Repository logo
 

The Kinematics of Quasar Broad Emission Line Regions Using a Disk-Wind Model

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Yong, SY 
Webster, RL 
King, AL 
Bate, NF 
O Dowd, MJ 

Abstract

The structure and kinematics of the broad line region in quasars are still unknown. One popular model is the disk-wind model that offers a geometric unification of a quasar based on the viewing angle. We construct a simple kinematical disk-wind model with a narrow outflowing wind angle. The model is combined with radiative transfer in the Sobolev, or high velocity, limit. We examine how angle of viewing affects the observed characteristics of the emission line. The line profiles were found to exhibit distinct properties depending on the orientation, wind opening angle, and region of the wind where the emission arises. At low inclination angle (close to face-on), we find that the shape of the emission line is asymmetric, narrow, and significantly blueshifted. As the inclination angle increases (close to edge-on), the line profile becomes more symmetric, broader, and less blueshifted. Additionally, lines that arise close to the base of the disk wind, near the accretion disk, tend to be broad and symmetric. Single-peaked line profiles are recovered for the intermediate and equatorial wind. The model is also able to reproduce a faster response in either the red or blue sides of the line profile, consistent with reverberation mapping studies.

Description

Keywords

galaxies: active, quasars: emission lines

Journal Title

Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1323-3580
1448-6083

Volume Title

34

Publisher

Cambridge University Press
Sponsorship
Science and Technology Facilities Council (ST/M003914/1)
NFB thanks the STFC for support under Ernest Rutherford Grant ST/M003914/1.