NIR spectroscopy of SDSS J0303-0019: a low luminosity, high Eddington ratio quasar at z~6

Abstract

We present sensitive near--infrared VLT ISAAC spectroscopic observations of the z=6.08 quasar SDSS J030331.40-001912.9. This QSO is more than a magnitude fainter than other QSOs at z~6 for which NIR spectroscopy has been obtained to date and is therefore presumably more representative of the QSO population at the end of Cosmic Reionization. Combining rest--frame UV continuum luminosity with the width measurements of the Mg II and C IV lines, we derive a black hole mass of 2(+1.0/-0.5) x 10^8 solar masses, the lowest mass observed for z~6 QSOs to date, and derive an Eddington ratio of 1.6(+0.4/-0.6), amongst the highest value derived for QSOs at any redshift. The Spitzer 24 micron non--detection of this QSO does not leave space for a significant hot dust component in its optical/near--infrared SED, in common with one other faint QSO at z=6, but in contrast to more than twenty more z=6 QSOs and all known lower redshift QSOs with sufficiently deep multi-wavelength photometry. We conclude that we have found evidence for differences in the intrinsic properties of at least one z~6 QSO as compared to the lower--redshift population.

Accepted by ApJ on July 1, 2009; 5 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (8)

• Observational constraints on Cosmic Reionization
• Biases in Virial Black Hole Masses: An SDSS Perspective
• Gemini Near-infrared Spectroscopy of Luminous z~6 Quasars: Chemical Abundances, Black Hole Masses, and MgII Absorption
• Black hole masses and enrichment of z ~ 6 SDSS quasars
• A Survey of z~6 Quasars in the SDSS Deep Stripe: I. a Flux-Limited Sample at z_{AB}<21
• Thermal Emission from Warm Dust in the Most Distant Quasars
• Probing the Evolution of IR Properties of z~6 Quasars: Spitzer Observations
• Modeling the Dust Properties of z ~ 6 Quasars with ART^2 -- All-wavelength Radiative Transfer with Adaptive Refinement Tree

Cited by in corpus (37)

• The Pan-STARRS1 distant z>5.6 quasar survey: more than 100 quasars within the first Gyr of the universe
• 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
• 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
• Spectral Energy Distributions of QSOs at z>5: common AGN-heated dust and occasionally strong star-formation
• Constraining the radio-loud fraction of quasars at z>5.5
• Dust-free quasars in the early Universe
• Far-infrared and Molecular CO Emission From the Host Galaxies of Faint Quasars at z~6
• The Subaru high-z quasar survey: discovery of faint z~6 quasars
• Dust emission in an accretion-rate-limited sample of z>6 quasars
• The X-ray properties of $z>6$ quasars: no evident evolution of accretion physics in the first Gyr of the Universe
• The Formation of the First Massive Black Holes
• First CO(17-16) emission line detected in a z > 6 quasar
• High-z Quasars in the R_h=ct Universe
• On the Accretion Rates and Radiative Efficiencies of the Highest Redshift Quasars
• The First High Redshift Quasar from Pan-STARRS
• The Contribution of Host Galaxies to the Infrared Energy Output of $z\gtrsim 5.0$ QUASARS
• The Premature Formation of High Redshift Galaxies
• First constraints on the AGN X-ray luminosity function at $z\sim 6$ from an eROSITA-detected quasar
• The Near and Mid-infrared photometric properties of known redshift $z\ge 5$ Quasars
• Limits to Rest-Frame Ultraviolet Emission From Far-Infrared-Luminous z~6 Quasar Hosts
• Exploring the link between C IV outflow kinematics and sublimation-temperature dust in quasars
• No Evidence for Millimeter Continuum Source Overdensities in the Environments of $z\gtrsim 6$ Quasars
• Formation of High-redshift (z>6) Quasars Driven by Nuclear Starbursts
• SDSS J013127.34$-$032100.1: A newly discovered radio-loud quasar at $z=5.18$ with extremely high luminosity
• The High-z Quasar Hubble Diagram
• A Lyman alpha halo around a quasar at redshift z=6.4
• Tully-Fisher Distances and Dynamical Mass Constraints for 24 Host Galaxies of Reverberation-Mapped AGN
• 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
• Detecting the Highest Redshift (z > 8) QSOs in a Wide, Near Infrared Slitless Spectroscopic Survey
• The Infrared Medium-deep Survey. III. Survey of Luminous Quasars at 4.7 $\le$ z $\le$ 5.4
• High Star Formation Rates of Low Eddington Ratio Quasars at $z\gtrsim 6$
• Rapidly accreting black hole of the Lyα-luminous quasar PSO J006.1240+39.2219
• A new model of quasar mass evolution