How neutral is the intergalactic medium surrounding the redshift z = 7.085 quasar ULAS J1120+0641?

By J. Bolton, M. Haehnelt, S. Warren, Paul Hewett, Daniel J. Mortlock, B. Venemans, R. McMahon, Chris Simpson Melbourne, K. Cambridge, Imperial and 2 more. 2011

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The quasar ULAS J1120+0641 at redshift z = 7.085 has a highly ionized near zone which is smaller than those around quasars of similar luminosity at z ≃ 6. The spectrum also exhibits evidence for a damping wing extending redward of the systemic Lyα redshift. We use radiative transfer simulations in a cosmological context to investigate the implications for the ionization state of the inhomogeneous intergalactic medium (IGM) surrounding this quasar. Our simulations show that the transmission profile is consistent with an IGM in the vicinity of the quasar with a volume averaged H i fraction of and that ULAS J1120+0641 has been bright for 106–107 yr. The observed spectrum is also consistent with smaller IGM neutral fractions, , if a damped Lyα system in an otherwise highly ionized IGM lies within 5 proper Mpc of the quasar. This is, however, predicted to occur in only ∼5 per cent of our simulated sightlines for a bright phase of 106–107 yr. Unless ULAS J1120+0641 grows during a previous optically obscured phase, the low age inferred for the quasar adds to the theoretical challenge of forming a 2 × 109 M⊙ black hole at this high redshift.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/afb7e34b361c310c878a77991c95c8b5e7b69095

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SPECTROSCOPIC CONFIRMATION OF z ∼ 7 LYMAN BREAK GALAXIES: PROBING THE EARLIEST GALAXIES AND THE EPOCH OF REIONIZATION (2011, background): “Finally the recent observations on the most distant QSO known at z=7.08 (Mortlock et al. 2011) where analysed by Bolton et al. (2011), who showed that the transmission profile is consistent with an IGM in the vicinity of the quasar with a volume averaged HI fraction of χHI > 0.1.”
HUBBLE FRONTIER FIELDS FIRST COMPLETE CLUSTER DATA: FAINT GALAXIES AT z ∼ 5–10 FOR UV LUMINOSITY FUNCTIONS AND COSMIC REIONIZATION (2014, unknown): “…−17 24.50 1.3 25.98 0.006 0.01 · · · −10 24.24 1.1 26.39 0.004 0.01 · · · 2010; McGreer et al. 2011), Lyα near-zone sizes around high-redshift quasars (Carilli et al. 2010; Bolton et al. 2011), Lyα damping wing absorption in a GRB spectrum (Totani et al. 2006; McQuinn et al. 2008), evolution…”
BLACK HOLE MASS ESTIMATES AND EMISSION-LINE PROPERTIES OF A SAMPLE OF REDSHIFT z > 6.5 QUASARS (2013, background): “They are fundamental in studying the physical conditions of the universe during the epoch of reionization (e.g., Bolton et al. 2011; Mortlock et al. 2011; Simcoe et al. 2012), the formation and early growth of supermassive black holes (SMBHs; e.g., Volonteri 2010; Latif et al. 2013), the galaxy…”
SILVERRUSH. IV. Lyα luminosity functions at z = 5.7 and 6.6 studied with ∼1300 Lyα emitters on the 14–21 deg2 sky (2017, background): “The Lyα damping wing absorption measurements of QSOs suggest xHI & 0.1 at z = 7.1 (Mortlock et al. 2011; Bolton et al. 2011).”
Conditions for Reionizing the Universe with a Low Galaxy Ionizing Photon Escape Fraction (2019, methodology): “…the line of sight to each object), it is far more robust against cosmic variance and uncertainties due to inhomogeneous reionization than neutral fractions derived via effective optical depths to single quasars (e.g., Fan et al. 2006; Bolton et al. 2011; Greig et al. 2017; Bañados et al. 2018).”
Quantitative Constraints on the Reionization History from the IGM Damping Wing Signature in Two Quasars at z > 7 (2018, background): “The size of the proximity zone, and the strength of the damping wing, are sensitive to the quasar lifetime (Bolton et al. 2011; Keating et al. 2015) which has an uncertainty of several orders of magnitude (Martini 2004; Eilers et al. 2017).”
Systematic Identification of LAEs for Visible Exploration and Reionization Research Using Subaru HSC (SILVERRUSH). I. Program strategy and clustering properties of ∼2000 Lyα emitters at z = 6–7 over the 0.3–0.5 Gpc2 survey area (2017, background): “…from QSO Gunn–Peterson absorptions (Fan et al. 2006), as well as Lyα damping wing (DW) absorption measurements of QSOs (Mortlock et al. 2011; Bolton et al. 2011), gamma-ray bursts (GRBs; Totani et al. 2006, 2014, 2016; see also Greiner et al. 2009), and galaxies including LAEs (Malhotra &…”
COSMIC REIONIZATION AND EARLY STAR-FORMING GALAXIES: A JOINT ANALYSIS OF NEW CONSTRAINTS FROM PLANCK AND THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE (2015, background): “Through the Gunn-Peterson effect in high redshift QSOs and gamma ray bursts (GRBs, e.g., Fan et al. 2006; Bolton et al. 2011; Chornock et al. 2013; McGreer et al. 2015) and the declining visibility of Lyman alpha (Lyα) emission in high redshift galaxies (Stark et al. 2010; Pentericci et al. 2011,…”
21CMMC: an MCMC analysis tool enabling astrophysical parameter studies of the cosmic 21 cm signal (2015, background): “For example, such constraints can be obtained from the spectra of high-z quasars such as ULAS J1120+0641 (Bolton et al. 2011; Mortlock et al. 2011) or from the observed drop in Lyman-α emission from high-z galaxies (e.g. Caruana et al. 2014; Pentericci et al. 2014; Dijkstra et al. 2014; Mesinger et ”
The Giant Gemini GMOS survey of zem > 4.4 quasars – I. Measuring the mean free path across cosmic time (2014, background): “Analysis of these data suggest that the transition to a predominantly ionized Universe occurs at z 6 (White et al. 2003; Bolton et al. 2011), where a sharp increase in the effective Lyα opacity may occur (but see Becker, Rauch & Sargent 2007).”
Full-data Results of Hubble Frontier Fields: UV Luminosity Functions at z ∼ 6–10 and a Consistent Picture of Cosmic Reionization (2017, methodology): “We also use the QHII data plotted in the right panel of Figure 9 from Bolton et al. (2011); Carilli et al. (2010); Chornock et al. (2013, 2014); Dijkstra et al. (2011); Konno et al. (2014); McGreer et al. (2011); McQuinn et al. (2007, 2008); Mesinger & Furlanetto (2008); Mesinger (2010); Ouchi et…”
REIONIZATION AFTER PLANCK: THE DERIVED GROWTH OF THE COSMIC IONIZING EMISSIVITY NOW MATCHES THE GROWTH OF THE GALAXY UV LUMINOSITY DENSITY (2015, methodology): “…work on quantifying the prevalence of Lyα emission in z ∼ 8 galaxies (e.g., S14) and also constraining the ionizing state of the universe at z ∼ 8 using other methods (e.g., as Bolton et al. 2011 do at z ∼ 7.1 using the damping wing of Lyα observed against the spectrum of a bright quasar).”
PAPER-64 CONSTRAINTS ON REIONIZATION: THE 21 cm POWER SPECTRUM AT z = 8.4 (2015, background): “…by the neutral IGM toward distant quasars (the ‘Gunn-Peterson’ effect) (Fan et al. 2006), the demographics of Lyα emitting galaxies (Schenker et al. 2013; Treu et al. 2013; Faisst et al. 2014), and the Lyα absorption profile toward very distant quasars (Bolton et al. 2011; Bosman & Becker 2015).”
Lyα Emitting Galaxies as a Probe of Reionisation (2014, background): “…et al. 2002; Mortlock et al. 2011; Venemans et al. 2013) suggest that the intergalactic medium (IGM) contained a significant neutral fraction (with a volume averaged fraction 〈xHI〉V ∼ 0.1, see e.g. Wyithe & Loeb 2004; Mesinger & Haiman 2007; Bolton et al. 2011; Schroeder, Mesinger, & Haiman 2013).”
THE FINAL SDSS HIGH-REDSHIFT QUASAR SAMPLE OF 52 QUASARS AT z > 5.7 (2016, background): “…spectra have revealed strong or even complete absorption in the Lyα forests, indicating that the redshift probed ( ~z 6) is close to the epoch of cosmic reionization (e.g., Becker et al. 2001; White et al. 2003; Fan et al. 2006b; Carilli et al. 2010; Bolton et al. 2011; McGreer et al. 2015).”
Model-independent evidence in favour of an end to reionization by z ≈ 6 (2014, background): “…from neutral IGM in quasar and gammaray burst spectra (e.g. Mesinger & Haiman 2004; Totani et al. 2006; Mesinger & Haiman 2007; McQuinn et al. 2008; Bolton et al. 2011; Schroeder et al. 2012; Totani et al. 2013); (iii) the number density and clustering of Lyα emitters (e.g. Malhotra & Rhoads 2004;…”
Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) (2016, background): “Similarly, deducing the ionization state of the IGM from quasar proximity zones (Carilli et al. 2010; Bolton et al. 2011; Bosman & Becker 2015) and the demographics of Ly-α emitting galaxies (Fontana et al. 2010; Schenker et al. 2012; Treu et al. 2012; Dijkstra et al. 2014) is uncertain and highly…”