English

A powerful (and likely young) radio-loud quasar at z=5.3

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2023-01-25 v1 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Abstract

We present the discovery of PSO J191.05696++86.43172 (hereafter PSO J191++86), a new powerful radio-loud quasar (QSO) in the early Universe (z = 5.32). We discovered it by cross-matching the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) radio catalog at 1.4 GHz with the first data release of the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS PS1) in the optical. With a NVSS flux density of 74.2 mJy, PSO J191++86 is one of the brightest radio QSO discovered at z\sim5. The intensity of its radio emission is also confirmed by the very high value of radio loudness (R>300). The observed radio spectrum of PSO J191++86 shows a possible turnover around \sim1 GHz (i.e., \sim6 GHz in the rest frame), making it a Gigahertz-Peaked Spectrum (GPS) source. However, variability could affect the real shape of the radio spectrum, since the data in hand have been taken \sim25 years apart. By assuming a peak of the observed radio spectrum between 1 and 2 GHz (i.e. \sim 6 and 13 GHz in the rest-frame) we found a linear size of the source of \sim10-30 pc and a corresponding kinetic age of 150-460 yr. This would make PSO J191++86 a newly born radio source. However, the large X-ray luminosity (5.3×\times1045^{45} erg s1^{-1}), the flat X-ray photon index (ΓX\Gamma_X=1.32) and the optical-X-ray spectral index (αox~\tilde{\alpha_{ox}}=1.329) are typical of blazars. This could indicate that the non-thermal emission of PSO J191++86 is Doppler boosted. Further radio observations (both on arcsec and parsec scales) are necessary to better investigate the nature of this powerful radio QSO.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2210.14946,
  title  = {A powerful (and likely young) radio-loud quasar at z=5.3},
  author = {S. Belladitta and A. Moretti and A. Caccianiga and D. Dallacasa and C. Spingola and M. Pedani and L. P. Cassarà and S. Bisogni},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2210.14946},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

10 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables, Accepted for publication in A&A