(SHERRY) JCMT-SCUBA2 High Redshift Bright Quasar Survey -- II: the environment of z~6 quasars in sub-millimeter band

Abstract

The formation of the first supermassive black holes is expected to have occurred in some most pronounced matter and galaxy overdensities in the early universe. We have conducted a sub-mm wavelength continuum survey of 54 $z\sim 6$ quasars using the Submillimeter Common-User Bolometre Array-2 (SCUBA2) on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) to study the environments around $z\sim 6$ quasars. We identified 170 submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) with above 3.5$\ddot{I}ƒ$ detections at 450 or 850 \um\, maps. Their FIR luminosities are 2.2 - 6.4 $\times$ 10${}^{12}{L}_{\odot }$, and star formation rates are $\sim$ 400 - 1200 M${}_{\odot }$ yr${}^{-1}$. We also calculated the SMGs differential and cumulative number counts in a combined area of $\sim$ 620 arcmin${}^2$. To a $4\ddot{I}ƒ$ detection (at $\sim$ 5.5 mJy), SMGs overdensity is $0.68_{-0.19}^{+0.21}$($\pm 0.19$), exceeding the blank field source counts by a factor of 1.68. We find that 13/54 quasars show overdensities (at $\sim$ 5.5 mJy) of $\hat{I}{´}_{SMG}\sim$ 1.5 - 5.4. The combined area of these 13 quasars exceeds the blank field counts with the overdensity to 5.5 mJy of \dsmg $\sim$ $2.46_{-0.55}^{+0.64}$($\pm 0.25$) in the regions of $\sim$ 150 arcmin${}^2$. However, the excess is insignificant on the bright end (e.g., 7.5 mJy). We also compare results with previous environmental studies of Lyman alpha emitters (LAEs) and Lyman-Break Galaxies (LBGs) on a similar scale. Our survey presents the first systematic study of the environment of quasars at $z\sim 6$. The newly discovered SMGs provide essential candidates for follow-up spectroscopic observations to test whether they reside in the same large-scale structures as the quasars and search for protoclusters at an early epoch.

12 pages, 8 figures and 2 tables, published in ApJ. The author list has been revised to align with the published version. We apologize for any confusion caused and thank our collaborators for their understanding