ORCID Profile
0000-0002-4544-8242
Current Organisation
Universität Hamburg
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Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 11-05-2022
DOI: 10.1038/S41586-022-04608-1
Abstract: Bright quasars, powered by accretion onto billion-solar-mass black holes, already existed at the epoch of reionization, when the Universe was 0.5-1 billion years old
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 07-06-2022
Abstract: The presence of excess scatter in the Ly-α forest at z ∼ 5.5, together with the existence of sporadic extended opaque Gunn-Peterson troughs, has started to provide robust evidence for a late end of hydrogen reionization. However, low data quality and systematic uncertainties complicate the use of Ly-α transmission as a precision probe of reionization’s end stages. In this paper, we assemble a s le of 67 quasar sightlines at z & 5.5 with high signal-to-noise ratios of & per ≤15 km s−1 spectral pixel, relying largely on the new XQR-30 quasar s le. XQR-30 is a large program on VLT/X-Shooter which obtained deep (SNR & 20 per pixel) spectra of 30 quasars at z & 5.7. We carefully account for systematics in continuum reconstruction, instrumentation, and contamination by d ed Ly-α systems. We present improved measurements of the mean Ly-α transmission over 4.9 & z & 6.1. Using all known systematics in a forward modelling analysis, we find excellent agreement between the observed Ly-α transmission distributions and the homogeneous-UVB simulations Sherwood and Nyx up to z ≤ 5.2 (& σ), and mild tension (∼2.5σ) at z = 5.3. Homogeneous UVB models are ruled out by excess Ly-α transmission scatter at z ≥ 5.4 with high confidence (& .5σ). Our results indicate that reionization-related fluctuations, whether in the UVB, residual neutral hydrogen fraction, and/or IGM temperature, persist in the intergalactic medium until at least z = 5.3 (t = 1.1 Gyr after the big bang). This is further evidence for a late end to reionization.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 11-04-2022
Abstract: The elemental abundances in the broad-line regions of high-redshift quasars trace the chemical evolution in the nuclear regions of massive galaxies in the early Universe. In this work, we study metallicity-sensitive broad emission-line flux ratios in rest-frame UV spectra of 25 high-redshift (5.8 & z & 7.5) quasars observed with the VLT/X-shooter and Gemini/GNIRS instruments, ranging over $\\log \\left({{M}_{\\rm {BH}}/\\rm {M}_{\\odot }}\\right) = 8.4-9.8$ in black hole mass and $\\log \\left(\\rm {L}_{\\rm {bol}}/\\rm {erg \\, s}^{-1}\\right) = 46.7-47.7$ in bolometric luminosity. We fit in idual spectra and composites generated by binning across quasar properties: bolometric luminosity, black hole mass, and blueshift of the C iv line, finding no redshift evolution in the emission-line ratios by comparing our high-redshift quasars to lower redshift (2.0 & z & 5.0) results presented in the literature. Using cloudy-based locally optimally emitting cloud photoionization model relations between metallicity and emission-line flux ratios, we find the observable properties of the broad emission lines to be consistent with emission from gas clouds with metallicity that are at least 2–4 times solar. Our high-redshift measurements also confirm that the blueshift of the C iv emission line is correlated with its equivalent width, which influences line ratios normalized against C iv. When accounting for the C iv blueshift, we find that the rest-frame UV emission-line flux ratios do not correlate appreciably with the black hole mass or bolometric luminosity.
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 20-08-2018
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 05-02-2019
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 11-2020
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 04-2021
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date: 03-2023
Abstract: The identification of bright quasars at z ≳ 6 enables detailed studies of supermassive black holes, massive galaxies, structure formation, and the state of the intergalactic medium within the first billion years after the Big Bang. We present the spectroscopic confirmation of 55 quasars at redshifts 5.6 z 6.5 and UV magnitudes −24.5 M 1450 −28.5 identified in the optical Pan-STARRS1 and near-IR VIKING surveys (48 and 7, respectively). Five of these quasars have independently been discovered in other studies. The quasar s le shows an extensive range of physical properties, including 17 objects with weak emission lines, 10 broad absorption line quasars, and 5 objects with strong radio emission (radio-loud quasars). There are also a few notable sources in the s le, including a blazar candidate at z = 6.23, a likely gravitationally lensed quasar at z = 6.41, and a z = 5.84 quasar in the outskirts of the nearby ( D ∼ 3 Mpc) spiral galaxy M81. The blazar candidate remains undetected in NOEMA observations of the [C ii] and underlying emission, implying a star formation rate –70 M ⊙ yr −1 . A significant fraction of the quasars presented here lies at the foundation of the first measurement of the z ∼ 6 quasar luminosity function from Pan-STARRS1 (introduced in a companion paper). These quasars will enable further studies of the high-redshift quasar population with current and future facilities.
No related grants have been discovered for Jan-Torge Schindler.