Clustering of Lyman-alpha Emitters Around Quasars at $z\sim 4$

Abstract

The strong observed clustering of $z>3.5$ quasars indicates they are hosted by massive ($M_{\mathrm{halo}}\gtrsim 10^{12}{h}^{-1}{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$) dark matter halos. Assuming quasars and galaxies trace the same large-scale structures, this should also manifest as strong clustering of galaxies around quasars. Previous work on high-redshift quasar environments, mostly focused at $z>5$, have failed to find convincing evidence for these overdensities. Here we conduct a survey for Lyman alpha emitters (LAEs) in the environs of 17 quasars at $z\sim 4$ probing scales of $R\lesssim 7h^{-1}\mathrm{Mpc}$. We measure an average LAE overdensity around quasars of 1.4 for our full sample, which we quantify by fitting the quasar-LAE cross-correlation function. We find consistency with a power-law shape with correlation length of $r_0^{QG}=2.78_{-1.05}^{+1.16}{h}^{-1}\mathrm{cMpc}$ for a fixed slope of $\gamma =1.8$. We also measure the LAE auto-correlation length and find $r_0^{GG}=9.12_{-1.31}^{+1.32}{h}^{-1}$\,cMpc ($\gamma =1.8$), which is $3.3$ times higher than the value measured in blank fields. Taken together our results clearly indicate that LAEs are significantly clustered around $z\sim 4$ quasars. We compare the observed clustering with the expectation from a deterministic bias model, whereby LAEs and quasars probe the same underlying dark matter overdensities, and find that our measurements fall short of the predicted overdensities by a factor of 2.1. We discuss possible explanations for this discrepancy including large-scale quenching or the presence of excess dust in galaxies near quasars. Finally, the large cosmic variance from field-to-field observed in our sample (10/17 fields are actually underdense) cautions one from over-interpreting studies of $z\sim 6$ quasar environments based on a single or handful of quasar fields.

arXiv comment19 pages, 12 figures, submitted to the ApJ

References in corpus (87)

• Maps of Dust IR Emission for Use in Estimation of Reddening and CMBR Foregrounds
• Stellar population synthesis at the resolution of 2003
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Technical Summary
• Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass Function
• A Fundamental Relation Between Supermassive Black Holes and Their Host Galaxies
• The Demography of Massive Dark Objects in Galaxy Centres
• A Relationship Between Nuclear Black Hole Mass and Galaxy Velocity Dispersion
• Modeling feedback from stars and black holes in galaxy mergers
• SDSS-III: Massive Spectroscopic Surveys of the Distant Universe, the Milky Way Galaxy, and Extra-Solar Planetary Systems
• The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey of SDSS-III
• Mass and environment as drivers of galaxy evolution in SDSS and zCOSMOS and the origin of the Schechter function
• Composite Quasar Spectra From the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• EAZY: A Fast, Public Photometric Redshift Code
• An analytic model for the spatial clustering of dark matter haloes
• Spectroscopic Target Selection in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: The Quasar Sample
• Statistics of 207 Lya Emitters at a Redshift Near 7: Constraints on Reionization and Galaxy Formation Models
• UV Luminosity Functions at z~4, 5, and 6 from the HUDF and other Deep HST ACS Fields: Evolution and Star Formation History
• The Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Survey (SXDS). IV. Evolution of Lya Emitters from z=3.1 to 5.7 in the 1 deg^2 Field: Luminosity Functions and AGN
• Homogeneous Photometry for Star Clusters and Resolved Galaxies. II. Photometric Standard Stars
• Subaru Deep Survey V. A Census of Lyman Break Galaxies at z=4 and 5 in the Subaru Deep Fields: Photometric Properties
• UV Continuum Slope and Dust Obscuration from z~6 to z~2: The Star Formation Rate Density at High Redshift
• Clustering of High Redshift ($z\ge 2.9$) Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Ancient Light from Young Cosmic Cities: Physical and Observational Signatures of Galaxy Proto-Clusters
• Discovery of z~8 Galaxies in the HUDF from ultra-deep WFC3/IR Observations
• A massive proto-cluster of galaxies at a redshift of z {\approx} 5.3
• Ly Alpha Emitters at z=5.7 in the Subaru Deep Field
• Binary Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Evidence for Excess Clustering on Small Scales
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey quasar catalog: tenth data release
• Quasar Clustering from SDSS DR5: Dependences on Physical Properties
• The clustering of intermediate redshift quasars as measured by the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey
• Systematic Identification of LAEs for Visible Exploration and Reionization Research Using Subaru HSC (SILVERRUSH). I. Program Strategy and Clustering Properties of ~2,000 Lya Emitters at z=6-7 over the 0.3-0.5 Gpc${}^2$ Survey Area
• Rapidly star-forming galaxies adjacent to quasars at redshifts exceeding 6
• Galaxy number counts - V. Ultra-deep counts: The Herschel and Hubble Deep Fields
• Correcting CIV-Based Virial Black Hole Masses
• Subaru Deep Survey VI. A Census of Lyman Break Galaxies at z=4 and 5 in the Subaru Deep Fields: Clustering Properties
• First Measurement of the Clustering Evolution of Photometrically-Classified Quasars
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: Velocity Shifts of Quasar Emission Lines
• Properties of Ly-alpha emitters around the radio galaxy MRC 0316-257
• Quasars Probing Quasars I: Optically Thick Absorbers Near Luminous Quasars
• Clustering of intermediate redshift quasars using the final SDSS III-BOSS sample
• Binary Quasars at High Redshift I: 24 New Quasar Pairs at z ~ 3-4
• Optical atmospheric extinction over Cerro Paranal
• ALMA Observations Show Major Mergers Among the Host Galaxies of Fast-growing, High-redshift Supermassive Black Holes
• The halo masses and galaxy environments of hyperluminous QSOs at z~2.7 in the Keck Baryonic Structure Survey
• Slicing COSMOS with SC4K: the evolution of typical Lya emitters and the Lya escape fraction from z~2 to z~6
• Luminosity and redshift dependent quasar clustering
• Lyman break galaxies, Lya emitters and a radio galaxy in a protocluster at z=4.1
• The VIMOS VLT Deep Survey: Star Formation Rate Density of Lya emitters from a sample of 217 galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts 2<z<6.6
• Cross-Correlation of SDSS DR7 Quasars and DR10 BOSS Galaxies: The Weak Luminosity Dependence of Quasar Clustering at z~0.5
• The Environments of High Redshift QSOs
• The real-space clustering of luminous red galaxies around z<0.6 quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Field Survey VI: The Faint-End of the Lya Luminosity Function at 2.91 < z < 6.64 and Implications for Reionisation
• Clustering of Lyman Break Galaxies at z=4 and 5 in The Subaru Deep Field: Luminosity Dependence of The Correlation Function Slope
• Evidence for Primordial Clustering Around the QSO SDSS J1030+0524 at z=6.28
• The Habitat Segregation between Lyman Break Galaxies and Lyman alpha Emitters around a QSO at z~5
• Imaging of SDSS z>6 quasar fields: gravitational lensing, companion galaxies and the host dark matter halos
• An Overdensity of Galaxies near the Most Distant Radio-Loud Quasar
• The primordial environment of super massive black holes: large scale galaxy overdensities around $z\sim 6$ QSOs with LBT
• A Possible Correlation Between the Luminosities and Lifetimes of Active Galactic Nuclei
• The galaxy environment of a QSO at z ~ 5.7
• A Large Number of z > 6 Galaxies around a QSO at z = 6.43: Evidence for a Protocluster?
• Constraints on the correlation between QSO luminosity and host halo mass from high-redshift quasar clustering
• GALEX far-UV color selection of UV-bright high-redshift quasars
• No overdensity of Lyman Alpha Emitting Galaxies around a quasar at z~5.7
• Are z~5 QSOs found in the most massive high redshift over-densities?
• Luminous Quasars Do Not Live in the Most Overdense Regions of Galaxies at z~4
• Morphologies of ~190,000 Galaxies at z=0-10 Revealed with HST Legacy Data. III. Continuum Profile and Size Evolution of Lya Emitters
• Very small-scale clustering of quasars from a complete quasar lens survey
• Large Scale Environment of a $z=6.61$ Luminous Quasar Probed by Ly$\alpha$ Emitters and Lyman Break Galaxies
• Clustering of quasars in a wide luminosity range at redshift 4 with Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam wide field imaging
• No excess of bright galaxies around the redshift 7.1 quasar ULAS J1120+0641
• The journey of QSO haloes from z=6 to the present
• Clustering on very small scales from a large sample of confirmed quasar pairs: Does quasar clustering track from Mpc to kpc scales?
• The Mysterious Absence of Neutral Hydrogen within One Mpc of a Luminous Quasar at Redshift 2.168
• The primordial environment of supermassive black holes (II): deep Y and J band images around the z=6.3 quasar SDSS J1030+0524
• Strong Clustering of Lyman Break Galaxies around Luminous Quasars at z~4
• Active Galactic Nucleus Environments and Feedback to Neighboring Galaxies at $z\sim 5$ Probed by Lyman-Alpha Emitters
• The WISSH quasars project V. ALMA reveals the assembly of a giant galaxy around a z=4.4 hyper-luminous QSO
• Discovery of an Overdensity of Lyman-alpha Emitters Around a $\mathrm{z}\sim 4$ QSO with the Large Binocular Telescope
• A Constraint on Quasar Clustering at z=5 from a Binary Quasar
• No Ly$\alpha$ emitters detected around a QSO at z=6.4: Suppressed by the QSO?
• On the Prevalence of Super-Massive Black Holes over Cosmic Time
• Clustering of Ly-alpha emitters around luminous quasars at z = 2-3: an alternative probe of reionization on galaxy formation
• The Quasar-LBG Two-point Angular Cross-correlation Function at z ~ 4 in the COSMOS Field
• On the small scale clustering of quasars: constraints from the MassiveBlack II simulation
• Tunable filter imaging of high redshift quasar fields
• A Halo Occupation Interpretation Of Quasars At $z\sim 1.5$ Using Very Small Scale Clustering Information

Cited by in corpus (20)

• MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies (MAGG) -- III: The gas and galaxy environment of z = 3-4.5 quasars
• MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies (MAGG) -- IV: The gaseous environment of $z\sim$ 3-4 Lyman-alpha emitting galaxies
• Constraining galaxy overdensities around three z~6.5 quasars with ALMA and MUSE
• ALMA reveals large overdensity and strong clustering of galaxies in quasar environments at $z\sim 4$
• "Little red dots" cannot reside in the same dark matter halos as comparably luminous unobscured quasars
• MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies (MAGG) -- V: Linking ionized gas traced by CIV and SiIV absorbers to Ly$\alpha$ emitting galaxies at $z\approx 3.0-4.5$
• A unified model for the clustering of quasars and galaxies at $z\approx 6$
• Revisiting the Extreme Clustering of $z\approx 4$ Quasars with Large Volume Cosmological Simulations
• An Overdensity of Lyman Break Galaxies Around the Hot Dust-Obscured Galaxy WISE J224607.56$-$052634.9
• APEX at the QSO MUSEUM: molecular gas reservoirs associated with $z\sim$3 quasars and their link to the extended Ly$\alpha$ emission
• An overdensity of red galaxies around the hyperluminous dust-obscured quasar W1835$+$4355 at $z=2.3$
• A lack of LAEs within 5Mpc of a luminous quasar in an overdensity at z=6.9: potential evidence of quasar negative feedback at protocluster scales
• JCMT/SCUBA-2 uncovers an excess of $850\mu$m counts on megaparsec scales around high-redshift quasars. Characterization of the overdensities and their alignment with the quasars' Ly$\alpha$ nebulae
• Faint Quasars Live in the Same Number Density Environments as Lyman Break Galaxies at z ~ 4
• Are there more galaxies than we see around high-$z$ quasars?
• Overdensity of Lyman-Break Galaxy Candidates Around Hot Dust-Obscured Galaxies
• MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies (MAGG) -- VI. The cool and enriched gas environment of z$\gtrsim$3 Ly$\alpha$ emitters
• Euclid preparation. Exploring the properties of proto-clusters in the Simulated Euclid Wide Survey
• Submillimeter galaxy overdensities around physically associated quasar pairs
• Can luminous Lyman alpha emitters at $z$ $\simeq$ 5.7 and $z$ $\simeq$ 6.6 suppress star formation?