Exceptional X-ray Weak Quasars: Implications for Accretion Flows and Emission-Line Formation
Abstract
Actively accreting supermassive black holes are found, nearly universally, to create luminous X-ray emission, and this point underlies the utility of X-ray surveys for finding active galactic nuclei throughout the Universe. However, there are apparent X-ray weak exceptions to this rule that are now providing novel insights, including weak-line quasars (WLQs) and especially analogs of the extreme WLQ, PHL 1811. We have been systematically studying such X-ray weak quasars with Chandra and near-infrared spectroscopy, and I will report results on their remarkable properties and describe implications for models of the accretion disk/corona and emission-line formation. We have found evidence that many of these quasars may have geometrically thick inner accretion disks, likely due to high accretion rates, that shield the high-ionization broad line region from the relevant ionizing continuum. This model can explain, in a simple and unified manner, their weak lines and diverse X-ray properties. Such shielding may, more generally, play a role in shaping the broad distributions of quasar emission-line equivalent widths and blueshifts.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #227
- Pub Date:
- January 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AAS...22731804B