A Lyman alpha halo around a quasar at redshift z=6.4

Abstract

We present long-slit spectroscopic data which reveals extended Lyman alpha emission around the z=6.417 radio-quiet quasar CFHQS J2329-0301. The Lyman alpha emission is extended over 15 kpc and has a luminosity of > 8 x 10^36 W, comparable to the most luminous Lyman alpha halos known. The emission has complex kinematics, in part due to foreground absorption which only partly covers the extended nebula. The velocity ranges from -500 km/s to +500 km/s, with a peak remarkably close to the systemic velocity identified by broad MgII emission of the quasar. There is no evidence for infall or outflow of the halo gas. We speculate that the Lyman alpha emission mechanism is recombination after quasar photo-ionization of gas sitting within a high-mass dark matter halo. The immense Lyman alpha luminosity indicates a higher covering factor of cold gas compared to typical radio-quiet quasars at lower redshift.

7 pages, 7 figures, AJ, in press

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Cited by in corpus (22)

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• The REQUIEM Survey I: A Search for Extended Ly-Alpha Nebular Emission Around 31 z>5.7 Quasars
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• Mapping the Lyman-Alpha Emission Around a z~6.6 QSO with MUSE: Extended Emission and a Companion at Close Separation
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• The Spectrally Resolved Lyman-alpha Emission of Three Lyman-alpha Selected Field Galaxies at z~2.4 from the HETDEX Pilot Survey
• A glance at the host galaxy of high-redshift quasars using strong damped Lyman-alpha systems as coronagraphs
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• Spectroscopy of 7 Radio-Loud QSOs at 2<z<6: Giant Lyman-alpha Nebulae Accreting onto Host Galaxies
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• MUSE-inspired view of the quasar Q2059-360, its Lyman alpha blob, and its neighborhood
• MMTF Discovery of Giant Ionization Cones in MR 2251-178: Implications for Quasar Radiative Feedback
• Possible evolution of the circum-galactic medium around QSOs with QSO age and cosmic time revealed by Ly$\alpha$ halos
• The Decoupled Kinematics of high-z QSO Host Galaxies and their Lya halos
• Discovery of a Lyα blob photo-ionised by a super-cluster of massive stars associated to a z = 3.49 galaxy