Gemini Near-infrared Spectroscopy of Luminous z~6 Quasars: Chemical Abundances, Black Hole Masses, and MgII Absorption

Abstract

We present Gemini near-infrared spectroscopic observations of six luminous quasars at z=5.8$\sim$6.3. Five of them were observed using Gemini-South/GNIRS, which provides a simultaneous wavelength coverage of 0.9--2.5 $\mu$m in cross dispersion mode. The other source was observed in K band with Gemini-North/NIRI. We calculate line strengths for all detected emission lines and use their ratios to estimate gas metallicity in the broad-line regions of the quasars. The metallicity is found to be supersolar with a typical value of $\sim$4 Z_{\sun}, and a comparison with low-redshift observations shows no strong evolution in metallicity up to z$\sim$6. The FeII/MgII ratio of the quasars is 4.9+/-1.4, consistent with low-redshift measurements. We estimate central BH masses of 10^9 to 10^{10} M_{\sun} and Eddington luminosity ratios of order unity. We identify two MgII $\lambda \lambda$2796,2803 absorbers with rest equivalent width W_0^{\lambda2796}>1 Åat 2.2<z<3 and three MgII absorbers with W_0^{\lambda2796}>1.5 Åat z>3 in the spectra, with the two most distant absorbers at z=4.8668 and 4.8823, respectively. The redshift number densities (dN/dz) of MgII absorbers with W_0^{\lambda2796}>1.5 Åare consistent with no cosmic evolution up to z>4.

arXiv comment33 pages (including 7 figures and 6 tables), AJ in press

References in corpus (70)

• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Technical Summary
• Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Three Year Results: Implications for Cosmology
• The many lives of active galactic nuclei: cooling flows, black holes and the luminosities and colours of galaxies
• Composite Quasar Spectra From the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• A Unified, Merger-Driven Model for the Origin of Starbursts, Quasars, the Cosmic X-Ray Background, Supermassive Black Holes and Galaxy Spheroids
• The Nucleosynthetic Signature of Population III
• Determining Central Black Hole Masses in Distant Active Galaxies and Quasars. II. Improved Optical and UV Scaling Relationships
• A Unified Model for the Evolution of Galaxies and Quasars
• The Second Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Massive Black Holes as Population III Remnants
• A Survey of z>5.8 Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey I: Discovery of Three New Quasars and the Spatial Density of Luminous Quasars at z~6
• A Survey of z>5.7 Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey II: Discovery of Three Additional Quasars at z>6
• Central Masses and Broad-Line Region Sizes of Active Galactic Nuclei: I. Comparing the Photoionization and Reverberation Techniques
• Black Holes in Galaxy Mergers: Evolution of Quasars
• The cosmological evolution of quasar black-hole masses
• An Empirical Ultraviolet Template for Iron Emission in Quasars as Derived from I Zw 1
• A Survey of z>5.7 Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV: Discovery of Seven Additional Quasars
• Self-Regulated Growth of Supermassive Black Holes in Galaxies as the Origin of the Optical and X-ray Luminosity Functions of Quasars
• Black Hole Masses and Eddington Ratios at 0.3<z<4
• Elemental Abundances in QSOs: Star Formation and Galactic Nuclear Evolution at High Redshifts
• A Catalog of Broad Absorption Line Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Third Data Release
• A Survey of z>5.7 Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III: Discovery of Five Additional Quasars
• Clustering of High Redshift ($z\ge 2.9$) Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Broad Emission Line Shifts in Quasars: An Orientation Measure for Radio-Quiet Quasars?
• Dust emission from the most distant quasars
• Locally Optimally Emitting Clouds and the Origin of Quasar Emission Lines
• Resolved Molecular Gas in a Quasar Host Galaxy at Redshift z=6.42
• Molecular Gas in the Host Galaxy of a Quasar at Redshift z=6.42
• On the typical timescale for the chemical enrichment from SNeIa in Galaxies
• The Discovery of a Luminous z=5.80 Quasar from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• On the Threshold of the Reionization Epoch
• Quasars at z=6: the survival of the fittest
• Early Growth and Efficient Accretion of Massive Black Holes at High Redshift
• The Kinematic Connection Between QSO-Absorbing Gas and Galaxies at Intermediate Redshift
• Mg II Absorption Systems in SDSS QSO Spectra
• High-excitation CO in a quasar host galaxy at z=6.42
• The Evolution of the Broad-Line Region among SDSS Quasars
• Metallicities and Abundance Ratios from Quasar Broad Emission Lines
• Iron Emission in the z=6.4 Quasar SDSS J114816.64+525150.3
• The Origin of Fe II Emission in AGN
• On the Incidence and Kinematics of Strong Mg II Absorbers
• FeII/MgII Emission Line Ratio in High Redshift Quasars
• Probing the Evolution of IR Properties of z~6 Quasars: Spitzer Observations
• Chandra Observations of the Highest Redshift Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• VLT observations of the z=6.28 quasar SDSS 1030+0524
• Iron Emission in z~6 QSOs
• Low and High Ionization Absorption Properties of Mg II Absorption-Selected Galaxies at Intermediate Redshifts. II. Taxonomy, Kinematics, and Galaxies
• Quasars as probes of the submillimetre cosmos at z>5: I. Preliminary SCUBA photometry
• The mass function of high redshift seed black holes
• Submillimetre Observations of z>6 Quasars
• Millimeter and Radio Observations of z~6 Quasars
• Discovery of a z=6.1 Radio-Loud Quasar in the NDWFS
• High Redshift Quasars and Star Formation in the Early Universe
• Early star formation traced by the highest redshift quasars
• The Kinematic Composition of MgII Absorbers
• Sensitive observations at 1.4 and 250 GHz of z > 5 QSOs
• Red and Blue Shifted Broad Lines in Luminous Quasars
• Formation and evolution of elliptical galaxies and QSO activity
• Chemical Abundances in Broad Emission Line Regions: The "Nitrogen-Loud" QSO 0353-383
• The Discovery of Three New z>5 Quasars in the AGN and Galaxy Evolution Survey
• FeII/MgII Emission Line Ratios of QSOs. II. z>6 Objects
• Implications of Quasar Black Hole Masses at High Redshifts
• Radio Observations of Infrared Luminous High Redshift QSOs
• MgII Absorption through Intermediate Redshift Galaxies
• Elemental Abundances in the Broad Emission Line Region of Quasars at Redshifts larger than 4
• The associated system of HE2347-4342
• The near-IR properties and continuum shapes of high redshift quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Early Enrichment of Quasars by First Stars
• Massive Black Holes: formation and evolution
• Gemini-South + FLAMINGOS Demonstration Science: Near-Infrared Spectroscopy of the z=5.77 Quasar SDSS J083643.85+005453.3

Cited by in corpus (182)

• An ultra-luminous quasar with a twelve-billion-solar-mass black hole at redshift 6.30
• De Re Metallica: The cosmic chemical evolution of galaxies
• Biases in Virial Black Hole Masses: An SDSS Perspective
• The Canada-France High-z Quasar Survey: nine new quasars and the luminosity function at redshift 6
• Star Formation and Gas Kinematics of Quasar Host Galaxies at z~6: New insights from ALMA
• Eddington-limited accretion and the black hole mass function at redshift 6
• The Final SDSS High-Redshift Quasar Sample of 52 Quasars at z>5.7
• Physical properties of 15 quasars at $z\gtrsim 6.5$
• An ALMA [CII] survey of 27 quasars at z>5.94
• Hydrogen reionisation ends by $z=5.3$: Lyman-$\alpha$ optical depth measured by the XQR-30 sample
• Discovery of three z>6.5 quasars in the VISTA Kilo-degree Infrared Galaxy (VIKING) survey
• The effect of radiation pressure on virial black hole mass estimates and the case of Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies
• Molecular Gas in Redshift 6 Quasar Host Galaxies
• Black hole masses and enrichment of z ~ 6 SDSS quasars
• Evidence for non-evolving FeII/MgII ratios in rapidly accreting z~6 QSOs
• Black hole mass estimates and emission-line properties of a sample of redshift z>6.5 quasars
• Subaru high-z exploration of low-luminosity quasars (SHELLQs). I. Discovery of 15 quasars and bright galaxies at 5.7 < z < 6.9
• Bright [CII] and dust emission in three z>6.6 quasar host galaxies observed by ALMA
• New constraints on Lyman-α opacity with a sample of 62 quasars at z > 5.7
• A Survey of z~6 Quasars in the SDSS Deep Stripe: I. a Flux-Limited Sample at z_{AB}<21
• Observations of Feedback from Radio-Quiet Quasars: I. Extents and Morphologies of Ionized Gas Nebulae
• Gemini GNIRS near-infrared spectroscopy of 50 quasars at z>~5.7
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: Sample Characterization
• The Demographics of Broad Line Quasars in the Mass-Luminosity Plane II. Black Hole Mass and Eddington Ratio Functions
• Constraints on Black Hole Growth, Quasar Lifetimes, and Eddington Ratio Distributions from the SDSS Broad Line Quasar Black Hole Mass Function
• A Survey of z~6 Quasars in the SDSS Deep Stripe. II. Discovery of Six Quasars at z_{AB}>21
• Discovery of the First Low-Luminosity Quasar at z > 7
• Black-Hole Mass and Growth Rate at High Redshift
• Thermal Emission from Warm Dust in the Most Distant Quasars
• The Lick AGN Monitoring Project 2011: Fe II Reverberation from the Outer Broad-Line Region
• Star formation rate and dynamical mass of 10^8 solar mass black hole host galaxies at redshift 6
• The metallicity of the most distant quasars
• The extinction law at high redshift and its implications
• A downturn in intergalactic CIV as redshift 6 is approached
• Spectral Energy Distributions of QSOs at z>5: common AGN-heated dust and occasionally strong star-formation
• Near-zone sizes and the rest frame extreme ultra-violet spectral index of the highest redshift quasars
• Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs). VI. Black Hole Mass Measurements of Six Quasars at 6.1<z<6.7
• Quenching star formation with quasar outflows launched by trapped IR radiation
• Copious Amounts of Dust and Gas in a z=7.5 Quasar Host Galaxy
• The Demographics of Broad-Line Quasars in the Mass-Luminosity Plane. I. Testing FWHM-Based Virial Black Hole Masses
• Six more quasars at redshift 6 discovered by the Canada-France High-z Quasar Survey
• The MOSDEF Survey: the Variation of the Dust Attenuation Curve with Metallicity
• The compact, ~1 kpc host galaxy of a quasar at z=7.1
• Ionization near-zones associated with quasars at z ~ 6
• Dust-free quasars in the early Universe
• Far-infrared and Molecular CO Emission From the Host Galaxies of Faint Quasars at z~6
• Super-solar Metal Abundances in Two Galaxies at z ~ 3.57 revealed by the GRB 090323 Afterglow Spectrum
• The Subaru high-z quasar survey: discovery of faint z~6 quasars
• XQ-100: A legacy survey of one hundred 3.5 < z < 4.5 quasars observed with VLT/XSHOOTER
• LCDM predictions for galaxy protoclusters I: the relation between galaxies, protoclusters and quasars at z~6
• Metals in the IGM approaching the re-ionization epoch: results from X-shooter at the VLT
• Strong [CII] emission at high redshift
• GRB 100219A with X-shooter - abundances in a galaxy at z = 4.7
• Detecting and Characterizing Young Quasars I: Systemic Redshifts and Proximity Zones Measurements
• On the observability of individual Population III stars and their stellar-mass black hole accretion disks through cluster caustic transits
• A wide dispersion in star formation rate and dynamical mass of 10^8 solar mass black hole host galaxies at redshift 6
• First discoveries of z~6 quasars with the Kilo Degree Survey and VISTA Kilo-Degree Infrared Galaxy survey
• The Most Massive Galaxies and Black Holes Allowed by $\Lambda$CDM
• Molecular gas in three z~7 quasar host galaxies
• High-redshift quasars host galaxies: is there a stellar mass crisis?
• The Formation of the First Massive Black Holes
• Dust-Deficient Palomar-Green Quasars and the Diversity of AGN Intrinsic IR Emission
• On the formation of the first quasars
• Supermassive black holes formed by direct collapse of inflationary perturbations
• Chemical Evolution of High-Redshift Radio Galaxies
• The galaxy environment of a QSO at z ~ 5.7
• What controls the Fe II strength in active galactic nuclei?
• A Comparative Analysis of the Supernova Legacy Survey Sample with ΛCDM and the $R_{\mathrm{h}}=ct$ Universe
• Chasing the Tail of Cosmic Reionization with Dark Gap Statistics in the Ly$\alpha$ Forest over $5<z<6$
• Discovery of a redshift 6.13 quasar in the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey
• Constraints on the correlation between QSO luminosity and host halo mass from high-redshift quasar clustering
• Rest-frame Optical Spectra and Black Hole Masses of 3<z<6 Quasars
• Spatially Resolved Interstellar Medium and Highly-Excited Dense Molecular Gas in the Most Luminous Quasar at z=6.327
• A Survey of MgII Absorption at 2 < z < 6 with Magellan / FIRE: I: Sample and Evolution of the MgII Frequency
• First CO(17-16) emission line detected in a z > 6 quasar
• Mass Functions of Supermassive Black Holes Across Cosmic Time
• High-z Quasars in the R_h=ct Universe
• Quasars as standard candles II: The non linear relation between UV and X-ray emission at high redshifts
• Impact of the cosmic background radiation on the initial mass function of metal-poor stars
• First Spectroscopic Study of a Young Quasar
• On the Accretion Rates and Radiative Efficiencies of the Highest Redshift Quasars
• Eddington-Limited Accretion in z~2 WISE-selected Hot, Dust-Obscured Galaxies
• The dust content of QSO hosts at high redshift
• Discovery of Eight z ~ 6 Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Overlap Regions
• The Evolution of Chemical Abundance in Quasar Broad Line Region
• The First High Redshift Quasar from Pan-STARRS
• An ALMA multi-line survey of the ISM in two quasar host-companion galaxy pairs at $z>6$
• Quasar UV luminosity function evolution up to z=8
• No Redshift Evolution in the Broad Line Region Metallicity up to z=7.54: Deep NIR Spectroscopy of ULAS J1342+0928
• The Contribution of Host Galaxies to the Infrared Energy Output of $z\gtrsim 5.0$ QUASARS
• The Host Galaxy and Rapidly Evolving Broad-line Region in the Changing-look Active Galactic Nucleus 1ES 1927+654
• The Premature Formation of High Redshift Galaxies
• The dense molecular gas in the $\mathrm{z}\sim 6$ QSO SDSS J231038.88+185519.7 resolved by ALMA
• Cosmological test using the Hubble diagram of high-z quasars
• Cosmic String Loops as the Seeds of Super-Massive Black Holes
• The evolution of star formation in quasar host galaxies
• Probing the Nature of High Redshift Weak Emission Line Quasars: A Young Quasar with a Starburst Host Galaxy
• Weak 13CO in the Cloverleaf Quasar: evidence for a young, early generation starburst
• First Spectroscopic Confirmations of z ~ 7.0 Lya Emitting Galaxies in the LAGER Survey
• NIR spectroscopy of SDSS J0303-0019: a low luminosity, high Eddington ratio quasar at z~6
• Discovery of A Faint Quasar at z~6 and Implications for Cosmic Reionization
• Simultaneous Ultraviolet and Optical Emission-line Profiles of Quasars: Implications for Black Hole Mass Determination
• Core-Halo Mass Relation in Scalar Field Dark Matter Models and its Consequences for the Formation of Supermassive Black Holes
• Discovery of 24 radio-bright quasars at $4.9\le z\le 6.6$ using low-frequency radio observations
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: Post-Starburst Signatures in Quasar Host Galaxies at z < 1
• Infrared emission of $z\sim 6$ galaxies: AGN imprints
• Evolution of chemical abundances in Seyfert galaxies
• Probing the full CO spectral line energy distribution (SLED) in the nuclear region of a quasar-starburst system at $z=6.003$
• Stellar Masses of Lyman Break Galaxies, Lyman Alpha Emitters and Radio Galaxies in Overdense Regions at z=4-6
• An ultra-luminous quasar at z=5.363 with a ten billion solar mass black hole and a Metal-Rich DLA at z~5
• The mass-metallicity relation of high-z type-2 active galactic nuclei
• Metallicity in Quasar Broad Line Regions at Redshift $\sim$ 6
• Probing the Radio Loud/Quiet AGN dichotomy with quasar clustering
• Supermassive Black Holes and Their Environments
• Spectral Energy Distributions of Type 1 AGN in XMM-COSMOS Survey II - Shape Evolution
• The Largest X-ray Selected Sample of z>3 AGNs: C-COSMOS & ChaMP
• Rapid Black Hole Growth at the Dawn of the Universe: A Super-Eddington Quasar at z=6.6
• Constraints on high-J CO emission lines in $z\sim 6$ quasars
• The FeII/MgII flux ratio of low-luminosity quasars at z~3
• Limits to Rest-Frame Ultraviolet Emission From Far-Infrared-Luminous z~6 Quasar Hosts
• Chemical Abundance of z~6 Quasar Broad-Line Regions in the XQR-30 Sample
• Chemical evolution of the Universe at 0.7 < z < 1.6 derived from abundance diagnostics of the broad-line region of quasars
• SDSS J013127.34$-$032100.1: A newly discovered radio-loud quasar at $z=5.18$ with extremely high luminosity
• The WISSH quasars project V. ALMA reveals the assembly of a giant galaxy around a z=4.4 hyper-luminous QSO
• The need for obscured supermassive black hole growth to explain quasar proximity zones in the epoch of reionization
• The Canada-France High-z Quasar Survey: 1.2mm Observations
• The High-z Quasar Hubble Diagram
• A Kennicutt-Schmidt Law for Intervening Absorption Line Systems
• On inferring extinction laws in z~6 quasars as signatures of supernova dust
• Interpreting the Transmission Windows of Distant Quasars
• The host galaxies of z=7 quasars: predictions from the BlueTides simulation
• In-situ star formation in accretion disk and explanation for correlation between black hole mass and metallicity in AGNs
• Supermassive Black Holes in the Early Universe
• Demographics of z ~ 6 Quasars in the Black Hole Mass-Luminosity Plane
• A Lyman alpha halo around a quasar at redshift z=6.4
• Star cluster disruption by a massive black hole binary
• Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs). XI. Proximity Zone Analysis for Faint Quasar Spectra at z~6
• Metallicity and Far-Infrared Luminosity of High Redshift Quasars
• Dating individual quasars with the HeII proximity effect
• The Assembly of Black Hole Mass and Luminosity Functions of High-redshift Quasars via Multiple Accretion Episodes
• New quasar proximity zone size measurements at $z\sim 6$ using the enlarged XQR-30 sample
• Chemical enrichment and accretion of nitrogen-loud quasars
• Supernova Explosions in Accretion Disks in Active Galactic Nuclei: Three-Dimensional Models
• A Thirty-Four Billion Solar Mass Black Hole in SMSS J2157-3602, the Most Luminous Known Quasar
• The Origins of a Rich Absorption Line Complex in a Quasar at Redshift 3.45
• The Infrared Medium-deep Survey. IV. Low Eddington Ratio of A Faint Quasar at $z\sim 6$: Not Every Supermassive Black Hole is Growing Fast in the Early Universe
• Tully-Fisher Distances and Dynamical Mass Constraints for 24 Host Galaxies of Reverberation-Mapped AGN
• Chemical properties in the most distant radio galaxy
• The central engine of the highest redshift blazar
• Mg II and Fe II fluxes of luminous quasars at z ~ 2.7 and evaluation of the Baldwin effect in the flux-to-abundance conversion method for quasars
• On the Redshift Evolution of MgII Absorption Systems
• Selection constraints on high redshift quasar searches in the VISTA kilo-degree infrared galaxy survey
• The Response of Metal Rich Gas to X-Ray Irradiation from a Massive Black Hole at High Redshift: Proof of Concept
• Cosmological Tests with the FSRQ Gamma-ray Luminosity Function
• Unveiling the warm dense ISM in $z>6$ quasar host galaxies via water vapor emission
• Conditions for direct black hole seed collapse near a radio-loud quasar 1 Gyr after the Big Bang
• The cold molecular gas in z$\gtrsim$6 quasar host galaxies
• Cosmic Textures and Global Monopoles as Seeds for Super-Massive Black Holes
• The Infrared Medium-deep Survey. III. Survey of Luminous Quasars at 4.7 $\le$ z $\le$ 5.4
• Near-infrared spectroscopy of a nitrogen-loud quasar SDSS J1707+6443
• What do observations tell us about the highest-redshift supermassive black holes?
• Neutrino-dominated accretion flows: second nucleosynthesis factory in core-collapse supernovae and regulation of iron markets in galaxies
• Detecting the Highest Redshift (z > 8) QSOs in a Wide, Near Infrared Slitless Spectroscopic Survey
• Triggering the formation of direct collapse black holes by their congeners
• Recoiling Supermassive Black Hole Escape Velocities from Dark Matter Halos
• Deuterated species in extragalactic star-forming regions
• Spectroscopy of broad absorption line quasars at $3\lesssim z\lesssim 5$ -- I: evidence for quasar winds shaping broad/narrow emission line regions
• Possible evolution of the circum-galactic medium around QSOs with QSO age and cosmic time revealed by Ly$\alpha$ halos
• J1342+0928 Supports the Timeline in the R_h=ct Cosmology
• Nucleosynthesis Contribution of Neutrino-dominated Accretion Flows to the Chemical Evolution of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Dust Grain Growth at High Redshift: Starburst-driven CMB-Dark Supershells
• The physical constraints on a new LoBAL QSO at z=4.82
• Radio recombination lines from obscured quasars with the SKA
• An Optically Faint Quasar Survey at z~5 in the CFHTLS Wide Field: Estimates of the Black Hole Masses and Eddington Ratios
• Rapidly accreting black hole of the Lyα-luminous quasar PSO J006.1240+39.2219
• Searching for Low-Redshift Hot Dust-Obscured Galaxies
• Optical-NIR spectra of quasars close to reionization (z~ 6)
• Probing the rapid formation of black holes and their galaxy hosts in QSOs
• Carbon-loud SDSS BOSS QSO2s at z > 2: High density gas or secondary production of Carbon?
• Metallicity Ceiling in Quasars from Recycled Stellar Winds
• The Effect of Primordial Non-Gaussianities on the Seeds of Super-Massive Black Holes
• Polarization of AGN in UV Spectral Range