Discovery of Extremely Broad Balmer Absorption Lines in SDSS J152350.42+391405.2

Abstract

We present the discovery of Balmer line absorption from H$\alpha$ to H$\gamma$ in an iron low-ionization broad absorption line (FeLoBAL) quasar SDSS J152350.42+391405.2 (hereafter J1523), by the quasi-simultaneous optical and near-infrared spectroscopy. The Balmer line absorption is at $z_{absor}$ = 0.6039 +/-0.0021 and blueshifted by v=10,353 km/s with respect to the Balmer emission lines. All Balmer BALs have uniform absorption profile with the widths of $\Delta$ v ~12,000 km/s. We also found the absorption trough in He 1* $\lambda$10830 with the same velocity and width in the H-band TripleSpec spectrum of J1523. This object is only the tenth active galactic nucleus known to exhibit non-stellar Balmer absorption, and also the case with the highest velocity and broadest Balmer absorption lines which have ever been found. A CLOUDY analysis shows that the absorbers require an gas density of $lo{g}_{10}{n}_e(c{m}^{-3})=9$ and an ionization parameter of $lo{g}_{10}U=-1.0$. They locate at a distance of ~0.2 pc from the central ionizing source which is slightly farther than that of BELRs. Furthermore, J1523 is one of the brightest Balmer-BAL quasar ever reported, with unique iron absorption variations, making it as the most promising candidate for follow up high-resolution spectroscopy, multi-band observations, and long-term monitoring.

23 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

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