2013MNRAS.436.3286A

Spectroscopic observations of quasar outflows at rest-frame 500-1000Å have immense diagnostic power. We present analyses of such data, where absorption troughs from Oiv and Oiv* allow us to obtain the distance of the outflows from the AGN and troughs from Neviii and Mgx reveal the warm absorber phase of the outflow. Their inferred column densities, combined with those of Ovi, Niv and Hi, yield two important results. (1) The outflow shows two ionization phases, where the high-ionization phase carries the bulk of the material. This is similar to the situation seen in X-ray warm absorber studies. Furthermore, the low-ionization phase is inferred to have a volume filling factor of 10^–5-10^–6. (2) We determine a distance of 3000pc from the outflow to the central source using the Oiv*/Oiv column density ratio and the knowledge of the ionization parameter. Since this is a typical high-ionization outflow, we can determine robust values for the outflow's mass flux and kinetic luminosity of 40M_☉/yr and 10⁴⁵erg/s, respectively, where the latter is roughly equal to 1 percent of the bolometric luminosity. Such a large kinetic luminosity and mass flow rate measured in a typical high-ionization wind suggest that quasar outflows are a major contributor to AGN feedback mechanisms.