A Search for High-Excitation Redshift Systems in the Absorption Spectra of Five Quasars

We have searched the absorption spectra of five quasars for the presence of redshift system dominated by the highly ionized doublets C iv, N v, and O vi, which could be the strongest lines produced by absorbing clouds with collisional ionization temperatures between 10^5 ° and 10^6 °K. There is at most marginal evidence for one such system apiece in the spectra of PHL 957 and 4C 05.34, which are the two quasars with the largest known emission redshifts. Highly ionized redshift systems of this type are not widespread among the five quasars we investigated; the number of redshifts found in the observed spectra is not significantly larger than the number found in similar random-number spectra. Less than 5 percent of the observed absorption lines are identified in a statistically significant way by redshift systems of this type.