Paper detail

Low ionization lines in high luminosity quasars: The calcium triplet

In order to investigate where and how low ionization lines are emitted in quasars we are studying a new collection of spectra of the CaII triplet at $λ$8498, $λ$8542, $λ$8662 observed with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) using the Infrared Spectrometer And Array Camera (ISAAC). Our sample involves luminous quasars at intermediate redshift for which CaII observations are almost nonexistent. We fit the CaII triplet and the OI $λ$8446 line using the H$β$ profile as a model. We derive constraints on the line emitting region from the relative strength of the CaII triplet, OI $λ$8446 and H$β$.