1. Florencia Jiménez Luján Trainee in 2004
A Primordial Quasar. Drawing Credit: Wolfram Freudling et al. (STECF), ESO, ESA, NASA
Chris R. Benn (ING)
J. Ignacio González Serrano (IFCA)
Florencia Jiménez Luján Trainee in 2004
Instituto de Física de Cantabria
(IFCA: CSIC – UC, Santander, Spain)
Dpto. de Física Moderna
(Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, Spain)
Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes
(ING, La Palma, Spain)
2010 ESAC Trainee
Summer Alumni Meeting

2. Florencia Jiménez Luján
1. Introduction
2. Sample selection
3. Observations and data reduction
4. Physical parameters of the absorbers
(C, τ, U, ne, Nion, NH, R, Ėk) an example: SDSS J
5. Discussion and conclusions
6. Future work
ESAC Trainee Summer Alumni Meeting, July 2nd 2010
Florencia Jiménez Luján

3. Florencia Jiménez Luján
extremely powerful, compact (point-like source in the optical range) and variable source AGN (Active Galactic Nuclei)
QUASAR/QSO (QUASi-stellAR radio source / Quasi-Stellar Object):
BAL (Broad Absorption Line) quasars (~10 – 20 %) present absorption troughs in the blue wings of ionised UV resonance emission lines (e.g. CIV, SiIV, NV).
ESAC Trainee Summer Alumni Meeting, July 2nd 2010
Florencia Jiménez Luján

4. Florencia Jiménez Luján
extremely powerful, compact (point-like source in the optical range) and variable source AGN (Active Galactic Nuclei)
QUASAR/QSO (QUASi-stellAR radio source / Quasi-Stellar Object):
BAL (Broad Absorption Line) quasars (~10 – 20 %) present absorption troughs in the blue wings of ionised UV resonance emission lines.
High velocity outflows of ionised gas
originated near the centre.
Distances and kinetic luminosities estimates: properties and evolution of the AGN, possible related to AGN feedback mechanisms (e.g. formation and evolution of the supermassive black holes and their host galaxies, enrichment of the intergalactic medium and inhibition of cooling flows).
ESAC Trainee Summer Alumni Meeting, July 2nd 2010
Florencia Jiménez Luján

5. (Active Galactic Nuclei)
Urry & Padovani, 1995
Unification of AGN
(Active Galactic Nuclei)
QSO (Quasi-Stellar Object, or quasar, QUASi-stellAR radio source) in the center of each AGN: black hole surrounded by an accretion disk
moving clouds: BLR (fast) & NLR (slow)
classification: orientation scenario vs. evolutionary scenario (both???)
know the properties & composition of the medium
(BLR)
(NLR)
ESAC Trainee Summer Alumni Meeting, July 2nd 2010
Florencia Jiménez Luján

6. (Active Galactic Nuclei)
Elvis, 2000
BAL
NAL
No absorbers
Unification of AGN
(Active Galactic Nuclei)
QSO (Quasi-Stellar Object, or quasar, QUASi-stellAR radio source) in the center of each AGN: black hole surrounded by an accretion disk
moving clouds: BLR (fast) & NLR (slow)
classification: orientation scenario vs. evolutionary scenario (both???)
know the properties & composition of the medium
ESAC Trainee Summer Alumni Meeting, July 2nd 2010
Florencia Jiménez Luján

7. Montenegro-Montes et al., 2008 Unification of AGN
(Active Galactic Nuclei)
QSO (Quasi-Stellar Object, or quasar, QUASi-stellAR radio source) in the center of each AGN: black hole surrounded by an accretion disk
moving clouds: BLR (fast) & NLR (slow)
classification: orientation scenario vs. evolutionary scenario (both???)
know the properties & composition of the medium
BALQSO have convex radio spectra
(typical of CSS/GPS “young” radio sources)
CSS: Compact Steep Spectrum; GPS: Gigahertz Peaked Spectrum
ESAC Trainee Summer Alumni Meeting, July 2nd 2010
Florencia Jiménez Luján

8. Florencia Jiménez Luján.
redshift: 2.5 ≤ z ≤ 4.2, so that the prominent NV, SiIV and CIV doublets fall within the range of SDSS (4000−9000 Å)
magnitude: r ≤ 19 (to allow spectra with good S:N to be obtained in a reasonable time)
likely, on the basis of visual inspection of the low-resolution SDSS spectra to show velocity-resolved (i.e. probrably intrinsic), unsaturated, unblended doublets from the
above ions.
SDSS (Sloan Digital Sky Survey) DR4 (Data Release 4)
~ 200 sources
ESAC Trainee Summer Alumni Meeting, July 2nd 2010
Florencia Jiménez Luján

9. Florencia Jiménez Luján
2MASS
(2 Micron All
Sky Survey):
J =
H =
K =
BALnicity Index
BI = 39 ± 17
(Weymann et al. 1991)
Absorption Index
AI = 3360 ± 90
(Hall et al. 2002)
z =
r = 18.21
FIRST:
5.6 mJy
ESAC Trainee Summer Alumni Meeting, July 2nd 2010
Florencia Jiménez Luján

10. Florencia Jiménez Luján
Medium resolution observations with WHT + ISIS (R ~ 7000)
(William (Intermediate dispersion
Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory Herschel Spectrograph and
La Palma (Spain) Telescope) Imaging
System)
Reduction with IRAF (Image Reduction and Analysis Facilities):
bias subtraction, flat fielding, cosmic-ray removal and wavelength calibration.
ESAC Trainee Summer Alumni Meeting, July 2nd 2010
Florencia Jiménez Luján

11. homogeneous partial covering
Ib=1-C(1-e-τ)
Ir=1-C(1-e-τ/2)
τ: optical depth
τ ≥ 0
C: covering factor
0 ≤ C ≤ 1
homogeneous partial covering
A: areas ratio
0.5 < A ≤ 1 Ib Ir
Wavelength (Å)
Flux (arbitrary units)
ESAC Trainee Summer Alumni Meeting, July 2nd 2010
Florencia Jiménez Luján

12. U: Ionisation parameter NH: Total hydrogen column density
C, τ, Nion
Nion: Column density
U: Ionisation parameter
NH: Total hydrogen column density
ionisation parameter,
luminosity &
electron density
N(v) = 3.77 x 1014f -1 λ-1 τ(v), Savage & Sembach 1991
Hamann 1997
oscillator strength
ionisation fractions
U, NH
estimate
of the
distance (R)
from the absorber
to the quasar
nucleus and the
kinetic
luminosity (Ėk)
Hamann et al. 2001
: spectral index (SDSS)
nH ~ ne: electron density
λLL = 912 Å
λR = 6500 Å
SR: Observed flux in the R band
(from magnitude r, SDSS)
DL: Luminosity distance
(calculator, Wright 2006)
ESAC Trainee Summer Alumni Meeting, July 2nd 2010
Florencia Jiménez Luján

13. Florencia Jiménez Luján
ESAC Trainee Summer Alumni Meeting, July 2nd 2010
Florencia Jiménez Luján

14. Florencia Jiménez Luján
ESAC Trainee Summer Alumni Meeting, July 2nd 2010
Florencia Jiménez Luján

15. Florencia Jiménez Luján
BAL: z ~ – z ~ 2.534
absorber (a) ~ -860 km/s
ESAC Trainee Summer Alumni Meeting, July 2nd 2010
Florencia Jiménez Luján

16. Florencia Jiménez Luján
BAL: z ~ – z ~ 2.534
absorber (a) ~ -860 km/s
N(CII*)/N(CII) = 1.30 (in cm-2)
log ne = 2.1 ± 0.2 (in cm-2)
absorber (b) ~ km/s
log ne = 1.7 ± 0.2 (in cm-2)
ESAC Trainee Summer Alumni Meeting, July 2nd 2010
Florencia Jiménez Luján

17. Florencia Jiménez Luján
Mini-BAL: z ~ 2.454
(i) log ne = 9.5 – 13 (in cm-2) (BLR)
(ii) log ne = 2.5 – 4.5 (in cm-2) (NLR)
absorber (d) ~ km/s
ESAC Trainee Summer Alumni Meeting, July 2nd 2010
Florencia Jiménez Luján

18. Florencia Jiménez Luján
ESAC Trainee Summer Alumni Meeting, July 2nd 2010
Florencia Jiménez Luján

19. Florencia Jiménez Luján
ESAC Trainee Summer Alumni Meeting, July 2nd 2010
Florencia Jiménez Luján

20. Florencia Jiménez Luján
Not energetic enough to significantly contribute to AGN feeback processes (Ėk ≤ % Lbol).
Distances between 0.15 pc and 30 kpc, depending on the assumed values of electron density.
Small electron density (BAL), possible related to low energetic outflows.
Results independent on the model (~ one order of magnitude).
ESAC Trainee Summer Alumni Meeting, July 2nd 2010
Florencia Jiménez Luján

21. Florencia Jiménez Luján
Extend the analysis to the rest of our observed quasars (in progress).
Search for variability both in the continuum and the absorption lines (in progress).
Search for line-locking evidences: radiative pressure
(in the near future).
a blue component of the doublet of an absorber lies just at the expected position of the red component of the doublet of another absorber
High resolution optical observations: excited/ground level lines: electron density estimates (in progress).
Properties in other ranges (radio: in progress).
ESAC Trainee Summer Alumni Meeting, July 2nd 2010
Florencia Jiménez Luján

22. Thank you!
A Primordial Quasar. Drawing Credit: Wolfram Freudling et al. (STECF), ESO, ESA, NASA