL-BAL relationship distinct or
  same thing with different sightline?
• Confirm intrinsic nature of large number of
  systems for follow-up and, hopefully, get
  information about location, densities, and to
  explain wind structure and dynamics.

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Searching for High Velocity Outflows the Sample

• SDSS Quasar spectra
• R 150 km/s
• Spectral coverage 3820-9200 A
• to see CIV ??1548,1550 absorbers zem gt 1.8
• to see velocities up to 0.2c zem
  gt 2.1
• Choose the n(t) spectra with best S/N
• Look for every blue-shifted CIV absorber
• - zabs, v, FWHM, REW, BI, AI

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Searching for High Velocity Outflows the Sample

• SDSS Quasar spectra
• R 150 km/s
• Spectral coverage 3820-9200 A
• to see CIV ??1548,1550 absorbers zem gt 1.8
• to see velocities up to 0.2c zem
  gt 2.1
• Choose the 2,200 spectra with best S/N -gt 1,846
• Look for every blue-shifted CIV absorber
• - zabs, v, FWHM, REW, BI, AI
• - 5320 absorption systems measured

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Searching for High Velocity Outflows the results
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CIV absorbers found
BAL
miniBAL
NAL
Restframe wavelength (A)
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CIV absorbers found

• Number of miniBALs 423
• Number of quasars with miniBALs 284
• Number of quasars with miniBALs at v gt 10,000
  km s-1 175
• Number of quasars with miniBALs at v gt 25,000
  km s-1 51

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CIV absorbers found
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2.5
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Some questions

• What sorts of structures and what lines of sight
  through the outflow produce miniBALs?
• How often should we see miniBALs vs BALs and NALs
  if we view these outflows along random
  sightlines?
• How fast do miniBALs evolve or cross the line of
  sight? Should we see acceleration /decceleration?
• Should HV miniBALs come with more/less Xray abs
  than BALs?

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Variability study
PG 0935417
Ly?NV
v 51,000 km/s
SiIVOIV
CIV
CIV!
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Variability study
Flux
HV CIV
Observed wavelength (A)
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Searching for Variability Data

• KPNO 2.1m R200 km s-1, ?3600-6200 A
• MDM 2.4m R230 km s-1 , ?3600-5200 A
  (collaboration with Joe Shields)
• Lick 3.0m (collaboration with Jason Prochaska)
• Literature LBQS survey (Hewitt et al. 1994),
  etc

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Variability study some results
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Variability study some results

• 18 well-measured quasars in 3 observing campaigns
• 5 quasars show clear variability in miniBALs
  (5/1830)
• If changes are due to ionization
• ?tobs0.7-1.9 yrs high (?) upper limit
  for ?tvar
• ne 6000-16200 cm-3 lower limit
• Rmax1700-4900 pc upper limit
• So far, no variability in NALs
• Most systems vary only in strength, but some show
  shift in velocities

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Current Future work

• Continue Variability study -gtlooking for more
  intrinsic systems and monitoring campaign to
  study flow properties of confirmed ones
• High resolution observations of best/interesting
  candidates to obtain more accurate properties
• Compare to absorption in Xray data to explore
  UV-Xray correlations and the relationship
  miniBALs-BALs
• Input results in current theoretical models to
  help constrain parameters

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Summary

• We have searched the SDSS database looking for
  CIV absorbers to compile, for the first time, a
  catalog of CIV absorption lines in high-redshift
  quasars 2,200 quasars, 5320 CIV absorption
  systems found
• We did and continue to follow up some of these
  systems with new observations (KPNO 2.1m,
  MDM 2.4m, Lick 3.0m) to confirm intrinsic nature
  based on variability and characterize it.
• We will follow up with Xray observations to study
  the relationship UV-Xray absorbers and
  miniBALs-BALs.
• We will input the results into theoretical models
  to help constrain model parameters.

Xiexie
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Questionable/Interesting HV candidates