Did Weak-line Quasars Just Begin an Active Phase?

Details Did Weak-line Quasars Just Begin an Active Phase? Did Weak-line Quasars Just Begin an Active Phase?

Jan 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21723002p&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #217, #230.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are often defined by their prominent emission lines, and rare instances of AGN lacking strong emission features are often explained by the presence of a relativistically boosted radio jet (i.e., as for BL Lac objects). However, the SDSS has discovered a population of 80 high-redshift (z>2.2) radio-quiet quasars with weak emission lines (WLQs) not predicted by the standard orientation based model. Inclusive AGN selection approaches are now also revealing lower-redshift radio-quiet AGN lacking strong emission lines (around 100 objects to date), which are potential analogs to WLQs. Here, we describe our sample of low-redshift WLQ candidates, and we present follow-up multiwavelength observations for 26 objects. Our conclusion is WLQs likely have intrinsically weak broad emission line regions. Finally, we compare WLQs to accreting stellar mass black holes to explore the possibility that WLQs are in a short-lived evolutionary stage where quasar activity has only recently begun. Studying extreme examples of AGN like WLQs may lead to new insight into the formation of broad emission line regions in AGN. Support for this work was provided by a Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) Vidi Fellowship.

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