No Arabic abstract
We perform a systematic study of outflow in the narrow-line region (NLR) of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) at $zsim0.4-0.8$ basing upon a large sample of $sim900$ quasars at $zsim 0.4-0.8$. The sample is extracted from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey by mainly requiring 1) the g-band magnitude is brighter than 19 magnitude; and 2) the [OIII]$lambda5007$ emission line has a signal-to-noise ration larger than 30. Profiles of multiple emission lines are modeled by a sum of several Gaussian functions. The spectral analysis allows us to identify 1) a prevalence of both [OIII]$lambda5007$ line blue asymmetry and bulk velocity blueshift of both [NeIII]$lambda3869$ and [NeV]$lambda3426$ lines, when the [ion{O}{2}]$lambda3727$ line is used as a reference. The velocity offset of [ion{O}{3}]$lambda5007$ line is, however, distributed around zero value, except for a few outliers. 2) not only the significant [OIII]$lambda5007$ line asymmetry, but also the large bulk velocity offsets of [NeIII]$lambda3869$ and [NeV]$lambda3426$ emission lines tend to occur in the objects with high $L/L_{mathrm{Edd}}$, which is considerably consistent with the conclusions based on local AGNs. With three $M_{mathrm{BH}}$ estimation methods, the significance level of the trend is found to be better than $2.9sigma$, $3.2sigma$ and $1.8sigma$ for [OIII], [NeIII] and [NeV], respectively. rm After excluding the role of radio jets, the revealed dependence of NLR gas outflow on $L/L_{mathrm{Edd}}$ allows us to argue that the pressure caused by the wind/radiation launched/emitted from central supermassive black hole is the most likely origin of the outflow in these distant quasars, which implies that the outflow in luminous AGNs up to $zsim1$ have the same origin.
High-redshift quasars typically have their redshift determined from rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) emission lines. However, these lines, and more specifically the prominent C IV $lambda 1549$ emission line, are typically blueshifted yielding highly uncertain redshift estimates compared to redshifts determined from rest-frame optical emission lines. We present near-infrared spectroscopy of 18 luminous quasars at $2.15 < z < 3.70$ that allows us to obtain reliable systemic redshifts for these sources. Together with near-infrared spectroscopy of an archival sample of 44 quasars with comparable luminosities and redshifts, we provide prescriptions for correcting UV-based redshifts. Our prescriptions reduce velocity offsets with respect to the systemic redshifts by $sim140$ km s$^{-1}$ and reduce the uncertainty on the UV-based redshift by $sim25%$ with respect to the best method currently used for determining such values. We also find that the redshifts determined from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Pipeline for our sources suffer from significant uncertainties, which cannot be easily mitigated. We discuss the potential of our prescriptions to improve UV-based redshift corrections given a much larger sample of high redshift quasars with near-infrared spectra.
We present the correlations between stellar mass, star formation rate (SFR) and [NII]/Ha flux ratio as indicator of gas-phase metallicity for a sample of 222 galaxies at 0.8 < z < 2.6 and log(M*/Msun)=9.0-11.5 from the LUCI, SINS/zC-SINF and KMOS3D surveys. This sample provides a unique analysis of the mass-metallicity relation (MZR) over an extended redshift range using consistent data analysis techniques and strong-line metallicity indicator. We find a constant slope at the low-mass end of the relation and can fully describe its redshift evolution through the evolution of the characteristic turnover mass where the relation begins to flatten at the asymptotic metallicity. At fixed mass and redshift, our data do not show a correlation between the [NII]/Ha ratio and SFR, which disagrees with the 0.2-0.3dex offset in [NII]/Ha predicted by the fundamental relation between stellar mass, SFR and metallicity discussed in recent literature. However, the overall evolution towards lower [NII]/Ha at earlier times does broadly agree with these predictions.
We investigate the relation between star formation rates ($dot{M}_{s}$) and AGN properties in optically selected type 1 quasars at $2<z<3$ using data from Herschel and the SDSS. We find that $dot{rm{M}}_s$ remains approximately constant with redshift, at $300pm100~rm{M}_{odot}$yr$^{-1}$. Conversely, $dot{rm{M}}_s$ increases with AGN luminosity, up to a maximum of $sim600~rm{M}_{odot}$yr$^{-1}$, and with CIV FWHM. In context with previous results, this is consistent with a relation between $dot{rm{M}}_s$ and black hole accretion rate ($dot{rm{M}}_{bh}$) existing in only parts of the $z-dot{rm{M}}_{s}-dot{rm{M}}_{bh}$ plane, dependent on the free gas fraction, the trigger for activity, and the processes that may quench star formation. The relations between $dot{rm{M}}_s$ and both AGN luminosity and CIV FWHM are consistent with star formation rates in quasars scaling with black hole mass, though we cannot rule out a separate relation with black hole accretion rate. Star formation rates are observed to decline with increasing CIV equivalent width. This decline can be partially explained via the Baldwin effect, but may have an additional contribution from one or more of three factors; $M_i$ is not a linear tracer of L$_{2500}$, the Baldwin effect changes form at high AGN luminosities, and high CIV EW values signpost a change in the relation between $dot{rm{M}}_s$ and $dot{rm{M}}_{bh}$. Finally, there is no strong relation between $dot{rm{M}}_s$ and Eddington ratio, or the asymmetry of the CIV line. The former suggests that star formation rates do not scale with how efficiently the black hole is accreting, while the latter is consistent with CIV asymmetries arising from orientation effects.
The most luminous quasars at high redshift harbour the fastest-growing and most massive black holes in the early Universe. They are exceedingly rare and hard to find. Here, we present our search for the most luminous quasars in the redshift range from $z=4.5$ to $5$ using data from SkyMapper, Gaia and WISE. We use colours to select likely high-redshift quasars and reduce the stellar contamination of the candidate set with parallax and proper motion data. In $sim$12,500~deg$^2$ of Southern sky, we find 92 candidates brighter than $R_p=18.2$. Spectroscopic follow-up has revealed 21 quasars at $zge 4$ (16 of which are within $z=[4.5,5]$), as well as several red quasars, BAL quasars and objects with unusual spectra, which we tentatively label OFeLoBALQSOs at redshifts of $zapprox 1$ to $2$. This work lifts the number of known bright $zge 4.5$ quasars in the Southern hemisphere from 10 to 26 and brings the total number of quasars known at $R_p<18.2$ and $zge 4.5$ to 42.
Significant clustering around the rarest luminous quasars is a feature predicted by dark matter theory combined with number density matching arguments. However, this expectation is not reflected by observations of quasars residing in a diverse range of environments. Here, we assess the tension in the diverse clustering of visible $i$-band dropout galaxies around luminous $zsim6$ quasars. Our approach uses a simple empirical method to derive the median luminosity to halo mass relation, $L_{c}(M_{h})$ for both quasars and galaxies under the assumption of log-normal luminosity scatter, $Sigma_{Q}$ and $Sigma_{G}$. We show that higher $Sigma_{Q}$ reduces the average halo mass hosting a quasar of a given luminosity, thus introducing at least a partial reversion to the mean in the number count distribution of nearby Lyman-Break galaxies. We generate a large sample of mock Hubble Space Telescope fields-of-view centred across rare $zsim6$ quasars by resampling pencil beams traced through the dark matter component of the BlueTides cosmological simulation. We find that diverse quasar environments are expected for $Sigma_{Q}>0.4$, consistent with numerous observations and theoretical studies. However, we note that the average number of galaxies around the central quasar is primarily driven by galaxy evolutionary processes in neighbouring halos, as embodied by our parameter $Sigma_{G}$, instead of a difference in the large scale structure around the central quasar host, embodied by $Sigma_{Q}$. We conclude that models with $Sigma_{G}>0.3$ are consistent with current observational constraints on high-z quasars, and that such a value is comparable to the scatter estimated from hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy formation.