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A high velocity ionised outflow and XUV photosphere in the narrow emission line quasar PG1211+143

K. A. Pounds, J. N. Reeves, A. R. King, K. L. Page, P. T. O'Brien, M. J. L. Turner

astro-pharXiv:astro-ph/0303603

Abstract

We report on the analysis of a ~60 ksec XMM observation of the bright, narrow emission line quasar PG 1211+143. Absorption lines are seen in both EPIC and RGS spectra corresponding to H- and He-like ions of Fe, S, Mg, Ne, O, N and C. The observed line energies indicate an ionised outflow velocity of ~24000 km s-1. The highest energy lines require a column density of NH ~ 5 x 1023 cm-2, at an ionisation parameter of log(xi) ~ 3.4. If the origin of this high velocity outflow lies in matter being driven from the inner disc, then the flow is likely to be optically thick within a radius ~130 Schwarzschild radii, providing a natural explanation for the Big Blue Bump (and strong soft X-ray) emission in PG 1211+143.

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