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Register a new userThe Discovery of A Luminous Broad Absorption Line Quasar at A Redshift of 7.02
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Despite extensive efforts, only two quasars have been found at $z>7$ to date due to a combination of low spatial density and high contamination from more ubiquitous Galactic cool dwarfs in quasar selection. This limits our current knowledge of the super-massive black hole (SMBH) growth mechanism and reionization history. In this letter, we report the discovery of a luminous quasar at $z=7.021$, DELS J003836.10$-$152723.6 (hereafter J0038$-$1527), selected using photometric data from DESI Legacy imaging Survey (DELS), Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) imaging Survey, as well as Wide-field Infrared Survey Explore ($WISE$) mid-infrared all-sky survey. With an absolute magnitude of $M_{1450}$=$-$27.1 and bolometric luminosity of $L_{rm Bol}$=5.6$times$10$^{13}$ $L_odot$, J0038$-$1527 is the most luminous quasar known at $z>7$. Deep optical to near infrared spectroscopic observations suggest that J0038-1527 hosts a 1.3 billion solar mass BH accreting at the Eddington limit, with an Eddington ratio of 1.25$pm$0.19. The CIV broad emission line of J0038$-$1527 is blue-shifted by more than 3000 km s$^{-1}$ to the systemic redshift. More detailed investigations of the high quality spectra reveal three extremely high velocity CIV broad absorption lines (BALs) with velocity from 0.08 to 0.14 times the speed of light and total balnicity index of more than 5000 km s$^{-1}$, suggesting the presence of relativistic outflows. J0038$-$1527 is the first quasar found at the epoch of reionization (EoR) with such strong outflows and provides a unique laboratory to investigate AGN feedback on the formation and growth of the most massive galaxies in the early universe.
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CRTS J084133.15+200525.8 is an optically bright quasar at z=2.345 that has shown extreme spectral variability over the past decade. Photometrically, the source had a visual magnitude of V~17.3 between 2002 and 2008. Then, over the following five years, the source slowly brightened by approximately one magnitude, to V~16.2. Only ~1 in 10,000 quasars show such extreme variability, as quantified by the extreme parameters derived for this quasar assuming a damped random walk model. A combination of archival and newly acquired spectra reveal the source to be an iron low-ionization broad absorption line (FeLoBAL) quasar with extreme changes in its absorption spectrum. Some absorption features completely disappear over the 9 years of optical spectra, while other features remain essentially unchanged. We report the first definitive redshift for this source, based on the detection of broad H-alpha in a Keck/MOSFIRE spectrum. Absorption systems separated by several 1000 km/s in velocity show coordinated weakening in the depths of their troughs as the continuum flux increases. We interpret the broad absorption line variability to be due to changes in photoionization, rather than due to motion of material along our line of sight. This source highlights one sort of rare transition object that astronomy will now be finding through dedicated time-domain surveys.
Distant quasars are unique tracers to study the formation of the earliest supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and the history of cosmic reionization. Despite extensive efforts, only two quasars have been found at $zge7.5$, due to a combination of their low spatial density and the high contamination rate in quasar selection. We report the discovery of a luminous quasar at $z=7.642$, J0313$-$1806, the most distant quasar yet known. This quasar has a bolometric luminosity of $3.6times10^{13} L_odot$. Deep spectroscopic observations reveal a SMBH with a mass of $(1.6pm0.4) times10^9M_odot$ in this quasar. The existence of such a massive SMBH just $sim$670 million years after the Big Bang challenges significantly theoretical models of SMBH growth. In addition, the quasar spectrum exhibits strong broad absorption line (BAL) features in CIV and SiIV, with a maximum velocity close to 20% of the speed of light. The relativistic BAL features, combined with a strongly blueshifted CIV emission line, indicate that there is a strong active galactic nucleus (AGN) driven outflow in this system. ALMA observations detect the dust continuum and [CII] emission from the quasar host galaxy, yielding an accurate redshift of $7.6423 pm 0.0013$ and suggesting that the quasar is hosted by an intensely star-forming galaxy, with a star formation rate of $rmsim 200 ~M_odot ~yr^{-1}$ and a dust mass of $sim7times10^7~M_odot$. Followup observations of this reionization-era BAL quasar will provide a powerful probe of the effects of AGN feedback on the growth of the earliest massive galaxies.
I report the discovery of blueshifted broad absorption line (BAL) troughs in at least six transitions of the Balmer series of hydrogen (Hbeta to H9) and in CaII, MgII and excited FeII in the quasar SDSS J125942.80+121312.6. This is only the fourth active galactic nucleus known to exhibit Balmer absorption, all four in conjunction with low-ionization BAL systems containing excited Fe II. The substantial population in the n=2 shell of H I in this quasars absorber likely arises from Ly-alpha trapping. In an absorber sufficiently optically thick to show Balmer absorption, soft X-rays from the quasar penetrate to large tau_Lyalpha and ionize H I. Recombination then creates Ly-alpha photons that increase the n=2 population by a factor tau_Lyalpha since they require about tau_Lyalpha scatterings to diffuse out of the absorber. Observing Ly-alpha trapping in a quasar absorber requires a large but Compton-thin column of gas along our line of sight which includes substantial H I but not too much dust. Presumably the rarity of Balmer-line BAL troughs reflects the rarity of such conditions in quasar absorbers.
Broad absorption lines (BALs) in quasar spectra identify high velocity outflows that might exist in all quasars and could play a major role in feedback to galaxy evolution. The viability of BAL outflows as a feedback mechanism depends on their kinetic energies, as derived from the outflow velocities, column densities, and distances from the central quasar. We estimate these quantities for the quasar, Q1413+1143 (redshift $z_e = 2.56$), aided by the first detection of PV $lambdalambda$1118,1128 BAL variability in a quasar. In particular, PV absorption at velocities where the CIV trough does not reach zero intensity implies that the CIV BAL is saturated and the absorber only partially covers the background continuum source (with characteristic size <0.01 pc). With the assumption of solar abundances, we estimate that the total column density in the BAL outflow is log N_H > 22.3 (cm^-2). Variability in the PV and saturated CIV BALs strongly disfavors changes in the ionization as the cause of the BAL variability, but supports models with high-column density BAL clouds moving across our lines of sight. The observed variability time of 1.6 yr in the quasar rest frame indicates crossing speeds >750 km/s and a radial distance from the central black hole of <3.5 pc, if the crossing speeds are Keplerian. The total outflow mass is ~4100 M_solar, the kinetic energy ~4x10^54 erg, and the ratio of the outflow kinetic energy luminosity to the quasar bolometric luminosity is ~0.02 (at the minimum column density and maximum distance), which might be sufficient for important feedback to the quasars host galaxy.
We have discovered a remarkable quasar, FIRST J101614.3+520916, whose optical spectrum shows unambiguous broad absorption features while its double-lobed radio morphology and luminosity clearly indicate a classic Fanaroff-Riley Type II radio source. Its radio luminosity places it at the extreme of the recently established class of radio-loud broad absorption line quasars (Becker et al. 1997, 2000; Brotherton et al. 1998). Because of its hybrid nature, we speculate that FIRST J101614.3+520916 is a typical FR-II quasar which has been rejuvenated as a broad absorption line (BAL) quasar with a Compact Steep Spectrum core. The direction of the jet axis of FIRST J101614.3+520916 can be estimated from its radio structure and optical brightness, indicating that we are viewing the system at a viewing angle of > 40 degrees. The position angles of the radio jet and optical polarization are not well-aligned, differing by 20 to 30 degrees. When combined with the evidence presented by Becker et al. (2000) for a sample of 29 BAL quasars showing that at least some BAL quasars are viewed along the jet axis, the implication is that no preferred viewing orientation is necessary to observe BAL systems in a quasars spectrum. This, and the probable young nature of compact steep spectrum sources, leads naturally to the alternate hypothesis that BALs are an early stage in the lives of quasars.
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