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Suppression of black-hole growth by strong outflows at redshifts 5.8-6.6. Nature 2022; 605:244-247. [PMID: 35546195 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04608-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2021] [Accepted: 03/03/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Bright quasars, powered by accretion onto billion-solar-mass black holes, already existed at the epoch of reionization, when the Universe was 0.5-1 billion years old1. How these black holes formed in such a short time is the subject of debate, particularly as they lie above the correlation between black-hole mass and galaxy dynamical mass2,3 in the local Universe. What slowed down black-hole growth, leading towards the symbiotic growth observed in the local Universe, and when this process started, has hitherto not been known, although black-hole feedback is a likely driver4. Here we report optical and near-infrared observations of a sample of quasars at redshifts 5.8 ≲ z ≲ 6.6. About half of the quasar spectra reveal broad, blueshifted absorption line troughs, tracing black-hole-driven winds with extreme outflow velocities, up to 17% of the speed of light. The fraction of quasars with such outflow winds at z ≳ 5.8 is ≈2.4 times higher than at z ≈ 2-4. We infer that outflows at z ≳ 5.8 inject large amounts of energy into the interstellar medium and suppress nuclear gas accretion, slowing down black-hole growth. The outflow phase may then mark the beginning of substantial black-hole feedback. The red optical colours of outflow quasars at z ≳ 5.8 indeed suggest that these systems are dusty and may be caught during an initial quenching phase of obscured accretion5.
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2
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Zhang Y, An T, Frey S. Fast jet proper motion discovered in a blazar at z=4.72. Sci Bull (Beijing) 2020; 65:525-530. [PMID: 36659183 DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2020.01.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2019] [Revised: 12/16/2019] [Accepted: 01/02/2020] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
High-resolution observations of high-redshift (z>4) radio quasars offer a unique insight into jet kinematics at early cosmological epochs, as well as constraints on cosmological model parameters. Due to the general weakness of extremely distant objects and the apparently slow structural changes caused by cosmological time dilation, only a couple of high-redshift quasars (HRQs) have been studied with parsec-scale resolutions, and with limited number of observing epochs. Here we report on very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations of a high-redshift blazar J1430 + 4204 (z=4.72) in the 8 GHz frequency band at five different epochs spanning 22 years. The source shows a compact core-jet structure with two jet components being identified within 3 milli-arcsecond (mas) scale. The long time span and multiple-epoch data allow for the kinematic studies of the jet components. That results in a jet proper motion of μ(J1) = 0.017 ± 0.002 mas a-1 and μ(J2) = 0.156 ± 0.015 mas a-1, respectively. For the fastest-moving outer jet component J2, the corresponding apparent transverse speed is (19.5±1.9)c. The inferred bulk jet Lorentz factor Γ=14.6±3.8 and viewing angle θ=2.2°±1.6° indicate highly relativistic beaming. The Lorentz factor and apparent proper motion are the highest measured to date among the z>4 jetted radio sources, while the jet kinematics is still consistent with the cosmological interpretation of quasar redshifts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yingkang Zhang
- Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200030, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Tao An
- Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200030, China; Key Laboratory of Radio Astronomy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China.
| | - Sándor Frey
- Konkoly Observatory, Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, Konkoly Thege Miklós út 15-17, H-1121 Budapest, Hungary
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Evolving parsec-scale radio structure in the most distant blazar known. Nat Commun 2020; 11:143. [PMID: 31919424 PMCID: PMC6952353 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-14093-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2019] [Accepted: 12/13/2019] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Blazars are a sub-class of quasars with Doppler boosted jets oriented close to the line of sight, and thus efficient probes of supermassive black hole growth and their environment, especially at high redshifts. Here we report on Very Long Baseline Interferometry observations of a blazar J0906 + 6930 at z = 5.47, which enabled the detection of polarised emission and measurement of jet proper motion at parsec scales. The observations suggest a less powerful jet compared with the general blazar population, including lower proper motion and bulk Lorentz factor. This coupled with a previously inferred high accretion rate indicate a transition from an accretion radiative power to a jet mechanical power based transfer of energy and momentum to the surrounding gas. While alternative scenarios could not be fully ruled out, our results indicate a possibly nascent jet embedded in and interacting with a dense medium resulting in a jet bending. High redshift blazars are efficient probes of supermassive black holes and their environment in the early Universe. Here the authors show measurements of polarised emission and proper motion in the blazar J0906+6930 (redshift of 5.47) characterised by a nascent jet embedded in and interacting with a dense medium.
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6
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Bañados E, Venemans BP, Mazzucchelli C, Farina EP, Walter F, Wang F, Decarli R, Stern D, Fan X, Davies FB, Hennawi JF, Simcoe RA, Turner ML, Rix HW, Yang J, Kelson DD, Rudie GC, Winters JM. An 800-million-solar-mass black hole in a significantly neutral Universe at a redshift of 7.5. Nature 2017; 553:473-476. [DOI: 10.1038/nature25180] [Citation(s) in RCA: 533] [Impact Index Per Article: 76.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2017] [Accepted: 11/28/2017] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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7
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Decarli R, Walter F, Venemans BP, Bañados E, Bertoldi F, Carilli C, Fan X, Farina EP, Mazzucchelli C, Riechers D, Rix HW, Strauss MA, Wang R, Yang Y. Rapidly star-forming galaxies adjacent to quasars at redshifts exceeding 6. Nature 2017; 545:457-461. [PMID: 28541326 PMCID: PMC5447817 DOI: 10.1038/nature22358] [Citation(s) in RCA: 122] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2017] [Accepted: 03/21/2017] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
The existence of massive (1011 solar masses) elliptical galaxies by redshift z ≈ 4 (refs 1, 2, 3; when the Universe was 1.5 billion years old) necessitates the presence of galaxies with star-formation rates exceeding 100 solar masses per year at z > 6 (corresponding to an age of the Universe of less than 1 billion years). Surveys have discovered hundreds of galaxies at these early cosmic epochs, but their star-formation rates are more than an order of magnitude lower. The only known galaxies with very high star-formation rates at z > 6 are, with one exception, the host galaxies of quasars, but these galaxies also host accreting supermassive (more than 109 solar masses) black holes, which probably affect the properties of the galaxies. Here we report observations of an emission line of singly ionized carbon ([C ii] at a wavelength of 158 micrometres) in four galaxies at z > 6 that are companions of quasars, with velocity offsets of less than 600 kilometres per second and linear offsets of less than 100 kiloparsecs. The discovery of these four galaxies was serendipitous; they are close to their companion quasars and appear bright in the far-infrared. On the basis of the [C ii] measurements, we estimate star-formation rates in the companions of more than 100 solar masses per year. These sources are similar to the host galaxies of the quasars in [C ii] brightness, linewidth and implied dynamical mass, but do not show evidence for accreting supermassive black holes. Similar systems have previously been found at lower redshift. We find such close companions in four out of the twenty-five z > 6 quasars surveyed, a fraction that needs to be accounted for in simulations. If they are representative of the bright end of the [C ii] luminosity function, then they can account for the population of massive elliptical galaxies at z ≈ 4 in terms of the density of cosmic space.
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Affiliation(s)
- R Decarli
- Max Planck Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, Heidelberg 69117, Germany
| | - F Walter
- Max Planck Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, Heidelberg 69117, Germany.,National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Pete V. Domenici Array Science Center, PO Box O, Socorro, New Mexico 87801, USA.,Astronomy Department, California Institute of Technology, MC105-24, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
| | - B P Venemans
- Max Planck Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, Heidelberg 69117, Germany
| | - E Bañados
- The Observatories of the Carnegie Institute of Washington, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, California 91101, USA
| | - F Bertoldi
- Argelander Institute for Astronomy, University of Bonn, Auf dem Hügel 71, Bonn 53121, Germany
| | - C Carilli
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Pete V. Domenici Array Science Center, PO Box O, Socorro, New Mexico 87801, USA.,Battcock Centre for Experimental Astrophysics, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK
| | - X Fan
- Steward Observatory, The University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, Arizona 85721-0065, USA
| | - E P Farina
- Max Planck Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, Heidelberg 69117, Germany
| | - C Mazzucchelli
- Max Planck Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, Heidelberg 69117, Germany
| | - D Riechers
- Cornell University, 220 Space Sciences Building, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA
| | - H-W Rix
- Max Planck Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, Heidelberg 69117, Germany
| | - M A Strauss
- Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08533, USA
| | - R Wang
- Kavli Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University, 5 Yiheyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Y Yang
- Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, Daedeokdae-ro 776, Yuseong-gu Daejeon 34055, South Korea
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Koptelova E, Hwang CY, Yu PC, Chen WP, Guo JK. Discovery of a very Lyman-α-luminous quasar at z = 6.62. Sci Rep 2017; 7:41617. [PMID: 28150701 PMCID: PMC5288715 DOI: 10.1038/srep41617] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2016] [Accepted: 12/22/2016] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Distant luminous quasars provide important information on the growth of the first supermassive black holes, their host galaxies and the epoch of reionization. The identification of quasars is usually performed through detection of their Lyman-α line redshifted to 0.9 microns at z > 6.5. Here, we report the discovery of a very Lyman-α luminous quasar, PSO J006.1240 + 39.2219 at redshift z = 6.618, selected based on its red colour and multi-epoch detection of the Lyman-α emission in a single near-infrared band. The Lyman-α line luminosity of PSO J006.1240 + 39.2219 is unusually high and estimated to be 0.8 × 1012 Solar luminosities (about 3% of the total quasar luminosity). The Lyman-α emission of PSO J006.1240 + 39.2219 shows fast variability on timescales of days in the quasar rest frame, which has never been detected in any of the known high-redshift quasars. The high luminosity of the Lyman-α line, its narrow width and fast variability resemble properties of local Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 galaxies which suggests that the quasar is likely at the active phase of the black hole growth accreting close or even beyond the Eddington limit.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ekaterina Koptelova
- National Central University, Graduate Institute of Astronomy, Taoyuan City, 32001, Taiwan
| | - Chorng-Yuan Hwang
- National Central University, Graduate Institute of Astronomy, Taoyuan City, 32001, Taiwan
| | - Po-Chieh Yu
- National Central University, Graduate Institute of Astronomy, Taoyuan City, 32001, Taiwan
| | - Wen-Ping Chen
- National Central University, Graduate Institute of Astronomy, Taoyuan City, 32001, Taiwan
| | - Jhen-Kuei Guo
- National Central University, Graduate Institute of Astronomy, Taoyuan City, 32001, Taiwan
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