HST/COS Observations of Quasar Outflows in the 500-1050 Å Rest Frame: I. The Most Energetic Outflows in the Universe and Other Discoveries

Abstract

The Hubble Space Telescope/Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) has opened a new discovery space for studying quasar absorption outflows and their contribution to AGN feedback. Specifically, COS provides high-quality far-ultraviolet (FUV) spectra covering the diagnostic-rich 500-1050 Angstrom rest frame (hereafter, EUV500) of medium redshift objects. The quality and quantity of EUV500 diagnostic troughs allow us to probe the very high-ionization phase, which carries 90% or more of the outflowing material, as well as to determine the distance of most outflows from the central source ($R$). The first objective is impossible to achieve with ground-based spectra, and $R$ can be measured in only $\sim$1% of them. Here, we summarize the main results of the first dedicated survey of such outflows, including the following: 1) Measurements of the three most energetic outflows to date, which can be the main agents for AGN feedback processes in the environments of the host galaxies. 2) All the outflows have a very high-ionization component, similar to the one found in warm absorbers, which carries most of the outflow's kinetic luminosity. This finding suggests that all the high-ionization outflows observed from the ground also have a similar undetected very high-ionization component. 3) Of the 13 studied EUV500 outflows, 9 have $100<R<2000$ parsecs, 2 have $5<R<20$ parsecs, 1 has $0.05<R<50$ parsecs, and in 1 case, $R$ cannot be determined. 4) One of the outflows has the largest velocity shift (1550 km s${}^{-1}$) and acceleration (1.5 cm s${}^{-2}$) measured to date. This outflow is physically similar to the fast X-ray outflow detected in quasar PG 1211+143.

11 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables

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