Jets and QSO Spectra
Abstract
QSOs' emission lines arise from highest velocity (approximately 10000 km/s), dense gas within approximately 0.1 parsec of the central engine, out to low-velocity, low-density gas at great distances from the host galaxy. In radio-loud QSOs there are clear indications that the distribution and kinematics of emission-line gas are related to the symmetry axis of the central engine, as defined by the radio jet. These jets originate at nuclear distances < 0.1 pc --- similar to the highest-velocity emission line gas. There are two ways we can investigate the different environments of radio-loud and radio-quiet QSOs, i.e., those with and without powerful radio jets. One is to look for optical-UV spectroscopic differences between radio-loud and radio-quiet QSOs. The other is to investigate dependences of spectroscopic properties on properties of the powerful jets in radio-loud QSOs. Here we summarize the spectroscopic differences between the two classes, and present known dependences of spectra on radio core-dominance, which we interpret as dependences on the angle of the central engine to the line-of-sight. We speculate on what some of the differences may mean.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9605161,
title = {Jets and QSO Spectra},
author = {Beverley J. Wills and M. S. Brotherton},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9605161},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
10 pages, plus 2 postscript figure files not included in tex file. In addition there is a Springer style file, lamuphys.sty. Paper to appear with the two related papers submitted here by the same author(s), in Springer Lecture Notes series: Jets from Stars and Galactic Nuclei, ed. W. Kundt