PHL 1811, Lineless highly luminous quasar

PHL 1811 is the second brightest observed object at z=0.191. PH 1811 is interesting due to its high luminosity, as it is a lineless quasar (another term for a lineless quasar is “Naked" quasar).

When lineless quasars were first discovered it was hypothesized that they were formed when two Seyfert galaxies merged, and the quasar core of one the Seyfert galaxies was ejected. The logic of that hypothesis was that the ejected quasar core would lose the feed source for its accretion disk. The thought was that ejected quasar would continue to emit for a short period of time due to residual gas (which it was assumed would continue to in fall) that it managed to carry into intergalactic space. A consequence of the “ejected quasar core” hypothesis would be that a lineless quasar would be less luminous, not more luminous than a “standard” quasar.

The model of a quasar created using the logic and the mechanism constraints of the accretion disk quasar hypothesis must have a companion galaxy that feeds the quasar’s accretion disc. The quasar accretion disc hypothesis requires a massive gas cloud in close vicinity to the quasar as only a portion of the gas cloud can be pulled into the accretion disc. Stars will or should form in the massive gas cloud. There are a number of obvious issues to explain how a lineless bright quasar can form with the accretion disc hypothesized mechanism and accretion disc mechanism constraints.

It is asserted that the discovery of PH 1811 and other highly luminous lineless quasars disproves the quasar core ejection hypothesis to explain the lineless emission spectrum of lineless (Naked) quasars as it the second brightest quasar at z=0.2.

Comment:
1) It is has been known for some time that the largest portion of the quasar spectrum is generated by non-thermal processes.

2) As there is a set of observed quasar types, lineless, broad line emission, narrow line emission, soft x-ray, hard x-ray and so forth, the entire of set of quasar types can be examined to look for a common emission mechanism. The set of observations constrain or determine what must drive the quasar engine. If this line of logic is followed, it can be used to discover the properties and evolution of the massive object that drives quasars.

3) A better question than how are quasars fuelled, which assumes the quasar spectrum is generated by gas in falling to a traditional black hole, is what are the mechanisms and conditions that can generate the range of observed quasar spectrums.

The following is a link to Karen Leighly's et al. paper that describes the spectrum of PH 1811.

“The Intrinsically X-ray Weak Quasar PHL 1811. II. Optical and UV Spectra and Analysis”, by Karen Leighly et al.

http://arxiv.org/abs/0705.0940v1