English

Circumgalactic Environments around Distant Quasars 3C 9 and 4C 05.84

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2024-04-01 v1

Abstract

We present results from the ``Quasar hosts Unveiled by high Angular Resolution Techniques" (QUART) survey studying the Circumgalactic Medium (CGM) by observing rest-frame UV emission lines Lyα\alpha, C IV and He II around two radio-loud quasars, 3C 9 (z=2.02) and 4C 05.84 (z=2.32), using Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI). We detect large-scale Lyα\alpha nebulae around both quasars with projected diameters \sim 100 kpc, with spatially resolved, embedded 15-30 kpc He II and C IV nebulae around both quasars as well as kinematically distinct He II and C IV nebulae at a physical separation of \sim 15 kpc from both quasars. Observations of Hα\alpha, Hβ\beta, and [O III] emission using Keck MOSFIRE spectroscopically confirm that the Lyα\alpha nebulae extend to companion galaxies and that these quasars are in a protogroup/protocluster environment. We confirm that the He II and C IV emission is kinematically and spatially coincident with the companion galaxies. We estimate the virial masses of the companion galaxies, their metallicities, and star formation rates, and investigate the sources of ionization. We measure the dynamical mass of the host dark matter halos and estimate that the dark matter halos of these systems will grow to a mass of 2 ×1014\times 10^{14} M_{\odot} (3C 9) and 2 ×1013\times 10^{13} M_{\odot} (4C 05.84) by z=0. The combined CGM and companion galaxies observations indicate Lyα\alpha substructure can indicate the presence of companion galaxies in the CGM.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2401.04284,
  title  = {Circumgalactic Environments around Distant Quasars 3C 9 and 4C 05.84},
  author = {Sanchit Sabhlok and Shelley A. Wright and Andrey Vayner and Sonata Simonaitis-Boyd and Norman Murray and Lee Armus and Maren Cosens and James Wiley and Mariska Kriek},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2401.04284},
  year   = {2024}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T14:11:52.460Z