2008/02/27 by Vivienne Wild, Guinevere Kauffmann, Simon White +12 · 7 citations
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Vision and Imaging #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Line-of-sight #Outflow #Physics #Population #Quasar #Redshift #Sky #Spectral line #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13375.x
published as Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc.388:227-241,2008 · 16 pages, 20 figures, submitted to MNRAS
arxiv created 2008/02/27 · openalex publication_date 2008/06/19 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey data release 3 (SDSS DR3), we investigate how narrow (<700 km s−1) C iv and Mg ii quasar absorption-line systems are distributed around quasars. The C iv absorbers lie in the redshift range 1.6 < z < 4 and the Mg ii absorbers in the range 0.4 < z < 2.2. By correlating absorbers with quasars on different but neighbouring lines of sight, we measure the clustering of absorbers around quasars on comoving scales between 4 and 30 Mpc. The observed comoving correlation lengths are ro∼ 5h−1Mpc, similar to those observed for bright galaxies at these redshifts. Comparing correlations between absorbers and the quasars, in whose spectra they are identified, then implies: (i) that quasars destroy absorbers to comoving distances of ∼300 kpc (C iv) and ∼800 kpc (Mg ii) along their lines of sight; (ii) that ≳40 per cent of C iv absorbers within 3000 km s−1 of the quasi-stellar object are not a result of large-scale clustering but rather are directly associated with the quasar itself; (iii) that this intrinsic absorber population extends to outflow velocities of the order of 12 000 km s−1; (iv) that this outflow component is present in both radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars and (v) that a small high-velocity outflow component is also observed in the Mg ii population. We also find an indication that absorption systems within 3000 km s−1 are more abundant for radio-loud quasars than for radio-quiet quasars. This suggests either that radio-loud objects live in more massive haloes, or that their radio activity generates an additional low-velocity outflow, or both.