The discovery of a highly accreting, radio-loud quasar at z=6.82

Abstract

Radio sources at the highest redshifts can provide unique information on the first massive galaxies and black holes, the densest primordial environments, and the epoch of reionization. The number of astronomical objects identified at z>6 has increased dramatically over the last few years, but previously only three radio-loud (R2500>10) sources had been reported at z>6, with the most distant being a quasar at z=6.18. Here we present the discovery and characterization of P172+18, a radio-loud quasar at z=6.823. This source has an MgII-based black hole mass of ~3x10^8 Msun and is one of the fastest accreting quasars, consistent with super-Eddington accretion. The ionized region around the quasar is among the largest measured at these redshifts, implying an active phase longer than the average lifetime of the z>6 quasar population. From archival data, there is evidence that its 1.4 GHz emission has decreased by a factor of two over the last two decades. The quasar's radio spectrum between 1.4 and 3.0 GHz is steep (alpha=-1.31) and has a radio-loudness parameter R2500~90. A second steep radio source (alpha=-0.83) of comparable brightness to the quasar is only 23.1" away (~120 kpc at z=6.82; projection probability <2%), but shows no optical or near-infrared counterpart. Further follow-up is required to establish whether these two sources are physically associated.

submitted to ApJ on Nov 29, 2020; accepted on Jan 31, 2021. See the companion paper by Momjian et al

References in corpus (49)

• SciPy 1.0--Fundamental Algorithms for Scientific Computing in Python
• Array Programming with NumPy
• A Catalog of Quasar Properties from SDSS DR7
• An ultra-luminous quasar with a twelve-billion-solar-mass black hole at redshift 6.30
• The Pan-STARRS1 distant z>5.6 quasar survey: more than 100 quasars within the first Gyr of the universe
• The unWISE Catalog: Two Billion Infrared Sources from Five Years of WISE Imaging
• Pōniuā'ena: A Luminous $z=7.5$ Quasar Hosting a 1.5 Billion Solar Mass Black Hole
• unWISE: unblurred coadds of the WISE imaging
• Physical properties of 15 quasars at $z\gtrsim 6.5$
• Radio galaxies and feedback from AGN jets
• The Radio-Loud Fraction of Quasars is a Strong Function of Redshift and Optical Luminosity
• Black hole masses and enrichment of z ~ 6 SDSS quasars
• Rapidly star-forming galaxies adjacent to quasars at redshifts exceeding 6
• A Significantly Neutral Intergalactic Medium Around the Luminous z=7 Quasar J0252-0503
• The identification of z-dropouts in Pan-STARRS1: three quasars at 6.5<z<6.7
• Correcting for Telluric Absorption: Methods, Case Studies, and Release of the TelFit Code
• Discovery of eight z ~ 6 quasars from Pan-STARRS1
• The CatWISE Preliminary Catalog: Motions from $WISE$ and $NEOWISE$ Data
• The VLA-COSMOS Survey: III. Further Catalog Analysis and the Radio Source Counts
• Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs). X. Discovery of 35 Quasars and Luminous Galaxies at 5.7 $\le$ z $\le$ 7.0
• On the two main classes of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Constraining the radio-loud fraction of quasars at z>5.5
• The X-SHOOTER/ALMA sample of Quasars in the Epoch of Reionization. I. NIR spectral modeling, iron enrichment and broad emission line properties
• Three new VHS-DES Quasars at 6.7 < z < 6.9 and Emission Line Properties at z > 6.5
• Detecting and Characterizing Young Quasars I: Systemic Redshifts and Proximity Zones Measurements
• Quasars That Have Transitioned from Radio-quiet to Radio-loud on Decadal Timescales Revealed by VLASS and FIRST
• Deep Full-sky Coadds from Three Years of WISE and NEOWISE Observations
• High-resolution VLA Imaging of SDSS Stripe 82 at 1.4 GHz
• The first blazar observed at z>6
• Millimeter and Radio Observations of z~6 Quasars
• A survey of luminous high-redshift quasars with SDSS and WISE II. the bright end of the quasar luminosity function at z ~ 5
• The Radio/Optical Catalog of the SSA13 Field
• New Constraints on Quasar Evolution: Broad Line Velocity Shifts over $1.5\lesssim z\lesssim 7.5$
• unWISE Coadds: The Five-year Data Set
• The first estimate of radio jet proper motion at z>5
• Mean and Extreme Radio Properties of Quasars and the Origin of Radio Emission
• No Redshift Evolution in the Broad Line Region Metallicity up to z=7.54: Deep NIR Spectroscopy of ULAS J1342+0928
• Constraining the quasar radio-loud fraction at $z\sim 6$ with deep radio observations
• High-resolution double morphology of the most distant known radio quasar at z=6.12
• Jet enhanced accretion growth of supermassive black holes
• Probing the Nature of High Redshift Weak Emission Line Quasars: A Young Quasar with a Starburst Host Galaxy
• A new bright z=6.82 quasar discovered with VISTA: VHS J0411-0907
• X-ray Observations of a $z\sim 6.2$ Quasar/Galaxy Merger
• SDSS J013127.34$-$032100.1: A newly discovered radio-loud quasar at $z=5.18$ with extremely high luminosity
• Constraints on nature of ultra light dark matter particles with 21cm forest
• Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs). XI. Proximity Zone Analysis for Faint Quasar Spectra at z~6
• The GLEAMing of the First Supermassive Black Holes
• Observations by GMRT at 323 MHz of radio-loud quasars at $z>5$
• Statistical Detection of IGM Structures during Cosmic Reionization using Absorption of the Redshifted 21 cm line by HI against Compact Background Radio Sources

Cited by in corpus (65)

• The X-shooter/ALMA Sample of Quasars in the Epoch of Reionization. II. Black Hole Masses, Eddington Ratios, and the Formation of the First Quasars
• A SPectroscopic survey of biased halos In the Reionization Era (ASPIRE): JWST Reveals a Filamentary Structure around a z=6.61 Quasar
• Co-evolution of massive black holes and their host galaxies at high redshift: discrepancies from six cosmological simulations and the key role of JWST
• ALMA Confirmation of an Obscured Hyperluminous Radio-Loud AGN at $z=6.853$ Associated with a Dusty Starburst in the 1.5 deg${}^2$ COSMOS Field
• XQR-30: Black Hole Masses and Accretion Rates of 42 z>6 Quasars
• The Pan-STARRS1 z>5.6 quasar survey II: Discovery of 55 Quasars at 5.6<z<6.5
• Formation of supermassive stars in the first star clusters
• Discovery of 24 radio-bright quasars at $4.9\le z\le 6.6$ using low-frequency radio observations
• Extreme mass ratio inspirals and tidal disruption events in nuclear clusters. I. Time dependent rates
• The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey: the radio view of the cosmic star formation history
• Radio and Far-IR Emission Associated with a Massive Star-forming Galaxy Candidate at z$\simeq$6.8: A Radio-Loud AGN in the Reionization Era?
• Intermediate Mass Black Hole Seeds from Cosmic String Loops
• High-redshift quasars at $z\ge 3$ -- I. Radio spectra
• The need for obscured supermassive black hole growth to explain quasar proximity zones in the epoch of reionization
• Resolving the Radio Emission from the Quasar P172+18 at $z=6.82$
• The radio spectral turnover of radio-loud quasars at $z>5$
• The 21-cm forest as a simultaneous probe of dark matter and cosmic heating history
• 21 cm Forest Constraints on Primordial Black Holes
• New Radio-Loud QSOs at the end of the Re-ionisation Epoch
• A blazar in the epoch of reionization
• SAGAN -- III: New insights into giant radio quasars
• X-ray emission from a rapidly accreting narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy at z=6.56
• Radio Jet Proper-motion Analysis of Nine Distant Quasars above Redshift 3.5
• The Black Hole Mass Function Across Cosmic Times II. Heavy Seeds and (Super)Massive Black Holes
• VLBI observations of VIK J2318-3113, a quasar at z = 6.44
• The central engine of the highest redshift blazar
• Constraining the Radio Properties of the $z$=6.44 QSO VIK J2318$-$3113
• Conditions for direct black hole seed collapse near a radio-loud quasar 1 Gyr after the Big Bang
• Massive black hole formation in Population III star clusters
• Radio Emission from the First Quasars at $z\sim$ 6-15
• A powerful (and likely young) radio-loud quasar at z=5.3
• The extremely X-ray luminous radio-loud quasar CFHQS J142952+544717 at $z=6.18$ under Chandra high-angular resolution lens
• Radio-loud fraction of z>6 quasars
• Rhapsody-C simulations -- Anisotropic thermal conduction, black hole physics, and the robustness of massive galaxy cluster scaling relations
• Probing quasar lifetimes with proximate $21$-centimetre absorption in the diffuse intergalactic medium at redshifts $z\ge 6$
• Discovery and characterization of 25 new quasars at 4.6 < z < 6.9 from wide-field multi-band surveys
• Multi-wavelength properties of three new radio-powerful $z\sim 5.6$ quasi-stellar objects discovered from RACS
• Black holes at cosmic dawn in the redshifted 21cm signal of HI
• The host galaxies of radio-loud quasars at z>5 with ALMA
• Prospects for Observing High-redshift Radio-loud Quasars in the SKA Era: Paving the Way for 21-cm Forest Observations
• No strong radio absorption detected in the low-frequency spectra of radio-loud quasars at z > 5.6
• Optical and near-infrared spectroscopy of quasars at $z>6.5$: public data release and composite spectrum
• When Spectral Modeling Meets Convolutional Networks: A Method for Discovering Reionization-era Lensed Quasars in Multi-band Imaging Data
• Formation of supermassive stars in the first stellar clusters: Dependence on the gas temperature
• Comprehensive view on a $z\sim 6.5$ radio-loud QSO: from the radio to the optical/NIR to the X-ray band
• Monster radio jet (>66 kpc) observed in quasar at z$\sim$5
• Gaia GraL: Gaia DR2 Gravitational Lens Systems. VII. XMM-Newton Observations of Lensed Quasars
• Analyzing the 21cm forest with Wavelet Scattering Transform: Insight into non-Gaussian features of the 21cm forest
• High-$z$ radio Quasars in RACS I: Selection, identification, and multi-wavelength properties
• Revealing faint compact radio jets at redshifts above 5 with very long baseline interferometry
• Prospects of a statistical detection of the 21-cm forest and its potential to constrain the thermal state of the neutral IGM during reionization
• Boosting the 21 cm forest signals by the clumpy substructures
• The GLEAMing of the first supermassive black holes: II. A new sample of high-redshift radio galaxy candidates
• A Search for Missing Radio Sources at $z\gtrsim 4$ Using Lyman Dropouts
• Prospects for measuring neutrino mass with 21-cm forest
• Cospatial 21 cm and metal-line absorbers in the epoch of reionization -- I : Incidence and observability
• Revisiting a Core-Jet Laboratory at High Redshift: Analysis of the Radio Jet in the Quasar PKS 2215+020 at z=3.572
• The Nature and Likely Redshift of GLEAM J0917-0012
• ALMA High-J CO Spectroscopy of High-Redshift Galaxies. II. 0.03" Resolution CO Kinematics Reveal Super-Eddington Accretion in a Dust-Obscured Galaxy at z=3.111
• Radio and Optical Properties of the blazar PKS 1614+051 at z=3.21
• Superluminal Motion and Jet Parameters in the High-Redshift Blazar J1429+5406
• NOCTURNE. I. The radio spectrum of narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies
• Analytical modeling of the one-dimensional power spectrum of 21-cm forest based on a halo model method
• HST WFC3/Grism Observations of the Candidate Ultra-High-Redshift Radio Galaxy GLEAM J0917-0012
• The Impact of Powerful Jets on the Far-infrared Emission of an Extreme Radio Quasar at z~6