Pictor A: A new double-peaked emission-line quasar

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Abstract
We obtained a new spectrum for the radio galaxy Pictor~A in December 1993. Comparison with previous data obtained in 1983 and 1987 shows that the broad component of the Balmer lines has increased considerably in strength and complexity. The Balmer lines now show a boxy, double peaked profile with FWZI$sim$24000 kms. Although the 1993 Ha profile is reminiscent of Arp~102B, accretion disk models face immediate difficulty because (1) the redshifted peak in the profile is considerably stronger than the blue one, and (2) the red and blue peaks varied at different epochs. The latter finding strongly favors a predominance of radial motion. We argue that Pictor~A, and the rare objects with similar extremely broad emission line profiles, are better understood if the orientation is such that the gas is predominantly moving along the line of sight (i.e. a geometrical extremum).Comment: uu-encoded compressed tar of postscript files. Padova Preprin
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