Broad Line Region Physical Conditions along the Quasar Eigenvector 1 Sequence

Abstract

[Abridged] We compare broad emission line profiles and estimate line ratios for all major emission lines between Ly-alpha and H-beta in a sample of six quasars. The sources were chosen with two criteria in mind: the existence of high quality optical and UV spectra as well as the possibility to sample the spectroscopic diversity in the 4D Eigenvector 1 context . In the latter sense each source occupies a region (bin) in the FWHM(H-beta) vs. optical FeII strength plane that is significantly different from the others. High S/N H-beta emission line profiles are used as templates for modeling the other lines (Ly-alpha, CIV 1549, HeII 1640, Al III 1860, Si III] 1892, and Mg II 2800). We can adequately model all broad lines assuming the existence of three components distinguished by blueshifted, unshifted and redshifted centroids (indicated as blue, broad and very broad component respectively). The broad component (high electron density, low ionization parameter; high column density) is present in almost all type-1 quasars and therefore corresponds most closely to the classical broad line emitting region (the reverberating component). The blue component emission (lower electron density; high ionization; low column density) arises in less optically thick gas; it is often thought to arise in an accretion disk wind. The least understood component involves the very broad component (high ionization and large column density). It is perhaps the most distinguishing characteristic of quasars with FWHM H-beta > 4000 km/s that belong to the so-called Population B of our 4DE1 space. Population A quasars (FWHM H-beta < 4000 km/s) are dominated by broad component emission in H-beta and blue component emission in CIV 1549 and other high ionization lines. 4DE1 appears to be the most useful current context for revealing and unifying spectral diversity in type-1 quasars.

7 Tables, 5 Figures; accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

References in corpus (43)

• Composite Quasar Spectra From the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Central Masses and Broad-Line Region Sizes of Active Galactic Nuclei. II. A Homogeneous Analysis of a Large Reverberation-Mapping Database
• Determining Central Black Hole Masses in Distant Active Galaxies and Quasars. II. Improved Optical and UV Scaling Relationships
• An Empirical Ultraviolet Template for Iron Emission in Quasars as Derived from I Zw 1
• Broad Emission Line Shifts in Quasars: An Orientation Measure for Radio-Quiet Quasars?
• The effect of radiation pressure on virial black hole mass estimates and the case of Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies
• Completion of a Survey and Detailed Study of Double-Peaked Emission Lines in Radio-Loud AGNs
• CIV 1549 as an Eigenvector 1 Parameter for Active Galactic Nuclei
• Double-Peaked Low-Ionization Emission Lines in Active Galactic Nuclei
• What the Optical Recombination Lines Can Tell Us About the Broad Line Regions of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Estimating Black Hole Masses in Active Galactic Nuclei Using the MgII 2800 Emission Line
• Near Infrared Spectroscopy of High Redshift Active Galactic Nuclei. I. A Metallicity-Accretion Rate Relationship
• Star Formation Around Super-Massive Black Holes
• Searching for the Physical Drivers of the Eigenvector 1 Correlation Space
• Diverse Broad Line Region Kinematic Signatures From Reverberation Mapping
• Average Quasar Spectra in the Context of Eigenvector 1
• Enhanced Star Formation in Narrow Line Seyfert 1 AGN revealed by Spitzer
• The metallicity of the most distant quasars
• Detailed Characterization of H_beta emission line profile in low z SDSS quasars
• Searching For the Physical Drivers of Eigenvector 1: Influence of Black Hole Mass and Eddington Ratio
• Average UV Quasar Spectra in the Context of Eigenvector 1: A Baldwin Effect Governed by Eddington Ratio?
• Long-Term Profile Variability of Double Peaked Emission Lines in Active Galactic Nuclei
• VLT/ISAAC Spectra of the Hbeta Region in Intermediate-Redshift Quasars III. Hbeta Broad Line Profile Analysis and Inferences about BLR Structure
• New Insights on the QSO Radio-Loud/Radio-Quiet Dichotomy: SDSS Spectra in the Context of the 4D Eigenvector1 Parameter Space
• Implications of infalling Fe II - emitting clouds in active galactic nuclei: anisotropic properties
• Long-term variability of the optical spectra of NGC 4151: II. Evolution of the broad Ha and Hb emission-line profiles
• First Results from the Lick AGN Monitoring Project: The Mass of the Black Hole in Arp 151
• VLT/ISAAC Spectra of the H-beta Region in Intermediate Redshift Quasars
• Spectral Properties From Lyman-alpha to H-alpha For An Essentially Complete Sample of Quasars I: Data
• VLT/ISAAC Spectra of the H-beta Region in Intermediate-Redshift Quasars II. Black Hole Mass and Eddington Ratio
• Observations of OI and CaII Emission Lines in Quasars: Implications for the Site of FeII Line Emission
• Low-Ionization Emission Regions in Quasars: Gas Properties Probed with Broad O I and Ca II Lines
• Close supermassive binary black holes
• The Case for Optically-Thick High Velocity Broad Line Region Gas in Active Galactic Nuclei
• HST Images and KPNO Spectroscopy of the Binary Black Hole Candidate SDSS J153636.22+044127.0
• Balmer Emission Line Profiles and the Complex Properties of Broad Line Regions in Active Galactic Nuclei
• The Redshifted Excess in Quasar C IV Broad Emission Lines
• Complex Broad Emission Line Profiles of AGN - Geometry of the Broad Line Region
• Arp 194: Evidence of Tidal Stripping of Gas and Cross-Fueling
• Accretion onto Supermassive Black Holes in Quasars: Learning from Optical/UV Observations
• Our Search for an H-R Diagram of Quasars
• The Broad Line Region of Quasars
• partly obscured accretion disk model to explain Shifted broad Balmer emission lines of Active Galactic Nuclei

Cited by in corpus (67)

• The First Spectroscopically Resolved Sub-parsec Orbit of a Supermassive Binary Black Hole
• Highly Accreting Quasars: Sample Definition and Possible Cosmological Implications
• Spectral Optical Monitoring of the Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxy Ark 564
• Correlation Analysis of a Large Sample of Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies: Linking Central Engine and Host Properties
• Microlensing of Quasar Broad Emission Lines: Constraints on Broad Line Region Size
• Is Mg II 2800 a Reliable Virial Broadening Estimator for Quasars?
• BLR Physical Conditions in Extreme Population A Quasars: a Method to Estimate Central Black Hole Mass at High Redshift
• Calibrating CIV-based black hole mass estimators
• Estimating Black Hole Masses in Quasars Using Broad Optical and UV Emission Lines
• What does Civλ1549 tell us about the physical driver of the Eigenvector Quasar Sequence?
• State-of-the-art AGN SEDs for Photoionization Models: BLR Predictions Confront the Observations
• Measuring Microlensing using Spectra of Multiply Lensed Quasars
• Low-Ionization Outflows in High Eddington Ratio Quasars
• Zooming into the broad line region of the gravitationally lensed quasar Q2237+0305 = the Einstein Cross: III. Determination of the size and structure of the CIV and CIII] emitting regions using microlensing
• High metal content of highly accreting quasars
• Reverberation and photoionization estimates of the Broad Line Region Radius in Low-z Quasars
• Hot-Dust-Poor Quasars in Mid-Infrared and Optically Selected Samples
• GTC Spectra of z ~ 2.3 Quasars: Comparison with Local Luminosity Analogues
• The phylogeny of quasars and the ontogeny of their central black holes
• Black hole mass estimates in quasars - A comparative analysis of high- and low-ionization lines
• The most powerful quasar outflows as revealed by the Civ λ1549 resonance line
• OI and CaII observations in intermediate redshift quasars
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: the CIV Blueshift, Its Variability, and Its Dependence Upon Quasar Properties
• The dust-gas AGN torus as constrained from X-ray and mid-infrared observations
• Extreme quasars at high redshift
• The WISSH Quasars Project IV. BLR versus kpc-scale winds
• CIV Emission and the Ultraviolet through X-ray Spectral Energy Distribution of Radio-Quiet Quasars
• The analysis of the hydrogen broad Balmer line ratios: possible implications to the physical properties of the BLR of AGN
• SDSS-IV/SPIDERS: A Catalogue of X-Ray Selected AGN Properties; Spectral Properties and Black Hole Mass Estimates for SPIDERS SDSS DR14 Type 1 AGN
• SDSS 0956+5128: A Broad-line Quasar with Extreme Velocity Offsets
• Exploring the Diversity of Type 1 Active Galactic Nuclei Identified in SDSS-IV/SPIDERS
• A Correlation Between the Ionization State of the Inner Accretion Disk and the Eddington Ratio of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Quasars and their emission lines as cosmological probes
• Gravitational lens system SDSS J1339+1310: microlensing factory and time delay
• Optical emission line properties of a sample of the broad-line AGNs: the Baldwin effect and eigenvector 1
• High Eddington quasars as discovery tools: current state and challenges
• Extreme quasars as distance indicators in cosmology
• A new method to obtain the Broad Line Region size of high redshift quasars
• High Metal Content of Highly Accreting Quasars: Analysis of an Extended Sample
• Doubly imaged quasar SDSS J1515+1511: time delay and lensing galaxies
• High-redshift quasars along the Main Sequence
• Chemical abundances along the quasar main sequence
• Measurements of effective optical depth in the Ly$\alpha$ forest from the BOSS DR12 Quasar sample
• The Main Sequence of quasars: the taming of the extremes
• Spiral Arms in Broad-line Regions of Active Galactic Nuclei. I. Reverberation and Differential Interferometric Signals of Tightly Wound Cases
• Spiral Arms in Broad-line Regions of Active Galactic Nuclei. II. Loosely Wound Cases: Reverberation Properties
• CIV emission line properties and uncertainties in black hole mass estimates of z ~ 3.5 quasars
• Linear Spectropolarimetric Analysis of Fairall 9 with VLT/FORS2
• Statistical analysis of AlIII 1860 and CIII] 1909 emission lines as virial black hole mass estimators in quasars
• Line shifts and sub-pc super-massive binary black holes
• 2MASX J00423991+3017515: An offset active galactic nucleus in an interacting system
• A powerful (and likely young) radio-loud quasar at z=5.3
• HE0359-3959: an extremely radiating quasar
• The Highly Self-Absorbed Blazar, PKS\,1351$-$018
• Unravelling the nature of the dual AGN in the galaxy pair system IRAS 05589+2828 and 2MASX J06021107+2828382
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: Identification and Multiwavelength Properties of Type-1 AGN in the DR15 sample
• The Energetics of Launching the Most Powerful Jets in Quasars: A Study of 3C82
• Selection of highly-accreting quasars: Spectral properties of FeII emitters not belonging to extreme Population A
• Analysis of interacting and isolated quasars
• Optical and UV properties of a radio-loud and a radio-quiet Population A quasar at high redshift
• Balmer line shifts in quasars
• Physical Conditions in the Broad Line Region of $z\sim 3$ Quasars: A Photoionization Method to Derive $r_{BLR}$
• A broad-line quasar with unexplained extreme velocity offsets: post-shock outflow?
• Investigating the origin of radio emission in candidate super-Eddington accreting black holes
• Line Shapes Emitted from Spiral Structures around Symmetric Orbits of Supermassive Binary Black Holes
• Past, present and Future of the Scaling Relations of Galaxies and Active Galactic Nuclei
• Techniques for Profile Binning and Analysis of Eigenvector Composite Spectra: Comparing Hbeta and MgII 2800 as Virial Estimators