Suzaku observations of near-relativistic outflows in the bal quasar APM 08279+5255

We present results from three Suzaku observations of the z = 3.91 gravitationally lensed broad absorption line quasar APM 08279+5255. We detect strong and broad absorption at rest-frame energies of ≲2 keV (low energy) and 7-12 keV (high energy). The detection of these features confirms the results of previous long-exposure (80-90 ks) Chandra and XMM-Newton observations. The low- and high-energy absorption is detected in both the back-illuminated (BI) and front-illuminated (FI) Suzaku X-ray Imaging Spectrometer spectra (with an F-test significance of ≳99%). We interpret the low-energy absorption as arising from a low-ionization absorber with log N _H 23 and the high-energy absorption as due to lines arising from highly ionized (2.75 ≲ logξ ≲ 4.0, where ξ is the ionization parameter) iron in a near-relativistic outflowing wind. Assuming this interpretation we find that the velocities in the outflow range between 0.1c and 0.6c. We constrain the angle between the outflow direction of the X-ray absorber and our line of sight to be ≲36°. We also detect likely variability of the absorption lines (at the ≳99.9% and ≳98% significance levels in the FI and BI spectra, respectively) with a rest-frame timescale of 1 month. Assuming that the detected high-energy absorption features arise from FeXXV, we estimate that the fraction of the total bolometric energy injected over the quasar's lifetime into the intergalactic medium in the form of kinetic energy to be ≳10%.