2015ApJ...806..111G -
Astrophys. J., 806, 111 (2015/June-2)
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey reverberation mapping project: rapid CIV broad absorption line variability.
GRIER C.J., HALL P.B., BRANDT W.N., TRUMP J.R., SHEN Y., VIVEK M., FILIZ AK N., CHEN Y., DAWSON K.S., DENNEY K.D., GREEN P.J., JIANG L., KOCHANEK C.S., McGREER I.D., PARIS I., PETERSON B.M., SCHNEIDER D.P., TAO C., WOOD-VASEY W.M., BIZYAEV D., GE J., KINEMUCHI K., ORAVETZ D., PAN K. and SIMMONS A.
Abstract (from CDS):
We report the discovery of rapid variations of a high-velocity C iv broad absorption line trough in the quasar SDSS J141007.74+541203.3. This object was intensively observed in 2014 as a part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project, during which 32 epochs of spectroscopy were obtained with the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey spectrograph. We observe significant (>4σ) variability in the equivalent width (EW) of the broad (Å4000 km/s wide) C iv trough on rest-frame timescales as short as 1.20 days (Å29 hr), the shortest broad absorption line variability timescale yet reported. The EW varied by Å10% on these short timescales, and by about a factor of two over the duration of the campaign. We evaluate several potential causes of the variability, concluding that the most likely cause is a rapid response to changes in the incident ionizing continuum. If the outflow is at a radius where the recombination rate is higher than the ionization rate, the timescale of variability places a lower limit on the density of the absorbing gas of ne><≥ 3.9x105/cm3. The broad absorption line variability characteristics of this quasar are consistent with those observed in previous studies of quasars, indicating that such short-term variability may in fact be common and thus can be used to learn about outflow characteristics and contributions to quasar/host-galaxy feedback scenarios.
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Journal keyword(s):
galaxies: active - galaxies: kinematics and dynamics - galaxies: nuclei - quasars: absorption lines
Simbad objects:
2
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