TY - JOUR
T1 - Discovery of Optically Emitting Circumgalactic Nebulae around the Majority of UV-luminous Quasars at Intermediate Redshift
AU - Johnson, Sean D.
AU - Liu, Zhuoqi
AU - Li, Jennifer I.Hsiu
AU - Schaye, Joop
AU - Greene, Jenny E.
AU - Cantalupo, Sebastiano
AU - Rudie, Gwen C.
AU - Qu, Zhijie
AU - Chen, Hsiao Wen
AU - Rafelski, Marc
AU - Muzahid, Sowgat
AU - Chen, Mandy C.
AU - Contini, Thierry
AU - Kollatschny, Wolfram
AU - Mishra, Nishant
AU - Petitjean, Patrick
AU - Rauch, Michael
AU - Zahedy, Fakhri S.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
PY - 2024/5/1
Y1 - 2024/5/1
N2 - We report the discovery of large, ionized, [O ii]-emitting circumgalactic nebulae around the majority of 30 UV-luminous quasars at z = 0.4-1.4 observed with deep, wide-field integral field spectroscopy with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopy Explorer (MUSE) by the Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey and MUSE Quasar Blind Emitters Survey. Among the 30 quasars, seven (23%) exhibit [O ii]-emitting nebulae with major axis sizes greater than 100 kpc, 20 greater than 50 kpc (67%), and 27 (90%) greater than 20 kpc. Such large, optically emitting nebulae indicate that cool, dense, and metal-enriched circumgalactic gas is common in the halos of luminous quasars at intermediate redshift. Several of the largest nebulae exhibit morphologies that suggest interaction-related origins. We detect no correlation between the sizes and cosmological-dimming-corrected surface brightnesses of the nebulae and quasar redshift, luminosity, black hole mass, or radio-loudness, but find a tentative correlation between the nebulae and rest-frame [O ii] equivalent width in the quasar spectra. This potential trend suggests a relationship between interstellar medium content and gas reservoirs on CGM scales. The [O ii]-emitting nebulae around the z ≈ 1 quasars are smaller and less common than Lyα nebulae around z ≈ 3 quasars. These smaller sizes can be explained if the outer regions of the Lyα halos arise from scattering in more neutral gas, by evolution in the cool circumgalactic medium content of quasar-host halos, by lower-than-expected metallicities on ≳50 kpc scales around z ≈ 1 quasars, or by changes in quasar episodic lifetimes between z = 3 and 1.
AB - We report the discovery of large, ionized, [O ii]-emitting circumgalactic nebulae around the majority of 30 UV-luminous quasars at z = 0.4-1.4 observed with deep, wide-field integral field spectroscopy with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopy Explorer (MUSE) by the Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey and MUSE Quasar Blind Emitters Survey. Among the 30 quasars, seven (23%) exhibit [O ii]-emitting nebulae with major axis sizes greater than 100 kpc, 20 greater than 50 kpc (67%), and 27 (90%) greater than 20 kpc. Such large, optically emitting nebulae indicate that cool, dense, and metal-enriched circumgalactic gas is common in the halos of luminous quasars at intermediate redshift. Several of the largest nebulae exhibit morphologies that suggest interaction-related origins. We detect no correlation between the sizes and cosmological-dimming-corrected surface brightnesses of the nebulae and quasar redshift, luminosity, black hole mass, or radio-loudness, but find a tentative correlation between the nebulae and rest-frame [O ii] equivalent width in the quasar spectra. This potential trend suggests a relationship between interstellar medium content and gas reservoirs on CGM scales. The [O ii]-emitting nebulae around the z ≈ 1 quasars are smaller and less common than Lyα nebulae around z ≈ 3 quasars. These smaller sizes can be explained if the outer regions of the Lyα halos arise from scattering in more neutral gas, by evolution in the cool circumgalactic medium content of quasar-host halos, by lower-than-expected metallicities on ≳50 kpc scales around z ≈ 1 quasars, or by changes in quasar episodic lifetimes between z = 3 and 1.
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U2 - 10.3847/1538-4357/ad3911
DO - 10.3847/1538-4357/ad3911
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85192974962
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 966
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
IS - 2
M1 - 218
ER -