No Arabic abstract
We study the mass of quasar-hosting dark matter halos at z $sim$ 6 and further constrain the fraction of dark matter halos hosting an active quasar $f_{on}$ and the quasar beaming angle $i_{rm max}$ using observations of CII lines in the literature. We make assumptions that (1) more massive halos host brighter quasars, (2) a fraction of the halos host active quasars with a certain beaming angle, (3) cold gas in galaxies has rotational velocity $V_{rm circ}=alpha V_{rm max}$, and that (4) quasars point randomly on the sky. We find that for a choice of specific $alpha gtrsim 1$, the most likely solution has $f_{rm on} < 0.01$, corresponding to a small duty cycle of quasar activity. However, if we marginalize over $alpha$, for some choices of a prior a second solution with $f_{rm on}=1$ appears. Overall, our the constraints are highly sensitive to $alpha$ and hence inconclusive. Stronger constraints on $f_{rm on}$ can be made if we better understand the dynamics of cold gas in these galaxies.
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.
We searched for high-z quasars within the X-ray source population detected in the contiguous $sim 140^2$ eFEDS field observed by eROSITA during the performance verification phase. We collected the available spectroscopic information in the field, including the sample of all currently known optically selected z>5.5 quasars and cross-matched secure Legacy DR8 counterparts of eROSITA-detected X-ray point-like sources with this spectroscopic sample. We report the X-ray detection of an eROSITA source securely matched to the well-known quasar SDSS J083643.85+005453.3 (z=5.81). The soft X-ray flux of the source derived from eROSITA is consistent with previous Chandra observations. In addition, we report the detection of the quasar with LOFAR at 145 MHz and ASKAP at 888 MHz. The reported flux densities confirm a spectral flattening at lower frequencies in the emission of the radio core, indicating that the quasar could be a (sub-) gigahertz peaked spectrum source. The inferred spectral shape and the parsec-scale radio morphology of SDSS J083643.85+005453.3 suggest that it is in an early stage of its evolution into a large-scale radio source or confined in a dense environment. We find no indications for a strong jet contribution to the X-ray emission of the quasar, which is therefore likely to be linked to accretion processes. The detection of this source allows us to place the first constraints on the XLF at z>5.5 based on a secure spectroscopic redshift. Compared to extrapolations from lower-redshift observations, this favours a relatively flat slope for the XLF at $zsim 6$ beyond $L_*$. The population of X-ray luminous AGNs at high redshift may be larger than previously thought. From our XLF constraints, we make the conservative prediction that eROSITA will detect $sim 90$ X-ray luminous AGNs at redshifts 5.7<z<6.4 in the full-sky survey (De+RU).
We search for galaxies with a strong Balmer break (Balmer Break Galaxies; BBGs) at $z sim 6$ over a 0.41 deg$^2$ effective area in the COSMOS field. Based on rich imaging data, including data obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), three candidates are identified by their extremely red $K - [3.6]$ colors as well as by non-detection in X-ray, optical, far-infrared (FIR), and radio bands. The non-detection in the deep ALMA observations suggests that they are not dusty galaxies but BBGs at $z sim 6$, although contamination from Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) at $z sim 0$ cannot be completely ruled out for the moment. Our spectral energy distribution (SED) analyses reveal that the BBG candidates at $z sim 6$ have stellar masses of $approx 5 times 10^{10} M_{odot}$ dominated by old stellar populations with ages of $gtrsim 700$ Myr. Assuming that all the three candidates are real BBGs at $z sim 6$, we estimate the stellar mass density (SMD) to be $2.4^{+2.3}_{-1.3} times 10^{4} M_{odot}$ Mpc$^{-3}$. This is consistent with an extrapolation from the lower redshift measurements. The onset of star formation in the three BBG candidates is expected to be several hundred million years before the observed epoch of $z sim 6$. We estimate the star-formation rate density (SFRD) contributed by progenitors of the BBGs to be 2.4 -- 12 $times 10^{-5} M_{odot}$ yr$^{-1} $Mpc$^{-3}$ at $z > 14$ (99.7% confidence range). Our result suggests a smooth evolution of the SFRD beyond $z = 8$.
We investigate the infrared (IR) emission of high-redshift ($zsim 6$), highly star-forming (${ {rm SFR} > 100}$ $M_{rm odot} {rm yr}^{-1}$) galaxies, with/without Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), using a suite of cosmological simulations featuring dust radiative transfer. Synthetic Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs) are used to quantify the relative contribution of stars/AGN to dust heating. In dusty (${M_{rm d}gtrsim 3times 10^7 M_{rm odot}}$) galaxies, $gtrsim 50-90 %$ of the UV radiation is obscured by dust inhomogeneities on scales ${gtrsim 100}$ pc. In runs with AGN, a clumpy, warm ($approx 250$ K) dust component co-exists with a colder ($approx 60$ K) and more diffuse one, heated by stars. Warm dust provides up to ${50 %}$ of the total IR luminosity, but only $lesssim 0.1 %$ of the total mass content. The AGN boosts the MIR flux by ${10-100 times}$ with respect to star forming galaxies, without significantly affecting the FIR. Our simulations successfully reproduce the observed SED of bright (${M_{rm UV}sim -26}$) ${zsim 6}$ quasars, and show that these objects are part of complex, dust-rich merging systems, containing multiple sources (accreting BHs and/or star forming galaxies) in agreement with recent HST and ALMA observations. Our results show that the proposed ORIGINS missions will be able to investigate the MIR properties of dusty star forming galaxies and to obtain good quality spectra of bright quasars at $zsim 6$. Finally, the MIR-to-FIR flux ratio of faint (${M_{rm UV}sim -24}$) AGN is ${>10times}$ higher than for normal star forming galaxies. This implies that combined JWST/ORIGINS/ALMA observations will be crucial to identify faint and/or dust-obscured AGN in the distant Universe.
We present Atacama Large Millimiter/submillimiter Array (ALMA) observations of eight highly excited CO (J$_{rm up}>8$) lines and continuum emission in two $zsim6$ quasars: SDSS J231038.88+185519.7 (hereafter J2310), for which CO(8-7), CO(9-8), and CO(17-16) lines have been observed, and ULAS J131911.29+095951.4 (J1319), observed in the CO(14-13), CO(17-16) and CO(19-18) lines. The continuum emission of both quasars arises from a compact region ($< 0.9$ kpc). By assuming a modified black-body law, we estimate dust masses of Log$(M_{rm dust}/M_{odot})=8.75pm0.07$ and Log$(M_{rm dust}/M_{odot})=8.8pm0.2$ and dust temperatures of $T_{rm dust}=76pm3~{rm K}$ and $T_{rm dust}=66^{+15}_{-10}~{rm K}$, respectively for J2310 and J1319. Only CO(8-7) and CO(9-8) in J2310 are detected, while $3sigma$ upper limits on luminosities are reported for the other lines of both quasars. The CO line luminosities and upper limits measured in J2310 and J1319 are consistent with those observed in local AGN and starburst galaxies, and other $zsim 6$ quasars, except for SDSS J1148+5251 (J1148), the only quasar at $z=6.4$ with a previous CO(17-16) line detection. By computing the CO SLEDs normalised to the CO(6-5) line and FIR luminosities for J2310, J1319, and J1149, we conclude that different gas heating mechanisms (X-ray radiation and/or shocks) may explain the different CO luminosities observed in these $zsim6$ quasar. Future J$_{rm up}>8$ CO observations will be crucial to understand the processes responsible for molecular gas excitation in luminous high-$z$ quasars.