LOFAR radio properties of quasars hosting Extremely High Velocity Outflows

RESUMO

Quasar winds are a potential contributor to the radio emission observed in the so-called 'radio-quiet' quasars. Extremely High Velocity Outflows (EHVOs), with bulk velocities >0.1c, represent some of the most energetic of these winds. In this work, we investigate the radio properties of quasars hosting EHVOs in order to assess whether such high-velocity winds contribute to the observed radio emission. We cross-match the catalogue of EHVOs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey with the high-sensitivity Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) Data Release 3. We find that EHVO quasars exhibit a significantly higher radio-detection fraction of 38 per cent compared to an underlying parent quasar population at 24 per cent. By constructing control samples using nearest-neighbour matching, we show that matching the C IV emission line blueshift alone is sufficient to reproduce the elevated radio-detection fraction in a global sense; however, differences still remain in the radio-detection fraction as a function of C IV emission blueshift between the EHVO distribution and any matched sample, suggesting that some additional mechanism is at play. Furthermore, composite spectra reveal no significant differences in the ultraviolet absorption profiles between radio-detected and radio-undetected EHVOs, although we identify a mild positive correlation between maximum outflow velocity and radio luminosity. Our results suggest that EHVOs likely represent a subset of the quasars which host fast winds that are observed along particular lines-of-sight, and that radio emission associated with such winds remains a plausible mechanism.