Bouncing clouds - A model for the quasar broad-line region

Details Bouncing clouds - A model for the quasar broad-line region Bouncing clouds - A model for the quasar broad-line region

Jul 1993

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1993apj...412l..17m&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal, Part 2 - Letters (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 412, no. 1, p. L17-L20.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

18

Ionization, Plasma Clouds, Quasars, Stellar Atmospheres, Accretion Disks, Astronomical Models, Black Holes (Astronomy), Emission Spectra, Spectral Line Width

Scientific paper

Clouds held in pressure equilibrium by a high-pressure confining medium in quasar atmospheres can be attracted toward an equilibrium radius provided the confining pressure decreases sufficiently rapidly with distance from the central massive object. At the equilibrium radius gravity is exactly balanced by radiation forces. Oscillations of dense, fully ionized clouds normal to the equilibrium radius create emission-line profiles very similar to those observed. The profile is independent of the masses of the clouds or their shapes. In such a model the red and blue sides of emission lines should respond to changes in the quasar luminosity (or pressure in the broad-line region) approximately simultaneously, as observed. Radial cloud motions do not interfere with the possible existence of an accretion disk; the line profile is unchanged if the disk is opaque to line radiation and is invariant to the angle between the line of sight and the symmetry axis of the visible hemisphere above the disk. Masses obtained by applying the widths of emission lines to the virial theorem are underestimated by about 10-20; the significantly greater masses implied by the bouncing cloud model very strongly enhance the likelihood of massive black holes in active galaxies and quasars.

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