Rest-frame optical properties of luminous, radio-selected, broad absorption line quasars

Abstract

We have obtained IRTF/SpeX spectra of eight moderate-redshift (z=0.7-2.4), radio-selected (log R*~0.4-1.9) broad absorption line (BAL) quasars. The spectra cover the rest-frame optical band. We compare the optical properties of these quasars to those of canonically radio-quiet (log R*<1) BAL quasars at similar redshifts and to low-redshift quasars from the Palomar-Green catalog. As with previous studies of BAL quasars, we find that [OIII] 5007 is weak, and optical FeII emission is strong, a rare combination in canonically radio-loud (log R*>1) quasars. With our measurements of the optical properties, particularly the Balmer emission line widths and the continuum luminosity, we have used empirical scaling relations to estimate black hole masses and Eddington ratios. These lie in the range (0.4-2.6)x10^9 M_sun and 0.1-0.9, respectively. Despite their comparatively extreme radio properties relative to most BAL quasars, their optical properties are quite consistent with those of radio-quiet BAL quasars and dissimilar to those of radio-loud non-BAL quasars. While BAL quasars generally appear to have low values of [OIII]/FeII, an extreme of "Eigenvector 1", the Balmer line widths and Eddington ratios do not appear to significantly differ from those of unabsorbed quasars at similar redshifts and luminosities.

12 pages, 4 figures, 6 tables, accepted to MNRAS, updated to include references

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• A quasar-galaxy merger at $z\sim 6.2$: black hole mass and quasar properties from the NIRSpec spectrum
• The Physical Properties of Low Redshift FeLoBAL Quasars. I. Spectral Synthesis Analysis of the BAL Outflows using $SimBAL$
• Updating quasar bolometric luminosity corrections. III. [O III] bolometric corrections
• Near-IR spectroscopy of luminous LoBAL quasars at 1<z<2.5
• Systematically smaller single-epoch quasar black hole masses using a radius-luminosity relationship corrected for spectral bias
• Discovery of strong Balmer line absorption in two luminous LoBAL quasars at z~1.5
• The Physical Properties of Low-Redshift FeLoBAL Quasars: II. The Rest-Frame Optical Emission Line Properties
• The Properties of Low-Redshift FeLoBAL Quasars: III. The Location and Geometry of the Outflows
• Investigating the radio-loud phase of broad absorption line quasars
• Radio-Loud and Radio-Quiet BAL Quasars: A Detailed Ultraviolet Comparison
• The Nature of LoBAL QSOs: II. HST/WFC3 Observations Reveal Host Galaxies Dominated by Mergers