NEW CONSTRAINTS ON THE QUASAR BROAD EMISSION LINE REGION

Journal Article · Fri Jul 20 04:00:00 EDT 2012 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/754/1/18· OSTI ID:22039330

Ruff, Andrea J; Floyd, David J. E.; Webster, Rachel L; Landt, Hermine ^[1]

---

1. School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010 (Australia)

We demonstrate a new technique for determining the physical conditions of the broad-line-emitting gas in quasars, using near-infrared hydrogen emission lines. Unlike higher ionization species, hydrogen is an efficient line emitter for a very wide range of photoionization conditions, and the observed line ratios depend strongly on the density and photoionization state of the gas present. A locally optimally emitting cloud model of the broad emission line region was compared to measured emission lines of four nearby (z Almost-Equal-To 0.2) quasars that have optical and NIR spectra of sufficient signal to noise to measure their Paschen lines. The model provides a good fit to three of the objects, and a fair fit to the fourth object, an ultraluminous infrared galaxy. We find that low-incident-ionizing fluxes ({Phi}{sub H} < 10{sup 18} cm{sup -2} s{sup -1}) and high gas densities (n{sub H} > 10{sup 12} cm{sup -3}) are required to reproduce the observed hydrogen emission line ratios. This analysis demonstrates that the use of composite spectra in photoionization modeling is inappropriate; models must be fitted to the individual spectra of quasars.

• OSTI ID: 22039330
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 754; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ASTRONOMY
ASTROPHYSICS
DENSITY
EMISSION SPECTROSCOPY
GALAXIES
HYDROGEN
NEAR INFRARED RADIATION
NOISE
PASCHEN LINES
PHOTOIONIZATION
PHOTON EMISSION
QUASARS
SIGNALS
VISIBLE SPECTRA