Neutral outflows in high-z QSOs

Abstract

OH+ absorption is a powerful tracer of inflowing and outflowing gas in the predominantly atomic diffuse and turbulent halo surrounding galaxies. In this letter, we present observations of OH+(1_1-1_0), CO(9-8) and the underlying dust continuum in 5 strongly lensed z~2-4 QSOs, using ALMA to detect outflowing neutral gas. Blue-shifted OH+ absorption is detected in 3/5 QSOs and tentatively detected in a 4th. Absorption at systemic velocities is also detected in one. OH+ emission is observed in 3/5 QSOs at systemic velocities and CO(9-8) is detected in all 5 QSOs at high S/N, providing information on the dense molecular gas within the host galaxy. We compare our sample to high-z far-infrared (FIR) luminous star-forming and active galaxies from the literature. We find no difference in OH+ absorption line properties between active and star-forming galaxies with both samples following the same optical depth-dust temperature relation, suggesting that these observables are driven by the same mechanism in both samples. Similarly, star-forming and active galaxies both follow the same OH+ emission-FIR relation. Obscured QSOs display broader (>800 km/s) emission than the unobscured QSOs and all but one of the high-z star-forming galaxies, likely caused by the warm molecular gas reservoir obscuring the accreting nucleus. Broader CO(9-8) emission (>500 km/s) is found in obscured versus unobscured QSOs, but overall cover a similar range in line widths as the star-forming galaxies and follow the CO(9-8)-FIR luminosity relation found in low-z galaxies. We find that outflows traced by OH+ are only detected in extreme star-forming galaxies (broad CO emission) and in both types of QSOs, which, in turn, display no red-shifted absorption. This suggests that diffuse neutral outflows in galaxy halos may be associated with the most energetic evolutionary phases leading up to and following the obscured QSO phase.

arXiv comment8 pages, 3 figures, 4 tables, accepted to A&A letters

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