A SCUBA-2 survey of FeLoBAL QSOs: Are FeLoBALs in a `transition phase' between ULIRGs and QSOs?

Abstract

It is thought that a class of broad absorption line (BAL) QSOs, characterised by Fe absorption features in their UV spectra (called `FeLoBALs'), could mark a transition stage between the end of an obscured starburst event and a youthful QSO beginning to shed its dust cocoon, where Fe has been injected into the interstellar medium by the starburst. To test this hypothesis we have undertaken deep SCUBA-2 850 $\mu$m observations of a sample of 17 FeLoBAL QSOs with 0.89 $\le$ z $\le$ 2.78 and -23.31 $\le$ M${}_B$ $\le$-28.50 to directly detect an excess in the thermal emission of the dust which would probe enhanced star-formation activity. We find that FeLoBALs are not luminous sources in the submillimetre, none of them are individually detected at 850 $\mu$m, nor as a population through stacking ($F_s=1.14\pm 0.58$ mJy). Statistical and survival analyses reveal that FeLoBALs have sub-mm properties consistent with BAL and non-BAL QSOs with matched redshifts and magnitudes. An SED fitting analysis shows that the FIR emission is dominated by AGN activity, and a starburst component is required only in 6/17 sources of our sample; moreover the integrated total luminosity of 16/17 sources is L$\ge$10${}^{12}$L${}_{\odot }$, high enough to classify FeLoBALs as infrared luminous. In conclusion, we do not find any evidence in support of FeLoBAL QSOs being a transition population between a ULIRG and an unobscured QSO; in particular, FeLoBALs are not characterized by a cold starburst which would support this hypothesis.

15 pages, 7 figures, MNRAS in press

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• The Physical Properties of Low Redshift FeLoBAL Quasars. I. Spectral Synthesis Analysis of the BAL Outflows using $SimBAL$
• The dual role of starburst and active galactic nuclei in driving extreme molecular outflows
• Near-IR spectroscopy of luminous LoBAL quasars at 1<z<2.5
• The host galaxies of FeLoBAL quasars at z$\sim$0.9 are not dominated by recent major mergers
• SCUBA2 High Redshift Bright Quasar Survey: Far-infrared Properties and Weak-line Features
• Discovery of strong Balmer line absorption in two luminous LoBAL quasars at z~1.5
• Near-infrared spectroscopy of extreme BAL QSOs from the QUBRICS bright quasar survey