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[OIII] emission in z=2 quasars with and without Broad Absorption Lines
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[OIII] emission in z=2 quasars with and without Broad Absorption Lines

Matthew J Temple, Amy L Rankine, Manda Banerji, Joseph F Hennawi, Paul C Hewett, James H Matthews, Riccardo Nanni, Claudio Ricci and Gordon T Richards
arXiv.org
17 Jun 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2406.11968
url
https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.11968View
Preprint (Author's original)arXiv.org - Non-exclusive license to distribute,  Open

Abstract

Physics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
Understanding the links between different phases of outflows from active galactic nuclei is a key goal in extragalactic astrophysics. Here we compare [OIII] $\lambda\lambda$4960,5008 outflow signatures in quasars with and without Broad Absorption Lines (BALs), aiming to test how the broad absorption troughs seen in the rest-frame ultraviolet are linked to the narrow line region outflows seen in the rest-frame optical. We present new near-infrared spectra from Magellan/FIRE which cover [OIII] in 12 quasars with 2.1 < z < 2.3, selected to have strong outflow signatures in CIV $\lambda$1550. Combining with data from the literature, we build a sample of 73 BAL, 115 miniBAL and 125 non-BAL QSOs with 1.5 < z < 2.6. The strength and velocity width of [OIII] correlate strongly with the CIV emission properties, but no significant difference is seen in the [OIII] emission-line properties between the BALs, non-BALs and miniBALs once the dependence on CIV emission is taken into account. A weak correlation is observed between the velocities of CIV BALs and [OIII] emission, which is accounted for by the fact that both outflow signatures correlate with the underlying CIV emission properties. Our results add to the growing evidence that BALs and non-BALs are drawn from the same parent population and are consistent with a scenario wherein BAL troughs are intermittent tracers of persistent quasar outflows, with a part of such outflow becoming optically thick along our line-of-sight for sporadic periods of time within which BALs are observed.

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