Hubble Space Telescope Observations of BALQSO Ton 34 Reveal a Connection between the Broad Line Region and the BAL Outflow

Ton 34 recently transitioned from non-absorbing quasar into a BALQSO.Here, we report new HST-STIS observations of this quasar. Along with CIV absorption, we also detect absorption by NV+Ly alpha and possibly OVI+Ly beta. We follow the evolution of the CIV BAL, and find that, for the slower outflowing material, the absorption trough varies little (if at all) on a rest-frame timescale of 2 yr. However, we detect a strong deepening of the absorption in the gas moving at larger velocities (-20,000 - -23,000 km s-1). The data is consistent with a multistreaming flow crossing our line of sight to the source. The transverse velocity of the flow should be few thousand km s-1, similar to the rotation velocity of the BLR gas (2,600 km s-1). By simply assuming Keplerian motion, these two components must have similar locations, pointing to a common outflow forming the BLR and the BAL. We speculate that BALs, mini-BALs, and NALs, are part of a common, ubiquitous, accretion-disk outflow in AGN, but become observable depending on the viewing angle towards the flow. The absorption troughs suggest a wind covering only 20% of the emitting source, implying a maximum size of 10^-3 pc for the clouds forming the BAL/BLR medium. This is consistent with constraints of the BLR clouds from X-ray occultations. Finally, we suggest that the low excitation broad emission lines detected in the spectra of this source lie beyond the wind, and this gas is probably excited by the shock of the BAL wind with the surrounding medium.

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