ALMA Observations Show Major Mergers Among the Host Galaxies of Fast-growing, High-redshift, Supermassive Black Holes

Trakhtenbrot, Benny; Lira, P.; Netzer, H.; Cicone, C.; Maiolino, R.; Shemmer, Ohad

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/836/1/8

Cited by 120 publications

(147 citation statements)

References 157 publications

(260 reference statements)

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“…This is in agreement with previous studies of high-redshift quasars, which found that the broad UV emission lines of quasars tend to be blueshifted by several hundreds of km s −1 compared to emission lines probing the interstellar medium of the host galaxies, such as the [C ii] and CO lines (e.g. Riechers 2011;Willott et al 2015;Venemans et al 2016;Trakhtenbrot et al 2017;Decarli et al 2018).…”

Section: Co(5-4) and Co(8-7) Line Emissionsupporting

confidence: 93%

SMM J04135+10277: a distant QSO–starburst system caught by ALMA

Fogasy

Knudsen

Drouart

et al. 2020

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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The gas content of galaxies is a key factor for their growth, starting from star formation and black hole accretion to galaxy mergers. Thus, characterising its properties through observations of tracers like the CO emission line is of big importance in order to understand the bigger picture of galaxy evolution. We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of dust continuum, CO(5-4) and CO(8-7) line emission in the quasar-star-forming companion system SMM J04135+10277 (z = 2.84). Earlier low-J CO studies of this system found a huge molecular gas reservoir associated to the companion galaxy, while the quasar appeared gas-poor. Our CO observations revealed that the host galaxy of the quasar is also gas-rich, with an estimated molecular gas mass of ∼ (0.7−2.3)×10 10 M . The CO line profiles of the companion galaxy are very broad (∼ 1000 km s −1 ), and show signs of rotation of a compact, massive system. In contrast to previous far-infrared observations, we resolve the continuum emission and detect both sources, with the companion galaxy dominating the dust continuum and the quasar having a ∼ 25% contribution to the total dust emission. By fitting the infrared spectral energy distribution of the sources with MR-MOOSE and empirical templates, the infrared luminosities of the quasar and the companion are in the range of L IR,QSO ∼ (2.1 − 9.6) × 10 12 L and L IR,Comp. ∼ (2.4 − 24) × 10 12 L , while the estimated star formation rates are ∼ 210 − 960 M yr −1 and ∼ 240 − 2400 M yr −1 , respectively. Our results demonstrate that non-detection of low-J CO transition lines in similar sources does not necessarily imply the absence of massive molecular gas reservoir but that the excitation conditions favour the excitation of high-J transitions.

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Section: Co(5-4) and Co(8-7) Line Emissionsupporting

confidence: 93%

SMM J04135+10277: a distant QSO–starburst system caught by ALMA

Fogasy

Knudsen

Drouart

et al. 2020

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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“…Here, it is striking to see that luminous QSOs reveal an excess in the number counts of massive star-forming galaxies in their vicinity at z > 6 ) and z ∼ 4.8 (Trakhtenbrot et al 2017). This is in agreement with the notion of a strongly clustered galaxy environment around QSOs at high redshifts (e.g., García-Vergara et al 2017) and an excess of unobscured dual AGN with <40 kpc separations (Hennawi et al 2006).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

Cosmic dance at z ~ 3: Detecting the host galaxies of the dual AGN system LBQS 0302–0019 and Jil with HAWK-I+GRAAL

Bielby

Jahnke

Battaia

et al. 2018

A&A

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We recently discovered that the luminous radio-quiet quasi-stellar objects (QSO) LBQS 0302−0019 at z = 3.286 is likely accompanied by an obscured AGN at 20 kpc projected distance, which we dubbed Jil. It represents the tightest candidate system of an obscured and unobscured dual AGN at z > 3. To verify the dual AGN scenario, we obtained deep K s band (rest-frame V band) imaging with the VLT/HAWK-I+GRAAL instrument at 0 .4 resolution during science verification in January 2018. We detect the individual host galaxies of the QSO and Jil with estimated stellar masses of log(M /M ) = 11.4 ± 0.5 and log(M /M ) = 0.9 ± 0.5, respectively. Near-IR spectra obtained with Very Large Telescope-K-band Multi Object Spectrograph (VLT-KMOS) reveal a clear [O iii] λ5007line detection at the location of Jil that does not contribute significantly to the K s band flux. Both observations therefore corroborate the dual AGN scenario. A comparison to Illustris simulations suggests a parent halo mass of log(M halo /M ) = 13.2 ± 0.5 for this interacting galaxy system, corresponding to a massive dark matter halo at that epoch.

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“…E.g. at z = 4.8, 50% of quasar host galaxies (3 out of 6) analysed by Trakhtenbrot et al (2017) are found to have companion submillimetre galaxies.…”

Section: Black Hole Environmentmentioning

confidence: 98%

Quasar outflows at z ≥ 6: the impact on the host galaxies

Barai

Gallerani

Pallottini

et al. 2017

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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We investigate quasar outflows at z 6 by performing zoom-in cosmological hydrodynamical simulations. By employing the SPH code GADGET-3, we zoom in the 2R 200 region around a 2×1012 M ⊙ halo at z = 6, inside a (500 Mpc) 3 comoving volume. We compare the results of our AGN runs with a control simulation in which only stellar/SN feedback is considered. Seeding 10 5 M ⊙ BHs at the centers of 10 9 M ⊙ halos, we find the following results. BHs accrete gas at the Eddington rate over z = 9 − 6. At z = 6, our most-massive BH has grown to M BH = 4 × 10 9 M ⊙ . Fast (v r > 1000 km/s), powerful (Ṁ out ∼ 2000M ⊙ /yr) outflows of shock-heated low-density gas form at z ∼ 7, and propagate up to hundreds kpc. Star-formation is quenched over z = 8 − 6, and the total SFR (SFR surface density near the galaxy center) is reduced by a factor of 5 (1000). We analyse the relative contribution of multiple physical process: (i) disrupting cosmic filamentary cold gas inflows, (ii) reducing central gas density, (iii) ejecting gas outside the galaxy; and find that AGN feedback has the following effects at z = 6. The inflowing gas mass fraction is reduced by ∼ 12%, the high-density gas fraction is lowered by ∼ 13%, and ∼ 20% of the gas outflows at a speed larger than the escape velocity (500 km/s). We conclude that quasar-host galaxies at z 6 are accreting non-negligible amount of cosmic gas, nevertheless AGN feedback quenches their star formation dominantly by powerful outflows ejecting gas out of the host galaxy halo.

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ALMA Observations Show Major Mergers Among the Host Galaxies of Fast-growing, High-redshift, Supermassive Black Holes

Cited by 120 publications

References 157 publications

SMM J04135+10277: a distant QSO–starburst system caught by ALMA

SMM J04135+10277: a distant QSO–starburst system caught by ALMA

Cosmic dance at z ~ 3: Detecting the host galaxies of the dual AGN system LBQS 0302–0019 and Jil with HAWK-I+GRAAL

Quasar outflows at z ≥ 6: the impact on the host galaxies

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