Windy Quasars: Investigating the Physical Properties of Broad Absorption Line Outflows with SimBAL

Hyunseop Choi ( Université de Montréal )

Broad absorption-line (BAL) quasars reveal the presence of powerful quasar-driven outflows in their spectra. These winds are considered one of the main contributors to the co-evolution of black holes and galaxies in a process known as feedback. However, the properties of these outflows, including where they are located in the quasar and how much mass and energy they carry, are still generally unknown despite decades of study. We developed the novel spectral synthesis software SimBAL that can be used to model complex BAL quasar spectra and provide measurements of the physical properties of the absorbing gas in unprecedented detail. I present the results from the first systematic study of a sample of 50 low-redshift BAL quasar spectra and show preliminary results from our high-redshift sample, where we include more massive and luminous quasars.