2022ApJ...934...97F -
Astrophys. J., 934, 97 (2022/August-1)
The Nature of Luminous Quasars with Very Large C IV Equivalent Widths.
FU S., BRANDT W.N., ZOU F., LAOR A., GARMIRE G.P., NI Q., TIMLIN III J.D. and XUE Y.
Abstract (from CDS):
We report results for a complete sample of 10 luminous radio-quiet quasars with large C IV equivalent widths (EW ≥ 150 Å). For 8/10 we performed Chandra snapshot observations. We find that, in addition to the enhanced C IV line EW, their He II and Mg II lines are enhanced, but the C III] line is not. Their X-ray emission is substantially stronger than expected from their ultraviolet luminosity. Additionally, these large C IV EW quasars show small C IV blueshifts and possibly low Eddington ratios, suggesting that they are “extreme low Eigenvector 1 (EV1)” quasars. The mean excess He II EW is well matched by radiation pressure compression (RPC) photoionization models, with the harder αox ionizing spectrum. However, these results do not reproduce well the enhancement pattern of the C IV, Mg II, and C III] EWs, or the observed high C IV/Mg II ratio. RPC calculations indicate that the C IV/Mg II line ratio is an effective metallicity indicator, and models with subsolar-metallicity gas and a hard ionizing continuum reproduce well the enhancement pattern of all four ultraviolet lines. We find that the C IV/Mg II line ratio in quasars is generally correlated with the excess X-ray emission. Extremely high EV1 quasars are characterized by high metallicity and suppressed X-ray emission. The underlying mechanism relating gas metallicity and X-ray emission is not clear but may be related to radiation-pressure-driven disk winds, which are enhanced at high metallicity, and consequent mass loading reducing coronal X-ray emission.
Abstract Copyright:
© 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
Journal keyword(s):
Quasars - X-ray quasars - Photoionization - Metallicity
Simbad objects:
10
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