The Luminosity Dependence of UV Absorption in AGN

Abstract

We describe the results of a survey of the UV absorption properties of the Boroson & Green sample of AGN, which extends from the Seyfert (M_V ~ -21) to the luminous quasar (M_V ~ -27) level. The survey is based mostly on HST archival data available for >~ 1/2 of the 87 sample objects. Our main result is that soft X-ray weak quasars (SXWQs, 10 AGN with alpha_ox<= -2) show the strongest UV absorption at a given luminosity, and their maximum outflow velocity, v_max, is strongly correlated with M_V (r_S=-0.95). This suggests that v_max is largely set by the luminosity, as expected for radiation-pressure driven outflows. Luminous SXWQs have preferentially low [O III] luminosity, which suggests they are physically distinct from unabsorbed AGN, while non-SXWQs with UV absorption are consistent with being drawn from the unabsorbed AGN population. We also find an indication that v_max/v_BLR increases with L/L_Edd, as expected for radiation-pressure driven outflows. This relation and the v_max vs. M_V relation may indicate that the radiation-pressure force multiplier increases with luminosity, and that the wind launching radius in non-SXWQs is ~10 times larger than in SXWQs.

19 pages, 9 figures, scheduled for 2002, ApJ, 569 (April 20th). All UV spectra of the 56 PG AGNs and their corresponding SM plotting files are available at http://www.astro.psu.edu/users/niel/papers/papers.html