Discovery of merging twin quasars at z = 6.05

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Matsuoka, Yoshiki, Izumi, Takuma, Onoue, Masafusa, Strauss, Michael A., Iwasawa, Kazushi, Kashikawa, Nobunari, Akiyama, Masayuki, Aoki, Kentaro, Arita, Junya, Imanishi, Masatoshi, Ishimoto, Rikako, Kawaguchi, Toshihiro, Kohno, Kotaro, Lee, Chien-Hsiu, Nagao, Tohru, Silverman, John D., Toba, Yoshiki
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Matsuoka, Yoshiki
Izumi, Takuma
Onoue, Masafusa
Strauss, Michael A.
Iwasawa, Kazushi
Kashikawa, Nobunari
Akiyama, Masayuki
Aoki, Kentaro
Arita, Junya
Imanishi, Masatoshi
Ishimoto, Rikako
Kawaguchi, Toshihiro
Kohno, Kotaro
Lee, Chien-Hsiu
Nagao, Tohru
Silverman, John D.
Toba, Yoshiki
author_facet Matsuoka, Yoshiki
Izumi, Takuma
Onoue, Masafusa
Strauss, Michael A.
Iwasawa, Kazushi
Kashikawa, Nobunari
Akiyama, Masayuki
Aoki, Kentaro
Arita, Junya
Imanishi, Masatoshi
Ishimoto, Rikako
Kawaguchi, Toshihiro
Kohno, Kotaro
Lee, Chien-Hsiu
Nagao, Tohru
Silverman, John D.
Toba, Yoshiki
contents We report the discovery of two quasars at a redshift of $z$ = 6.05, in the process of merging. They were serendipitously discovered from the deep multi-band imaging data collected by the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Subaru Strategic Program survey. The quasars, HSC $J$121503.42$-$014858.7 (C1) and HSC $J$121503.55$-$014859.3 (C2), both have luminous ($>$10$^{43}$ erg s$^{-1}$) Ly$α$ emission with a clear broad component (full width at half maximum $>$1000 km s$^{-1}$). The rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) absolute magnitudes are $M_{1450} = -23.106 \pm 0.017$ (C1) and $-22.662 \pm 0.024$ (C2). Our crude estimates of the black hole masses provide $\log (M_{\rm BH}/M_\odot) = 8.1 \pm 0.3$ in both sources. The two quasars are separated by 12 kpc in projected proper distance, bridged by a structure in the rest-UV light suggesting that they are undergoing a merger. This pair is one of the most distant merging quasars reported to date, providing crucial insight into galaxy and black hole build-up in the hierarchical structure formation scenario. A companion paper will present the gas and dust properties captured by Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations, which provide additional evidence for and detailed measurements of the merger and also demonstrate that the two sources are not gravitationally-lensed images of a single quasar.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_02465
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Discovery of merging twin quasars at z = 6.05
Matsuoka, Yoshiki
Izumi, Takuma
Onoue, Masafusa
Strauss, Michael A.
Iwasawa, Kazushi
Kashikawa, Nobunari
Akiyama, Masayuki
Aoki, Kentaro
Arita, Junya
Imanishi, Masatoshi
Ishimoto, Rikako
Kawaguchi, Toshihiro
Kohno, Kotaro
Lee, Chien-Hsiu
Nagao, Tohru
Silverman, John D.
Toba, Yoshiki
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We report the discovery of two quasars at a redshift of $z$ = 6.05, in the process of merging. They were serendipitously discovered from the deep multi-band imaging data collected by the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Subaru Strategic Program survey. The quasars, HSC $J$121503.42$-$014858.7 (C1) and HSC $J$121503.55$-$014859.3 (C2), both have luminous ($>$10$^{43}$ erg s$^{-1}$) Ly$α$ emission with a clear broad component (full width at half maximum $>$1000 km s$^{-1}$). The rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) absolute magnitudes are $M_{1450} = -23.106 \pm 0.017$ (C1) and $-22.662 \pm 0.024$ (C2). Our crude estimates of the black hole masses provide $\log (M_{\rm BH}/M_\odot) = 8.1 \pm 0.3$ in both sources. The two quasars are separated by 12 kpc in projected proper distance, bridged by a structure in the rest-UV light suggesting that they are undergoing a merger. This pair is one of the most distant merging quasars reported to date, providing crucial insight into galaxy and black hole build-up in the hierarchical structure formation scenario. A companion paper will present the gas and dust properties captured by Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations, which provide additional evidence for and detailed measurements of the merger and also demonstrate that the two sources are not gravitationally-lensed images of a single quasar.
title Discovery of merging twin quasars at z = 6.05
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.02465