J/ApJ/814/150ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/814/150doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.18140150CDSWang T.Yang C.Wang H.Ferland G.2017-10-09T13:34:34Z2016-03-29T14:54:53ZCDS support team

CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France

cds-question@unistra.frquasarsspectroscopyWe present a qualitative analysis of the variability of quasar broad absorption lines using the large multi-epoch spectroscopic data set of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 10. We confirm that variations of absorption lines are highly coordinated among different components of the same ion or the same absorption component of different ions for CIV, SiIV, and NV. Furthermore, we show that the equivalent widths (EWs) of the lines decrease or increase statistically when the continuum brightens or dims. This is further supported by the synchronized variations of emission and absorption-line EWs when the well-established intrinsic Baldwin effect for emission lines is taken into account. We find that the emergence of an absorption component is usually accompanied by the dimming of the continuum while the disappearance of an absorption-line component is accompanied by the brightening of the continuum. This suggests that the emergence or disappearance of a CIV absorption component is only the extreme case, when the ionic column density is very sensitive to continuum variations or the continuum variability the amplitude is larger. These results support the idea that absorption-line variability is driven mainly by changes in the gas ionization in response to continuum variations, that the line-absorbing gas is highly ionized, and in some extreme cases, too highly ionized to be detected in UV absorption lines. Due to uncertainties in the spectroscopic flux calibration, we cannot quantify the fraction of quasars with asynchronized continuum and absorption-line variations.2015ApJ...814..150Whttps://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/814/150CatalogResearchIsServedByTAP VizieR generic serviceIsServedByConesearch servicerelated-toVII/270 : SDSS quasar catalog: tenth data release (Paris+, 2014)VII/260 : The SDSS-DR7 quasar catalog (Schneider+, 2010)II/294 : The SDSS Photometric Catalog, Release 7 (Adelman-McCarthy+, 2009)J/ApJS/217/11 : HeI* in broad absorption line QSOs (Liu+, 2015)J/MNRAS/440/799 : Low Ionization BALQSO MgII & AlIII variability (Vivek+, 2014)J/MNRAS/434/163 : QSOs narrow absorption line variability (Hacker+, 2013)J/ApJ/777/168 : CIV & SiIV broad absorption line in SDSS (Filiz+, 2013)J/ApJS/194/45 : QSO properties from SDSS-DR7 (Shen+, 2011)J/A+A/525/A37 : QSO variability indexes in SDSS Stripe 82 (Meusinger+, 2011)J/AJ/142/78 : New 2.2<z<3 quasars from SDSS and UKIDSS (Wu+, 2011)J/ApJ/696/924 : UV and X-Ray radio-quiet QSOs (Gibson+, 2009)J/ApJ/641/78 : CIV variability in 105 SDSS quasars (Wilhite+, 2006)J/ApJS/167/334 : Radiative recombination data for plasmas (Badnell+, 2006)J/ApJS/165/1 : BAL QSOs from SDSS DR3 (Trump+, 2006)J/ApJ/633/638 : Variable quasar sample from SDSS (Wilhite+, 2005)J/ApJ/613/129 : Equivalent widths of QSOs (Wise+, 2004)J/ApJ/475/469 : Composite HST Spectrum of Quasars (Zheng+ 1997)http://www.sdss3.org/ : SDSS-III home pagehttps://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.htmlhttps://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/814/150https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/814/150http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/814/150https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/814/150https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/814/150http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/814/150GETtext/xml+votablehttps://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tapCone search capability for table J/ApJ/814/150/table2 (Variable absorption line components)https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/814/150/table2?https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/814/150/table2?http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/814/150/table2?GETtext/xml+votable180.050000true0.875750.1370.0055555555555555566/0 552 554 4096 4124 4138 4139 4178 4192 4224 4225 4226 4240 4242 4324 4328 4332 4343 4345 4397 4445 4466 4467 4472 4484 4517 4519 4543 4615 4626 4646 4667 4699 4727 4746 4758 4803 4813 4820 4848 4859 4866 4876 4879 4882 4900 4903 4907 5022 5028 5052 5055 5079 5080 5302 5310 5337 5338 5354 5363 5395 5397 5434 5458 5504 5515 5527 5530 5547 5560 5569 5659 5672 5676 5692 5698 5707 5715 5721 5723 5777 5804 5809 6220 6221 6235 6270 6337 6357 6406 6419 6442 6443 6454 6477 6479 6485 6502 6503 6517 6552 6559 6578 6599 6606 6642 6916 7173 7316 7332 7471 8192 8227 8234 8237 8276 8299 8321 8329 8339 8342 8349 8367 8376 8424 8425 8474 8505 8536 8547 8578 8581 8590 8639 8719 8725 8727 8734 8741 8760 8761 8782 8794 8825 8831 8836 8841 8895 8902 8904 8910 8925 8938 8939 8984 8985 8991 9006 9013 9032 9054 9085 9112 9121 9155 9174 9176 9181 9201 9211 9234 9239 9257 9270 9282 9331 9350 9357 9359 9365 9387 9394 9399 9401 9416 9431 9433 9434 9455 9457 9468 9483 9512 9613 9642 9735 9769 9776 9788 9802 9806 9842 9901 9922 10254 10262 10264 10277 10362 10363 10365 10423 10463 10468 10499 10502 10513 10527 10544 10549 10564 10586 10631 10641 10649 10658 10688 10698 10765 10778 10786 10802 10824 10887 11268 17406 17665 17747 17756 17766 17767 17768 17773 17816 17821 17830 17840 17857 17997 18004 18024 18027 18028 18063 18076 18087 18090 18092 18114 18301 18302 18416 18687 18749 18772 18780 18802 18833 18834 18851 19025 19049 19092 19099 19102 19111 19118 19387 19388 19403 19561 21909 21998 22001 22359 22361 25597 25849 25911 25964 25982 26012 26014 26016 26018 26023 26047 26058 26060 26094 26172 26173 26188 26206 26213 26217 26237 26239 26264 26273 26276 26283 26308 26339 26351 26366 26373 26402 26405 26422 26430 26450 26464 26466 26474 26475 26476 26481 26490 26497 26503 26505 26527 26542 26545 26558 26567 26582 26587 26594 26986 27021 27025 27035 27052 27059 27069 27084 27085 27086 27119 27130 27199 27237 27248 27299 27301 27319 27378 27423 27430 27444 27465 27484 27546 27549 27570 27573 27574 27605 27615 27637 27642 27645 27646 27657 27658 27675 27676 27686 27708 27750 27754 27761 27787 27875 27880 27886 27917 27967 27983 27987 27999 28016 28074 28088 28160 28165 28168 28207 28210 28246 28251 28257 28330 28417 28447 28537 28622 28657 28670 28671 31399 31408 31411 31442 31454 31471 31531 31534 31616 31635 31648 31654 31674 31738 32438 36778 36781 45054 45055https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/moc/J/ApJ/814/150?format=asciiOpticaldefaultJ/ApJ/814/150/table2Variable absorption line componentsf_SDSS[*] Flag on SDSS (1)meta.codecharrecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintSDSSSDSS identifier (JHHMMSS.ss+DDMMSS.s)meta.id;meta.maincharPlateSDSS plate numbermeta.id;instr.plateintMJD[51578/56104] Modified Julian Date of SDSS exposuredtime.epochintFiberSDSS Fiber identifiermeta.idintVel1[-45900/-2400]? Lower range of velocitykm/sinstr.bandwidthintnullableVel2[-42700/0]? Upper range of velocitykm/sinstr.bandwidthintnullableRefr = Plate-MJD-Fiber reference spectrummeta.ref;pos.framecharCIV? The C IV variability sign (2)meta.code;src.varintnullableSiIV? The Si IV variability sign (2)meta.code;src.varintnullableNV? The N V variability sign (2)meta.code;src.varintnullableCont? The continuum variability sign (2)meta.code;src.varintnullableEm? The emission line variability sign (2)meta.code;src.varintnullableSpInteractive spectrum from SDSSmeta.ref.urlcharSimbadSimbad column added by the CDSmeta.ref.urlcharNEDSimbad column added by the CDSmeta.ref.urlchar_RAPositions from SDSS names (right ascension part)degpos.eq.ra;meta.main_DEPositions from SDSS names (declination part)degpos.eq.dec;meta.main