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D. Narayanan, F. Hamann (University of Florida), V. Junkkarinen, R. Cohen, R, Lyons, E.M. Burbidge (University of California, San Diego), T. Barlow (Caltech/IPAC)
Quasars are luminous objects with energetic winds in the cores of young galaxies. We are involved in a program to use the narrow absorption lines (NALs) in quasar spectra to i) study the outflow physics, and ii) measure the chemical abundances to constrain indirectly the extent of star formation and chemical enrichment in the galaxy hosts. Here we report on multi-epoch observations of 9 redshift ~ 2 quasars to search for NAL strength variations as an identifier of absorption physically near the central AGN (e.g., in the energetic outflow). We obtained spectra in the rest-frame UV primarily using the Shane 3 meter telescope at the UCO Lick observatory. For comparison, we also use spectra of the same objects taken over a decade earlier at the Palomar Observatory, kindly provided by C.C. Steidel. We detect significant NAL variability in 4 of the 9 quasars. The maximum time scales for these variations are typically < 1.3 yrs in the quasar rest frames. The outflow velocities range from near zero to ~ 51,000 km/s. We will discuss the implications of these results for quasar wind models.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34, #4
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.