The Diverse Nature of Intrinsic Absorbers in AGNs

Abstract

Intrinsic absorbers are significant components of AGN environments that provide valuable information and interesting challenges. We present a very brief (and biased, and sometimes speculative) overview of intrinsic absorbers from the perspective of different absorption line classes. We also discuss ways of addressing and learning from the "problem" of partial coverage of the background light source, with some examples based on new high-resolution rest-frame UV spectra of quasars.

10 page review, in AGN Physics with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, ed. G. Richards & P. Hall, Princeton, 2003; version 2 fixes some typos