Ionization and Abundances in Intrinsic QSO Absorption-Line Systems
Abstract
We discuss two aspects of the ionization and abundances in QSO intrinsic absorbers. First, we use the high-ionization doublet Ne VIII 770,780 to test the relationship between the UV line absorbers and the ``warm'' absorbers detected in soft X-rays. In one well-measured QSO with intrinsic z_a ~ z_e lines, UM 675, we estimate that the UV absorber has at least 10 times too little O VII and O VIII to produce the requisite bound-free edges at ~0.8 keV. Second, we show that firm lower limits on the metal-to-hydrogen abundances can be established even with no constraints on the ionization. Those lower limits are typically Z ~> Z_o and sometimes Z ~> 10 Z_o (e.g. for the BALs). We argue that QSO metallicities up to at least ~9 Z_o are consistent with the rapid early-epoch star formation expected in the cores of massive galaxies.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9704235,
title = {Ionization and Abundances in Intrinsic QSO Absorption-Line Systems},
author = {F. Hamann and T. Barlow and R. D. Cohen and V. Junkkarinen and E. M. Burbidge},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9704235},
year = {2008}
}
Comments
6 pages, LaTeX, to appear in ``Mass Ejection From AGN,'' eds. R. Weymann, I. Shlosman, N. Arav