Probing the He II re-Ionization ERa via Absorbing C IV Historical Yield (HIERACHY) I: A Strong Outflow from a z~4.7 Quasar

Abstract

Outflows from super-massive black holes (SMBHs) play an important role in the coevolution of themselves, their host galaxies, and the larger scale environments. Such outflows are often characterized by emission and absorption lines in various bands and in a wide velocity range blueshifted from the systematic redshift of the host quasar. In this paper, we report a strong broad line region (BLR) outflow from the z ≈ 4.7 quasar BR 1202-0725 based on the high-resolution optical spectrum taken with the Magellan Inamori Kyocera Echelle (MIKE) spectrograph installed on the 6.5m Magellan/Clay telescope, obtained from the "Probing the He II re-Ionization ERa via Absorbing C IV Historical Yield" (HIERACHY) project. This rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) spectrum is characterized by a few significantly blueshifted broad emission lines from high ions; the most significant one is the C iv line at a velocity of ∼ −6500 km s −1 relative to the Hα emission line, which is among the highest velocity BLR outflows in observed quasars at z > 4. The measured properties of UV emission lines from different ions, except for O i and Lyα, also follow a clear trend that higher ions tend to be broader and outflow at higher average velocities. There are multiple C iv and Si iv absorbing components identified on the blue wings of the corresponding emission lines, which may be produced by either the outflow or the intervening absorbers.