_version_ 1866917358652620800
author Zhu, Yongda
Rieke, Marcia J.
Ho, Luis C.
Sun, Yang
Rieke, George H.
Yuan, Feng
Bakx, Tom J. L. C.
Becker, George D.
Yang, Jinyi
Bañados, Eduardo
Bischetti, Manuela
Cain, Christopher
Fan, Xiaohui
Fudamoto, Yoshinobu
Hashemi, Seyedazim
Ikeda, Ryota
Ji, Zhiyuan
Jin, Xiangyu
Liu, Weizhe
Liu, Yichen
Lyu, Jianwei
Ma, Hai-Xia
Takeuchi, Tsutomu T.
Umehata, Hideki
Wang, Feige
Tee, Wei Leong
author_facet Zhu, Yongda
Rieke, Marcia J.
Ho, Luis C.
Sun, Yang
Rieke, George H.
Yuan, Feng
Bakx, Tom J. L. C.
Becker, George D.
Yang, Jinyi
Bañados, Eduardo
Bischetti, Manuela
Cain, Christopher
Fan, Xiaohui
Fudamoto, Yoshinobu
Hashemi, Seyedazim
Ikeda, Ryota
Ji, Zhiyuan
Jin, Xiangyu
Liu, Weizhe
Liu, Yichen
Lyu, Jianwei
Ma, Hai-Xia
Takeuchi, Tsutomu T.
Umehata, Hideki
Wang, Feige
Tee, Wei Leong
contents Feedback from accreting supermassive black holes may regulate galaxy evolution, but statistical evidence linking nuclear winds to kiloparsec-scale cold gas outflows remains limited in the early universe. Here we report statistical evidence for such a connection in a sample of luminous quasars at $z \sim 5.5$. We compare stacked [C II] 158 $μ$m emission profiles from ALMA observations, which trace galactic-scale neutral gas, for quasars with and without broad absorption lines (BALs) that indicate powerful nuclear winds on sub-kiloparsec scales. A total of 5 BAL and 11 non-BAL quasar spectra are included in the stacking analysis. The BAL quasar stack exhibits a potential blueshifted broad component in the [C II] line profile, with a velocity offset of $Δv_{\rm b} = -2.1 \times 10^2\,\rm km\,s^{-1}$ and a full width at half maximum of $1.18 \times 10^3\,\rm km\,s^{-1}$, whereas the non-BAL stack shows no obvious broad component. Using a conservative ``clean-stack'' selection that excludes quasars with partial [C II] spectral coverage, the BAL broad residual is reduced to a hint-level feature. We estimate that up to a few percent to one-quarter of the nuclear wind energy may be transferred to cold neutral gas on kiloparsec scales. Although the sample size is limited, these results suggest a potential link between BAL winds and cold gas feedback in quasar host galaxies. These results provide empirical motivation for future tests of how multiphase outflows relate to the diversity of quasar host properties, including $M_{\rm BH}/M_*$.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_02305
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Potential Link between Nuclear Winds and Cold Gas Outflows on Kiloparsec Scales in Reionization-Era Quasars
Zhu, Yongda
Rieke, Marcia J.
Ho, Luis C.
Sun, Yang
Rieke, George H.
Yuan, Feng
Bakx, Tom J. L. C.
Becker, George D.
Yang, Jinyi
Bañados, Eduardo
Bischetti, Manuela
Cain, Christopher
Fan, Xiaohui
Fudamoto, Yoshinobu
Hashemi, Seyedazim
Ikeda, Ryota
Ji, Zhiyuan
Jin, Xiangyu
Liu, Weizhe
Liu, Yichen
Lyu, Jianwei
Ma, Hai-Xia
Takeuchi, Tsutomu T.
Umehata, Hideki
Wang, Feige
Tee, Wei Leong
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Feedback from accreting supermassive black holes may regulate galaxy evolution, but statistical evidence linking nuclear winds to kiloparsec-scale cold gas outflows remains limited in the early universe. Here we report statistical evidence for such a connection in a sample of luminous quasars at $z \sim 5.5$. We compare stacked [C II] 158 $μ$m emission profiles from ALMA observations, which trace galactic-scale neutral gas, for quasars with and without broad absorption lines (BALs) that indicate powerful nuclear winds on sub-kiloparsec scales. A total of 5 BAL and 11 non-BAL quasar spectra are included in the stacking analysis. The BAL quasar stack exhibits a potential blueshifted broad component in the [C II] line profile, with a velocity offset of $Δv_{\rm b} = -2.1 \times 10^2\,\rm km\,s^{-1}$ and a full width at half maximum of $1.18 \times 10^3\,\rm km\,s^{-1}$, whereas the non-BAL stack shows no obvious broad component. Using a conservative ``clean-stack'' selection that excludes quasars with partial [C II] spectral coverage, the BAL broad residual is reduced to a hint-level feature. We estimate that up to a few percent to one-quarter of the nuclear wind energy may be transferred to cold neutral gas on kiloparsec scales. Although the sample size is limited, these results suggest a potential link between BAL winds and cold gas feedback in quasar host galaxies. These results provide empirical motivation for future tests of how multiphase outflows relate to the diversity of quasar host properties, including $M_{\rm BH}/M_*$.
title A Potential Link between Nuclear Winds and Cold Gas Outflows on Kiloparsec Scales in Reionization-Era Quasars
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.02305