TY - JOUR
T1 - Inspiraling halo accretion mapped in Ly α emission around a z ~ 3 quasar
AU - Battaia, Fabrizio Arrigoni
AU - Prochaska, J. Xavier
AU - Hennawi, Joseph F.
AU - Obreja, Aura
AU - Buck, Tobias
AU - Cantalupo, Sebastiano
AU - Dutton, Aaron A.
AU - Macciò, Andrea V.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 The Authors.
PY - 2018/1
Y1 - 2018/1
N2 - In an effort to search for Ly α emission from circum- and intergalactic gas on scales of hundreds of kpc around z ~ 3 quasars, and thus characterize the physical properties of the gas in emission, we have initiated an extensive fast survey with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE): Quasar Snapshot Observations withMUse: Search for Extended Ultraviolet eMission (QSO MUSEUM). In this work, we report the discovery of an enormous Ly α nebula (ELAN) around the quasar SDSS J102009.99+104002.7 at z = 3.164, which we followedup with deeper MUSE observations. This ELAN spans ~297 projected kpc, has an average Ly α surface brightness SBLy α ~ 6.04 × 10-18 erg s-1 cm-2 arcsec-2(within the 2σ isophote) and is associated with an additional four previously unknown embedded sources: two Ly α emitters and two faint active galactic nuclei (one type-1 and one type-2 quasar). By mapping at high significance, the line-of-sight velocity in the entirety of the observed structure, we unveiled a large-scale coherent rotation-like pattern spanning ~300 km s-1 with a velocity dispersion of < 270 km s-1, which we interpret as a signature of the inspiraling accretion of substructures within the quasar's host halo. Future multiwavelength data will complement our MUSE observations and are definitely needed to fully characterize such a complex system. None the less, our observations reveal the potential of newsensitive integral-field spectrographs to characterize the dynamical state of diffuse gas on large scales in the young Universe, and thereby witness the assembly of galaxies.
AB - In an effort to search for Ly α emission from circum- and intergalactic gas on scales of hundreds of kpc around z ~ 3 quasars, and thus characterize the physical properties of the gas in emission, we have initiated an extensive fast survey with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE): Quasar Snapshot Observations withMUse: Search for Extended Ultraviolet eMission (QSO MUSEUM). In this work, we report the discovery of an enormous Ly α nebula (ELAN) around the quasar SDSS J102009.99+104002.7 at z = 3.164, which we followedup with deeper MUSE observations. This ELAN spans ~297 projected kpc, has an average Ly α surface brightness SBLy α ~ 6.04 × 10-18 erg s-1 cm-2 arcsec-2(within the 2σ isophote) and is associated with an additional four previously unknown embedded sources: two Ly α emitters and two faint active galactic nuclei (one type-1 and one type-2 quasar). By mapping at high significance, the line-of-sight velocity in the entirety of the observed structure, we unveiled a large-scale coherent rotation-like pattern spanning ~300 km s-1 with a velocity dispersion of < 270 km s-1, which we interpret as a signature of the inspiraling accretion of substructures within the quasar's host halo. Future multiwavelength data will complement our MUSE observations and are definitely needed to fully characterize such a complex system. None the less, our observations reveal the potential of newsensitive integral-field spectrographs to characterize the dynamical state of diffuse gas on large scales in the young Universe, and thereby witness the assembly of galaxies.
KW - Cosmology: observations
KW - Galaxies: haloes
KW - Galaxies: high-redshift
KW - Intergalactic medium
KW - Quasars: emission lines
KW - Quasars: general
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U2 - 10.1093/mnras/stx2465
DO - 10.1093/mnras/stx2465
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85042388058
SN - 0035-8711
VL - 473
SP - 3907
EP - 3940
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
IS - 3
ER -