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B. Scoggins, M. S. Brotherton, Z. Shang (Wyoming), M. Vestergaard (Arizona)
Much debate surrounds the nature of Broad Absorption Line Quasi-Stellar Objects (BALQSOs). It has been suggested that this quasar subclass, which shows distinctive blueshifted absorption troughs indicative a high-velocity outflow, is found only among quasars with the highest accretion rates. We have estimated black hole masses and accretion rates in 5190 quasars from the 2nd Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. These 5190 quasars, of which 349 are BALQSOs, have been selected from a narrow redshift range near z = 1.5, for which both Mg II and C IV emission lines are present in the SDSS spectral range. We answer the question, with overwhelming statistics, of whether or not BALQSOs are really stuck in overdrive.
This research is funded by Wyoming NASA Space Grant Consortium, NASA Grant #NGT-40102 and by Wyoming NASA EPSCoR NASA Grant #NCC5-578.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: bscoggin@uwyo.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.