Resolved Molecular Gas in a Quasar Host Galaxy at Redshift z = 6.42

By F. Walter, C. Carilli, F. Bertoldi, K. Menten, P. Cox, K. Lo, Xiaohui Fan, M. Strauss. 2004

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We present high-resolution Very Large Array (VLA) observations of the molecular gas in the host galaxy of the highest redshift quasar currently known, SDSS J1148+5251 (z = 6.42). Our VLA data of the CO (3-2) emission have a maximum resolution of 0.″17 × 0.″13 (≤1 kpc) and enable us to resolve the molecular gas emission both spatially and in terms of velocity. The molecular gas in J1148+5251 is extended to a radius of 2.5 kpc, and the central region shows two peaks separated by 0.″3 (1.7 kpc). These peaks account for about half of the total emission, while the remainder is more extended. Each of these unresolved peaks contains a molecular gas mass of ~5 × 109 M☉ (similar to the total mass found in nearby ultraluminous infrared galaxies) and has an intrinsic brightness temperature of ~35 K (averaged over the 1 kpc-sized beam), comparable to what is found in nearby starburst centers. Assuming that the molecular gas is gravitationally bound, we estimate a dynamical mass of ~4.5 × 1010 M☉ within a radius of 2.5 kpc (~5.5 × 1010 M☉ if corrected for a derived inclination of i ~ 65°). This dynamical mass estimate leaves little room for matter other than the detected molecular gas; in particular, the data are inconsistent with a ~1012 M☉ stellar bulge that would be predicted based on the MBH-σbulge relation. This finding may indicate that black holes form prior to the assembly of the stellar bulges and that the dark matter halos are less massive than those predicted on the basis of the black hole/bulge mass relationship.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/876ba6cf9a7aedd70bae3b4e3eef73b5da6fc5bf

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Citations in the corpus

Molecular Gas at High Redshift (2005, methodology): “Walter et al. (2004).”
Highly-excited CO emission in APM 08279+5255 at z = 3.9 (2007, methodology): “For the filling factor we use here J1148+5251 at z = 6.4 as a template since it is the only high-z source for which multiple CO transitions as well as spatially resolved CO maps exist in literature (Bertoldi et al. 2003; Walter et al. 2003, 2004) which allow to estimate the gas filling factor.”
On the evolution of the black‐hole/spheroid mass ratio (2005, methodology): “In contrast, the dynamical m ss estimate of Walter et al. (2004) is only≃ 5 × 1010 M⊙, implying a Mbh : Msph ratio of ≃ 0.06, a factor of≃ 30 higher than observed locally.”
MOLECULAR GAS IN z ∼ 6 QUASAR HOST GALAXIES (2010, background): “The mass of the molecular gas in J1148+5251 is well determined from the CO (3-2) data (Walter et al. 2003, 2004; Riechers et al. 2009).”
First detection of [CII]158 μm at high redshift : vigorous star formation in the early universe (2005, background): “A massive reservoir of molecular and neutral gas of a few 1010 M⊙ has been detected via CO line emission (Walter et al., 2003, 2004; Bertoldi et al., 2003b).”
Testing the evolutionary link between submillimetre galaxies and quasars: CO observations of QSOs at z∼ 2 (2008, background): “Similar CO-based studies of rarer individual QSOs at higher redshifts also support this conclusion (e.g. Walter et al. 2004; Maiolino et al. 2007).”
Production of dust by massive stars at high redshift (2011, background): “The total mass of the QSO host galaxy iscon idered to be about 5× 1010 M⊙ to match the suggested dynamical mass for this QSO (e.g. Walter et al, 2004).”
Formation of supermassive black holes (2010, background): “…jointly with 8-m class telescopes and large surveys, have made important breakthroughs, and observational cosmology probed capable of putting constraints on MBHs, when shining as quasars, up to high redshift (Fan et al, 2001b,a, 2004; Barth et al, 2003; Willott et al, 2003; Walter et al, 2004).”
Cool Gas in High-Redshift Galaxies (2013, background): “Also, in some cases it appeared that, like nearby nuclear starbursts, the gas mass exceeded the dynamical mass when using a Milky Way conversion factor (Solomon et al. 1997, Tacconi et al. 2008, Carilli et al. 2010, Walter et al. 2004, Riechers et al. 2008, 2009).”
A Theoretical Interpretation of the Black Hole Fundamental Plane (2007, methodology): “2004) or BH and stellar mass functions (Hopkins et al. 2006d) similarly favor moderate evolution in the ratio of BH to host spheroid stellar mass occurring atz & 1, and dynamical masses from CO measurements suggest that this evolution may extend toz ∼ 6 (Walter et al. 2004).”
Very extended cold gas, star formation and outflows in the halo of a bright QSO at z>6 (2014, background): “…multi-wavelength studies, aimed at constraining the extreme properties of its host galaxy and of its cosmological environment (e.g. Bertoldi et al. 2003; Walter et al. 2003, 2004; Willott et al. 2003; Riechers et al. 2009; Gallerani et al. 2010; Decarli et al. 2012; Carilli & Walter 2013).”
A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies. I. Galaxy Mergers and Quasar Activity (2007, background): “…owing to changes in spheroid structural properties and internal correlations with redshift (e.g., Peng et al. 2006; Shields et al. 2003, 2006; Walter et al. 2004; Salviander et al. 2006; Woo et al. 2006; Hopkins et al. 2006e ), the fundamental plane appears to be preserved (Hopkins et al.…”
CO(J = 1→0) IN z > 2 QUASAR HOST GALAXIES: NO EVIDENCE FOR EXTENDED MOLECULAR GAS RESERVOIRS (2006, background): “Over the past decade, more than 30 galaxies at z > 2 have been detected in CO emission (Solomon & Vanden Bout 2005) out to a redshift of z ¼ 6:42 (Walter et al. 2003, 2004; Bertoldi et al. 2003), confirming the presence of intense starbursts in numerous high-z galaxies.”
Stellar sources of dust in the high-redshift Universe (2009, methodology): “…of molecular gas: while the dynamical mass estimated from CO observations within 2.5 kpc from the QSO center is∼ 5 × 1010M⊙, a conservative estimate of the contribution of the predicted stellar bulge within this region is a few×1011M⊙, about an order of magnitude larger (Walter et al. 2004).”
An ALMA [C ii] Survey of 27 Quasars at z > 5.94 (2018, background): “…and radio wavelengths of gas in the host galaxy of high-redshift quasars have enabled dynamical estimates of the host galaxies up to the highest redshifts (e.g., Walter et al. 2004; Schumacher et al. 2012; Wang et al. 2013; Willott et al. 2013, 2015; Venemans et al. 2016, 2017a; Shao et al. 2017).”
The quasar relation through cosmic time – II. Evidence for evolution from z = 3 to the present age (2009, result): “…= 6.42 quasar SDSS J1148+5251 has a black hole mass of few ×109 M⊙ (Willott, McLure & Jarvis 2003) and a dynamical mass of the host galaxy of ∼ 5×1010 M⊙ (Walter et al. 2003, 2004), yielding Γ ∼ 0.1, which is in agreement with the extrapolation of our results at that redshift (Γ ≈ 0.13) and well…”