Outflowing material in the zem = 4.92 BAL QSO SDSS~J160501.21-011220.0

Abstract

We present the analysis of two BALs seen in the spectrum of the QSO SDSS J160501.21-011220.0. Our UVES spectrum shows two well detached BALs at z(abs)= 4.685 and 4.855. The system at z(abs)= 4.855 covers the background source completely suggesting that the gas is located outside the BLR. On the contrary the system at z(abs)= 4.685 has a covering factor of ~0.9. The observed H I absorption line together with the limits on C II and Si II absorptions suggest that 16<log N(H I) (cm^{-2})<~17 in z(abs) = 4.855 absorption system. Comparison with models show that the observed column densities of N V, Si IV and C IV in this system require that N is underabundant by more than a factor 3 compared to Si if the ionizing radiation is similar to a typical QSO spectrum. This is contrary to what is usually derived for the emission line gas in QSOs. We show that the relative suppression in the N V column density can be explained for Solar abundance ratios or abundance ratios typical of Starburst abundances if an ionizing spectrum devoid of X-rays is used instead. Thus, if the composition of BAL is like that of BLR then it is most likely that the cloud sees a spectrum devoid of X-rays similar to what we observe from this QSO. This is consistent with the fact that none of our models have high Compton optical depth to remove X-rays from the QSO. Similar arguments lead to the conclusion that the system at z(abs)= 4.685 as well is not Compton thick. The estimated black hole mass is 8 10^8 solar mass suggesting the accretion onto the seed black hole must have started as early as z = 11.

arXiv comment10 pages, 6 figures, to appear in A& A

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