Discovery of Merging Twin Quasars at z = 6.05

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 multiband imaging data collected by the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Subaru Strategic Program survey. The quasars, HSC J121503.42−014858.7 (C1) and HSC J121503.55...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
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: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2024
Country:España
Institution:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repository:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/381607
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/381607
https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85190157304
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Double quasars
Quasars
Reionization
High-redshift galaxies
Active galactic nuclei
Galaxy mergers
Supermassive black holes
http://astrothesaurus.org/uat/406
http://astrothesaurus.org/uat/1319
http://astrothesaurus.org/uat/1383
http://astrothesaurus.org/uat/734
http://astrothesaurus.org/uat/16
http://astrothesaurus.org/uat/608
http://astrothesaurus.org/uat/1663
Description
Summary: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 multiband imaging data collected by the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Subaru Strategic Program survey. The quasars, HSC J121503.42−014858.7 (C1) and HSC J121503.55−014859.3 (C2), both have luminous (>1043 erg s−1) Lyα 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 ± 0.017 (C1) and −22.662 ± 0.024 (C2). Our crude estimates of the black hole masses provide log ( M BH / M ⊙ ) = 8.1 ± 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.

Similar Items