S. Mathur et al., Discovery of associated absorption lines in an X-ray warm absorber: HubbleSpace Telescope observations of PG 1114+435, ASTROPHYS J, 503(1), 1998, pp. L23-L26
The unified picture of X-ray/UV absorbers offers a unique opportunity to pr
obe the nuclear environment of active galactic nuclei. To test the unified
absorber scenario and to understand the physical properties of the absorber
, we obtained the first UV spectrum of PG 1114+445 using the Hubble Space T
elescope (HST) Faint Object Spectrograph. PG 1114+445 is known to have an X
-ray ionized ("warm") absorber, so that UV absorption is predicted. The HST
spectrum clearly shows strong UV absorption lines due to Ly alpha, C IV, a
nd N V, blueshifted by similar to 530 km s(-1) with respect to the quasar r
edshift. Since both X-ray and UV absorbers an rare in radio-quiet quasars,
these observations argue strongly that the X-ray and UV absorbers are close
ly physically related, perhaps identical. We place constraints on the param
eters of the absorber and conclude that the mass outflow rate is comparable
to the accretion rate in PG 1114+445.