First Results from the JWST Early Release Science Program Q3D: The Warm Ionized Gas Outflow in z ∼ 1.6 Quasar XID 2028 and Its Impact on the Host Galaxy

Abstract

Quasar feedback may regulate the growth of supermassive black holes, quench coeval star formation, and impact galaxy morphology and the circumgalactic medium. However, direct evidence for quasar feedback in action at the epoch of peak black hole accretion at z ≈ 2 remains elusive. A good case in point is the z = 1.6 quasar WISEA J100211.29+013706.7 (XID 2028), where past analyses of the same ground-based data have come to different conclusions. Here, we revisit this object with the integral-field unit of the Near Infrared Spectrograph on board the JWST as part of Early Release Science program Q3D. The excellent angular resolution and sensitivity of the JWST data reveal new morphological and kinematic substructures in the outflowing gas plume. An analysis of the emission-line ratios indicates that photoionization by the central quasar dominates the ionization state of the gas with no obvious sign for a major contribution from hot young stars anywhere in the host galaxy. The rest-frame near-UV emission aligned along the wide-angle cone of outflowing gas is interpreted as a scattering cone. The outflow has cleared a channel in the dusty host galaxy, through which some of the quasar ionizing radiation is able to escape and heat the surrounding interstellar and circumgalactic media. Although the warm ionized outflow is not powerful enough to impact the host galaxy via mechanical feedback, radiative feedback by the active galactic nucleus, aided by the outflow, may help to explain the unusually small molecular gas mass fraction in the galaxy host.

An Ensemble Study of Turbulence in Extended QSO Nebulae at z ≈ 0.5–1

“…As ground-based observations without adaptive optics (AO) are fundamentally limited by atmospheric seeing, improving the dynamic range toward small scales requires conducting AO-assisted observations on the ground (e.g., with VLT/ERIS in the infrared and using the Narrow-Field-Mode on VLT/MUSE in the optical) with longer exposure times to reach sufficient signal-to-noise. Alternatively, space-based IFSs such as JWST/NIRSpec with unprecedented spatial resolution have also started delivering an increasing sample of spatially resolved observations of the CGM (e.g., Wylezalek et al 2022;Veilleux et al 2023). Finally, with a fixed PSF size, targeting systems at lower redshifts with a higher angular-to-physical size ratio can also help increase the VSF dynamic range.…”

Giant Biconical Dust Filaments in the Starburst Galaxy NGC 1808

“…Brighter UV sources are needed to probe the dust beyond this distance using this method. UV-scattered cones extending over 10-20 kpc along powerful gas outflows have been detected in a growing number of luminous quasars (Zakamska et al 2006;Obied et al 2016;Wylezalek et al 2016Wylezalek et al , 2022Veilleux et al 2023).…”

TEMPLATES: A Robust Outlier Rejection Method for JWST/NIRSpec Integral Field Spectroscopy

“…13 https://jwst-pipeline.readthedocs.io/ step did not work-aggressively removing outliers to the extent that the step also removed real flux from the science targets (jwst calibration pipeline versions 1.10.2 and earlier; e.g., Marshall et al 2023;Perna et al 2023;Vayner et al 2023;Veilleux et al 2023). In response, early teams developed alternative processing for this critical step (e.g., running LACOSMIC, van Dokkum 2001, on individual dithers and post-processing the final cube using uniform sigma clipping; see Perna et al 2023, among others).…”