Properties of BAL quasars

We identify 14 disappearing BALs over <=1.73-4.62 rest-frame years and 18 emerging BALs over <=1.46-3.66 rest-frame years associated with the CIV{lambda}{lambda}1548,1550 and/or SiIV{lambda}{lambda}1393,1402 doublets, and report on their variability behaviour.

BAL quasars in our data set exhibit disappearing/emerging C IV BALs at a rate of 2.3^+0.9^_-0.7_ and 3.0^+1.0^_-0.8_ per cent, respectively, and the frequency for BAL to non-BAL quasar transitions is 1.7^+0.8^_-0.6_ per cent. We detect four re-emerging BALs over <=3.88 rest-frame years on average and three re-disappearing BALs over <=4.15 rest-frame years on average, the first reported cases of these types. We infer BAL lifetimes along the line of sight to be nominally <=100-1000yr using disappearing CIV BALs in our sample.