Warm Gas in the Vicinity of a Supermassive Black hole 13 Billion Years Ago
arXiv:2503.07964 · doi:10.1038/s41550-025-02505-x
Abstract
Quasars, powered by supermassive black holes (SMBH), are among the brightest objects in the universe. In the vicinity of an SMBH, X-ray photons from an active galactic nucleus (AGN) can heat the surrounding gas to several hundred kelvin. Here we report observations of dust continuum and CO J=13-12 and J=14-13 line emissions at a resolution of 130 parsecs in a luminous quasar at z=6. We successfully detected these high-J CO line emissions from warm gas in a compact disk component. The CO luminosity ratio in the central region of the compact disk is consistent with theoretical models in which X-ray heating dominates the CO excitation and the gas column density is as high as 10 cm. This demonstrates that high-resolution observations of high-J CO lines are promising ways to identify extremely dust-obscured quasars in the early universe.
arXiv commentPublished in Nature Astronomy on 7 March 2025. Authors' version, 26 pages, 15 figures
References in corpus (55)
- A Unified, Merger-Driven Model for the Origin of Starbursts, Quasars, the Cosmic X-Ray Background, Supermassive Black Holes and Galaxy Spheroids
- A luminous quasar at a redshift of z = 7.085
- CASA, the Common Astronomy Software Applications for Radio Astronomy
- A Dust-Obscured Massive Maximum-Starburst Galaxy at a Redshift of 6.34
- Molecular line emission in NGC1068 imaged with ALMA. I An AGN-driven outflow in the dense molecular gas
- On the effect of the Cosmic Microwave Background in high-redshift (sub-)millimeter observations
- Star Formation and Gas Kinematics of Quasar Host Galaxies at z~6: New insights from ALMA
- Dust emission from the most distant quasars
- The Final SDSS High-Redshift Quasar Sample of 52 Quasars at z>5.7
- Compton-thick Accretion in the local Universe
- Black hole accretion and star formation as drivers of gas excitation and chemistry in Mrk231
- Observations of Arp 220 using Herschel-SPIRE: An Unprecedented View of the Molecular Gas in an Extreme Star Formation Environment
- Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs). V. Quasar Luminosity Function and Contribution to Cosmic Reionization at z = 6
- Growing supermassive black holes in the late stages of galaxy mergers are heavily obscured
- UVMULTIFIT: A versatile tool for fitting astronomical radio interferometric data
- The Most Luminous Galaxies Discovered by WISE
- ALMA reveals the feeding of the Seyfert 1 nucleus in NGC 1566
- Fueling AGN II: Spatially Resolved Molecular Inflows and Outflows
- Evidence for CO shock excitation in NGC 6240 from Herschel SPIRE spectroscopy
- Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs). VI. Black Hole Mass Measurements of Six Quasars at 6.1<z<6.7
- Widespread QSO-driven outflows in the early Universe
- Imaging Atomic and Highly Excited Molecular Gas in a z=6.42 Quasar Host Galaxy: Copious Fuel for an Eddington-Limited Starburst at the End of Cosmic Reionization
- 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
- The X-ray properties of quasars: no evident evolution of accretion physics in the first Gyr of the Universe
- 400 pc Imaging of a Massive Quasar Host Galaxy at a Redshift of 6.6
- Submillimeter ALMA Observations of the Dense Gas in the Low-Luminosity Type-1 Active Nucleus of NGC 1097
- Herschel observations of water vapour in Markarian 231
- Dual constraints with ALMA: new [O III] 88 m and dust-continuum observations reveal the ISM conditions of luminous LBGs at
- Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs). XIII. Large-scale Feedback and Star Formation in a Low-Luminosity Quasar at z = 7.07 on the Local Black Hole to Host Mass Relation
- The Chandra COSMOS Legacy Survey: Compton Thick AGN at high redshift
- High-J CO SLEDs in nearby infrared bright galaxies observed by Herschel-PACS
- Spatially Resolved Interstellar Medium and Highly-Excited Dense Molecular Gas in the Most Luminous Quasar at z=6.327
- First CO(17-16) emission line detected in a z > 6 quasar
- QSO obscuration at high redshift (): Predictions from the BlueTides simulation
- Physical properties of dense molecular gas in centres of Seyfert galaxies
- ALMA Observations of Warm Dense Gas in NGC 1614 --- Breaking of Star Formation Law in the Central kpc
- An ALMA multi-line survey of the ISM in two quasar host-companion galaxy pairs at
- Far-Infrared Properties of the Bright, Gravitationally Lensed Quasar J0439+1634 at z=6.5
- ALMA 200 pc imaging of a z~7 quasar reveals a compact, disk-like host galaxy
- Star Formation and ISM Properties in Host Galaxies of Three Far-infrared Luminous Quasars at
- Impact of X-rays on CO emission from high-z galaxies
- BR1202-0725: An Extreme Multiple Merger at z = 4.7
- ALMA Observations of Warm Molecular Gas and Cold Dust in NGC 34
- Probing the full CO spectral line energy distribution (SLED) in the nuclear region of a quasar-starburst system at
- Molecular Line Observations in Two Dusty Star-Forming Galaxies at z = 6.9
- Spatially resolved dust properties and quasar-galaxy decomposition of a HyLIRG at z = 4.4
- CO excitation in the Seyfert galaxy NGC 34: stars, shock or AGN driven?
- AGN impact on the molecular gas in galactic centers as probed by CO lines
- The interstellar medium distribution, gas kinematics, and system dynamics of the far-infrared luminous quasar SDSS J2310+1855 at
- The black hole and host galaxy growth in an isolated QSO observed with ALMA
- AGN-driven Cold Gas Outflow of NGC 1068 Characterized by Dissociation-Sensitive Molecules
- Dense and warm neutral gas in BR1202-0725 at z = 4.7 as traced by the [O I] 145 um line
- ALMA 300 pc resolution imaging of a z=6.79 quasar: no evidence for supermassive black hole influence on the [C II] kinematics
- Dynamical signature of a stellar bulge in a quasar host galaxy at
- Central concentration of warm and dense molecular gas in a strongly lensed submillimeter galaxy at z=6