IMPLICATIONS OF INFALLING Fe II-EMITTING CLOUDS IN ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI: ANISOTROPIC PROPERTIES
- Department of Physics, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506 (United States)
- Key Laboratory for Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 (China)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, Lansing, MI (United States)
- Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States)
- AWE plc, Aldermaston, Reading RG7 4PR (United Kingdom)
We investigate consequences of the discovery that Fe II emission in quasars, one of the spectroscopic signatures of 'Eigenvector 1', may originate in infalling clouds. Eigenvector 1 correlates with the Eddington ratio L/L {sub Edd} so that Fe II/Hbeta increases as L/L {sub Edd} increases. We show that the 'force multiplier', the ratio of gas opacity to electron scattering opacity, is approx10{sup 3}-10{sup 4} in Fe II-emitting gas. Such gas would be accelerated away from the central object if the radiation force is able to act on the entire cloud. As had previously been deduced, infall requires that the clouds have large column densities so that a substantial amount of shielded gas is present. The critical column density required for infall to occur depends on L/L {sub Edd}, establishing a link between Eigenvector 1 and the Fe II/Hbeta ratio. We see predominantly the shielded face of the infalling clouds rather than the symmetric distribution of emitters that has been assumed. The Fe II spectrum emitted by the shielded face is in good agreement with observations thus solving several long-standing mysteries in quasar emission lines.
- OSTI ID:
- 21389310
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal (Online), Vol. 707, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/707/1/L82; ISSN 1538-4357
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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