CHANDRA Detects Relativistic Broad Absorption Lines from APM 08279+5255

By G. Chartas, W. N. Brandt, S. C. Gallagher, G. Garmire. 2002

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We report the discovery of X-ray broad absorption lines (BALs) from the BAL quasar APM 08279+5255 originating from material moving at relativistic velocities with respect to the central source. The large flux magnification by a factor of ~100 provided by the gravitational lens effect combined with the large redshift (z = 3.91) of the quasar have facilitated the acquisition of the first high signal-to-noise X-ray spectrum of a quasar containing X-ray BALs. Our analysis of the X-ray spectrum of APM 08279+5255 places the rest-frame energies of the two observed absorption lines at 8.1 and 9.8 keV. The detection of each of these lines is significant at a greater than 99.9% confidence level based on the F-test. Assuming that the absorption lines are from Fe XXV Kα, the implied bulk velocities of the X-ray BALs are ~0.2c and ~0.4c, respectively. The observed high bulk velocities of the X-ray BALs combined with the relatively short recombination timescales of the X-ray-absorbing gas imply that the absorbers responsible for the X-ray BALs are located at radii of ≲2 × 1017 cm, within the expected location of the UV absorber. With this implied geometry, the X-ray gas could provide the necessary shielding to prevent the UV absorber from being completely ionized by the central X-ray source, consistent with hydrodynamical simulations of line-driven disk winds. Estimated mass-outflow rates for the gas creating the X-ray BALs are typically less than a solar mass per year. Our spectral analysis also indicates that the continuum X-ray emission of APM 08279+5255 is consistent with that of a typical radio-quiet quasar with a spectral slope of Γ = 1.72.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/16c28cdde4f903d90fac54b98f3f1638ad4dd6fa

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Citations in the corpus

On why the iron K-shell absorption in AGN is not a signature of the local warm/hot intergalactic medium (2008, background): “Indeed the iron K absorption features seen in high redshift BAL QSO’s are likewise very far from the iron Kα rest energies for local material (Chartas et al 2002, 2003).”
DISCOVERY OF ULTRA-FAST OUTFLOWS IN A SAMPLE OF BROAD-LINE RADIO GALAXIES OBSERVED WITH SUZAKU (2010, background): “…the X-ray spectra of several radio-quiet AGN, which demonstrated the presence of UFOs in the central regions of these sources (e.g., APM 08279+5255, Chartas et al. 2002; PG 1115+080, Chartas et al. 2003; PG 1211+143, Pounds et al. 2003; IC4329A, Markowitz et al. 2006; MCG-5-23-16, Braito et al.…”
10 MK Gas in M17 and the Rosette Nebula: X-Ray Flows in Galactic H II Regions (2003, background): “An additional absorption component, due presumably to hydrocarbon deposition on the ACIS optical blocking filters (Chartas et al. 2002), was also included in the XSPEC model11.”
The X-Ray Spectral Properties of SCUBA Galaxies (2005, unknown): “Chartas et al. 2002; Kaspi et al. 2002; Ogle et al. 2003).”
A Massive X-Ray Outflow from the Quasar PDS 456 (2003, background): “The lensed BAL quasar APM 08279 5255 has been found to exhibit iron K absorption lines and/or edges (Chartas et al. 2002; Hasinger, Schartel, & Komossa 2002) in bothC andra and XMM-Newton observations.”
An Exploratory Chandra Survey of a Well-defined Sample of 35 Large Bright Quasar Survey Broad Absorption Line Quasars (2006, background): “Subsequently, more spectroscopic observations of individual BAL quasars with Chandra and XMM-Newton have generally upheld these results (e.g., Chartas et al. 2002; Aldcroft & Green 2003; Chartas et al. 2003; Grupe et al. 2003; Page et al. 2005) with only a few exceptions where intrinsic X-ray…”
The Suzaku View of Highly Ionized Outflows in AGN. 1; Statistical Detection and Global Absorber Properties (2012, background): “…central black hole and the consequent mechanical power can also be a sizeable fraction (i.e. ≥ few per cent) of an AGN’s bolometric luminosity (e.g. Chartas et al. 2002; Pounds et al. 2003b; Gibson et al. 2005; Reeves et al. 2009; Gofford et al. 2011; Tombesi et al. 2012) making them a…”
The X-Ray Properties of the Most Luminous Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (2007, background): “Fortunately, both APM 08279+5255 (Chartas et al. 2002) and HS 1603+3820 (PI: Dobrzycki) have X-ray detections in archival pointedChandraobservations, and we include these quasars in our analyses below as appropriate.”
Evidence for ultra-fast outflows in radio-quiet AGNs - I. Detection and statistical incidence of Fe K-shell absorption lines (2010, methodology): “…years there have been several papers in the literature reporting the detection of blue-shifted Fe K absorption lines in radio-quiet AGNs (e.g., Chartas et al. 2002; 1 Throughout this paper we use the definition of the ionizationparameterξ = Lion/nr2 (erg s−1 cm), whereLion is the source X-ray…”
Highly-excited CO emission in APM 08279+5255 at z = 3.9 (2007, background): “For NGC 1068 Usero et al. (2004) suggested that X-rays drive the abundances ratio to [HCN/CO]≈ 10−3.”
EVIDENCE FOR ULTRA-FAST OUTFLOWS IN RADIO-QUIET ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI. II. DETAILED PHOTOIONIZATION MODELING OF Fe K-SHELL ABSORPTION LINES (2011, background): “Blueshifted Fe K absorption lines have been detected in recent years between 7 and 10 keV in the X-ray spectra of several radio-quiet AGNs (e.g., Chartas et al. 2002; Chartas et al. 2003; Pounds et al. 2003; Dadina et al. 2005; Markowitz et al. 2006; Braito et al. 2007; Cappi et al. 2009; Reeves et…”
A Physical Model for the Coevolution of QSOs and Their Spheroidal Hosts (2003, background): “(26) Detection of outflows with velocities ranging between 0.1c and 0.4c in the Broad Absorption Line (BAL) quasars APM08279 + 0522 (Chartas et al. 2002) and PG1115 + 080 (Chartas et al. 2003) has been reported, based on observations of X-ray broad absorption lines performed with the Chandra and…”
The physics of galactic winds driven by active galactic nuclei (2012, background): “X-ray observations also find evidence for AGN winds with velocities ∼ 0.1c, albeit with lower significance and with more ambiguous interpretation (e.g., Chartas et al. 2002; Pounds et al. 2003; Tombesi et al. 2010).”
The Blast Wave Model for AGN Feedback: Effects on AGN Obscuration (2008, methodology): “…of wind speeds up to vw 0:1c in the central regions, which yield AGN vw /2c 0:05 bymomentum conservation between photons and particles (see Chartas et al. 2002; Pounds et al. 2003); this value has also been adopted in a number of simulations (e.g., Di Matteo et al. 2005) and semianalytic…”
Unification of X-ray winds in Seyfert galaxies: from ultra-fast outflows to warm absorbers (2012, background): “Besides WAs, highly blueshifted Fe K-shell absorption lines at E&7 keV have been detected in more recent years in the X-ray spectra of several AGNs (Chartas et al. 2002, 2003; Pounds et al. 2003; Dadina et al. 2005; Markowitz et al. 2006; Braito et al. 2007; Cappi et al. 2009; Reeves et al. 2009; Ch”