The First HeI*\lambda 10830 BALQSO

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery and detailed analysis of the first HeI* 10830 broad absorption line quasar, providing insights into its outflow properties and demonstrating the utility of HeI* lines in studying high-column-density BALQSOs.

Contribution

The study presents the first detection of a HeI* 10830 BALQSO and develops models to constrain its physical properties and outflow dynamics.

Findings

Hydrogen column density between 21.7 and 22.9

Mass outflow rate between 11 and 56 solar masses per year

Kinetic energy between 1 and 5 x 10^44 erg/s

Abstract

We report the discovery of the first HeI*\lambda 10830 broad absorption line quasar FBQS J1151+3822. Using new infrared and optical spectra, as well as the SDSS spectrum, we extracted the apparent optical depth profiles as a function of velocity of the 3889A and 10830A HeI* absorption lines. Since these lines have the same lower levels, inhomogeneous absorption models could be used to extract the average true HeI* column density; the log of that number was 14.9. The total hydrogen column density was obtained using Cloudy models. A range of ionization parameters and densities were allowed, with the lower limit on the ionization parameter of log U=-1.4 determined by the requirement that there be sufficient HeI*, and the upper limit on the density of log n=8 determined by the lack of Balmer absorption. Simulated UV spectra showed that the ionization parameter could be further constrained in principle using a combination of low and high ionization lines (such as MgII and PV), but the only density-sensitive line predicted to be observable and not significantly blended was CIII\lambda 1176. We estimated the outflow rate and kinetic energy, finding them to be consistent but on the high side compared with analysis of other objects. Assuming that radiative line driving is the responsible acceleration mechanism, a force multipler model was constructed. A dynamical argument using the model results strongly constrained the density to be log n >= ~7. Consequently, the log hydrogen column density is constrained to be between 21.7 and 22.9, the mass outflow rate to be between 11 and 56 solar masses per year, the ratio of the mass outflow rate to the accretion rate to be between 1.2 and 5.8, and the kinetic energy to be between 1 and 5 x 10^44 erg/s. We discuss the advantages of using HeI* to detect high-column-density BALQSOs and and measure their properties. (Abridged)