Multiwavelength Insights into the Nature of Weak Emission-Line Quasars at High Redshift

Details Multiwavelength Insights into the Nature of Weak Emission-Line Quasars at High Redshift Multiwavelength Insights into the Nature of Weak Emission-Line Quasars at High Redshift

Jan 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aas...21331607s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #213, #316.07; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.294

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey has recently discovered 50 quasars at z=2.7-5.9 with weak or undetectable high-ionization emission lines in their UV spectra (WLQs). We present multiwavelength spectroscopic observations that enabled us to gain insights into the nature of these remarkable sources. We find that WLQs are unlikely to be dust-obscured quasars, broad-absorption line quasars, or high-redshift galaxies with apparent quasar-like luminosities due to gravitational lensing amplification. Additional monitoring data suggests that the weakness of the lines in WLQs cannot be explained by microlensing that amplifies the continuum relative to the emission lines in ordinary quasars. We also argue against the idea that WLQs are the long-sought high-redshift BL Lacertae objects. Instead, we suggest that WLQs are quasars with extremely high accretion rates that suppress the formation of the high-ionization emission lines. We discuss X-ray and near-infrared observations required to test this scenario with implications for emission line formation and the accretion process in active galactic nuclei.

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