Spectroscopy of 7 radio-loud QSOs at 2 &lt; z &lt; 6: giant Lyman α emission nebulae accreting on to host galaxies

Roche, N.; Humphrey, A.; Binette, L.

doi:10.1093/mnras/stu1430

Cited by 26 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…I will discuss and compare in detail in section 4, the kinematical properties of radio-loud and radio-quiet nebulae, including this system. Subsequent observational campaigns found almost ubiquitous detection of extended Lyα emission around HzRG extending in several cases above 100 kpc in size (e.g., Pentericci et al 1997, Kurk et al 2000, Reuland et al 2003, Villar-Martin et al 2003, Venemans et al 2007, Villar-Martin et al 2007, Humphrey et al 2008, Sanchez & Humphrey 2009, Roche et al 2014 and showing a wealth of morphological structures, including filaments, clumpy regions and cone-shaped structures. The common features of all these detections include: i) apparent alignment between Lyα emission and the radio jet axis (e.g.…”

Section: Radio-galaxy Lyα Halosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gas Accretion and Giant Lyα Nebulae

Cantalupo

2017

Astrophysics and Space Science Library

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Several decades of observations and discoveries have shown that highredshift AGN and massive galaxies are often surrounded by giant Lyα nebulae extending in some cases up to 500 kpc in size. In this chapter, I review the properties of the such nebulae discovered at z > 2 and their connection with gas flows in and around galaxies and their halos. In particular, I show how current observations are used to constrain the physical properties and origin of the emitting gas in terms of the Lyα photon production processes and kinematical signatures. The emerging picture from these studies suggest that recombination radiation is the most viable scenario to explain the observed Lyα luminosities and Surface Brightness for the large majority of the nebulae and imply that a significant amount of dense (n > 1 cm −3 ), ionized and cold (T ∼ 10 4 K) "clumps" should be present within and around the halos of massive galaxies. Spectroscopic studies suggest that, among the giant Lyα nebulae, the one associated with radio-loud AGN should have kinematics dominated by strong, ionized outflows within at least the inner 30-50 kpc. Radio-quiet nebulae instead present more quiescent kinematics compatible with "stationary" situation and, in some cases, suggestive of rotating structures. However, definitive evidences for accretion onto galaxies of the gas associated with the giant Lyα emission are not unambiguously detected yet. Deep surveys currently ongoing using other bright, non-resonant lines such as Hydrogen Hα and He II 1640 will be crucial to search for clearer signatures of cosmological gas accretion onto galaxies and AGN.

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Section: Radio-galaxy Lyα Halosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gas Accretion and Giant Lyα Nebulae

Cantalupo

2017

Astrophysics and Space Science Library

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“…Ly nebulae with sizes of about 100 pkpc is larger than 80% for NB imaging and spectroscopy around radio-loud quasars (e.g Heckman et al 1991b;Roche et al 2014), and the most luminous and distant radio galaxies are almost always associated with large a Ly nebulae with sizes of up to 200 pkpc (e.g., McCarthy 1993; Reuland et al 2003). However, the much broader a Ly line profiles of the nebulae associated with these radio-loud sources (with a line full width half maximum FWHM > 1000 km s −1 ), the alignment between the extended a Ly emission and the radio-loud lobes, and the higher metallicities all suggest a different origin with respect to radio-quiet systems, e.g., outflows rather than intergalactic filaments, at least for the inner parts of the a Ly emission (Heckman et al 1991a;Villar-Martín et al 2003;Humphrey et al 2007, but see also Villar-Martín et al 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

UBIQUITOUS GIANT Lyα NEBULAE AROUND THE BRIGHTEST QUASARS AT z ∼ 3.5 REVEALED WITH MUSE^∗

Borisova

Cantalupo

Lilly

et al. 2016

ApJ

279

536

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Direct Lyα imaging of intergalactic gas atz 2 has recently revealed giant cosmological structures around quasars, e.g., the Slug Nebula. Despite their high luminosity, the detection rate of such systems in narrow-band and spectroscopic surveys is less than 10%, possibly encoding crucial information on the distribution of gas around quasars and the quasar emission properties. In this study, we use the MUSE integral-field instrument to perform a blind survey for giant a Ly nebulae around 17 bright radio-quiet quasars at < < z 3 4 that does not suffer from most of the limitations of previous surveys. After data reduction and analysis performed with specifically developed tools, we found that each quasar is surrounded by giant a Ly nebulae with projected sizes larger than 100 physical kiloparsecs and, in some cases, extending up to 320 kpc. The circularly averaged surface brightness profiles of the nebulae appear to be very similar to each other despite their different morphologies and are consistent with power laws with slopes»-1.8. The similarity between the properties of all these nebulae and the Slug Nebula suggests a similar origin for all systems and that a large fraction of gas around bright quasars could be in a relatively "cold" (T ∼ 10 4 K) and dense phase. In addition, our results imply that such gas is ubiquitous within at least 50 kpc from bright quasars at < < z 3 4 independently of the quasar emission opening angle, or extending up to 200 kpc for quasar isotropic emission.

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“…Several of these Lyα nebulae have been reported in the literature at intermediate redshifts (z ∼ 2-4), leading to the general consensus that QSOs are frequently (50%-70%) embedded in nebulae with sizes of 10-100 kpc (e.g., Heckman et al 1991aHeckman et al , 1991bChristensen et al 2006;Hennawi & Prochaska 2013;Roche et al 2014;Herenz et al 2015;Arrigoni Battaia et al 2016). In the past years, gigantic nebulae, with projected sizes 300 kpc, have also been detected (Cantalupo et al 2014;Martin et al 2014;Hennawi et al 2015;Borisova et al 2016a), suggesting the presence of large amounts of cold gas around intermediate-redshift QSOs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whereas all of these observations consistently report the presence of a bright Lyα halo extending on scales of 15 kpc in the proximity of CFHQSJ2329−0301, its luminosity is not well-constrained, with values that range from L Lya ( )1.7-7.5×10 43 ergs −1 (Willott et al 2011;Goto et al 2012) up to L Lya ( )=3.6×10 44 ergs −1 (Goto et al 2009; see footnote 10 in Decarli et al 2012). Recently, Roche et al (2014) presented long-slit spectroscopic observations with the Optical System for Imaging and low Resolution Integrated Spectroscopy (OSIRIS) mounted on the Gran Telescopio Canarias of a sample of QSOs at z>2, including one at z=5.95 the radio-loud QSO SDSSJ2228+0110. Although bright, extended Lyα emission appears ubiquitous in the Rocheetal.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping the Lyα Emission around a z ∼ 6.6 QSO with MUSE: Extended Emission and a Companion at a Close Separation

Farina

Venemans

Decarli

et al. 2017

ApJ

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We utilize the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on the Very Large Telescope to search for extended Lyα emission around the z∼6.6 QSO J0305−3150. After carefully subtracting the point spread function, we reach a nominal 5σ surface-brightness limit of SB 5σ =1.9×10−18 ergs −1 cm −2 arcsec −2 over a 1arcsec 2 aperture, collapsing fivewavelength slices centered at the expected location of the redshifted Lyα emission (i.e., at 9256 Å). Current data suggest the presence (5σ accounting for systematics) of a Lyα nebula that extends for 9 kpc around the QSO. This emission is displaced and redshifted by 155 km s −1 with respect to the location of the QSO host galaxy traced by the [C II] 158 μm emission line. The total luminosity is L Lya ( )=(3.0 ± 0.4)× 10 42 ergs −1 . Our analysis suggests that this emission is unlikely to rise from optically thick clouds illuminated by the ionizing radiation of the QSO. It is more plausible that the Lyα emission is due to the fluorescence of the highly ionized optically thin gas. This scenario implies a high hydrogen volume density of n 6 H~c m −3 . In addition, we detect a Lyα emitter (LAE) in the immediate vicinity of the QSO, i.e., with a projected separation of ∼12.5 kpc and a line-of-sight velocity difference of 560 km s . The probability of finding such a close LAE is one order of magnitude above the expectations based on the QSO-galaxy cross-correlation function. This discovery is in agreement with a scenario where dissipative interactions favor the rapid build-up of supermassive black holes at early cosmic times.

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Spectroscopy of 7 radio-loud QSOs at 2 < z < 6: giant Lyman α emission nebulae accreting on to host galaxies

Cited by 26 publications

References 41 publications

Gas Accretion and Giant Lyα Nebulae

Gas Accretion and Giant Lyα Nebulae

UBIQUITOUS GIANT Lyα NEBULAE AROUND THE BRIGHTEST QUASARS AT z ∼ 3.5 REVEALED WITH MUSE^∗

Mapping the Lyα Emission around a z ∼ 6.6 QSO with MUSE: Extended Emission and a Companion at a Close Separation

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Spectroscopy of 7 radio-loud QSOs at 2 < z < 6: giant Lyman α emission nebulae accreting on to host galaxies

Cited by 26 publications

References 41 publications

Gas Accretion and Giant Lyα Nebulae

Gas Accretion and Giant Lyα Nebulae

UBIQUITOUS GIANT Lyα NEBULAE AROUND THE BRIGHTEST QUASARS AT z ∼ 3.5 REVEALED WITH MUSE∗

Mapping the Lyα Emission around a z ∼ 6.6 QSO with MUSE: Extended Emission and a Companion at a Close Separation

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Product

Resources

About

UBIQUITOUS GIANT Lyα NEBULAE AROUND THE BRIGHTEST QUASARS AT z ∼ 3.5 REVEALED WITH MUSE^∗