Very High Density Clumps and Outflowing Winds in QSO Emission Line Regions

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Hst Proposal Id #6093 Quasars

Scientific paper

We will use HST ultraviolet spectra to test the idea that the Broad Absorption Line (BAL) regions in QSOs consist of gas being ablated off the photospheres of stars located very near (0.02pc) to the central continuum source. We have found good evidence for this in a recent detailed study of the optical spectra of several luminous high redshift quasars with unusually narrow line profiles. In one of these objects, we can distinguish kinematically between at least three distinct gas components in the Broad Lined Region. Comparison between photoionization models and the emission-line intensity ratios from each component indicates that there is an outer region lying about 1-2 pc from the continuum source which produces a more-or-less normal QSO spectrum, and then two inner regions both about 0.02 pc from the nucleus with 10x solar metallicity. One of these inner regions appears to be a 10^4 kms outflowing wind with hydrogen density n(H) = 10^11 cm^-3 and a covering factor of ~0.5. The other component has n(H) = 10^13.5 cm^-3 (nearly that of the photosphere of a main sequence star), a covering factor of about 0.1-0.2, and line widths of only 1000kms (very similar to the virial velocities of stars at the centers M87 massive galaxies like M87). It is this ultra-dense region which we identify with ablating stars. The conclusive test for a very high density/high flux environment will be the detection with FOS of certain UV lines including NeVIII 774, OIII 834 and OV 630.

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