Galaxy formation and evolution

Abstract:

We present the discovery of a large extended radio jet associated with the extremely radio-loud quasar J1601+3102 at z ∼​​​​​ 5 from subarcsecond resolution imaging at 144 MHz with the International LOFAR Telescope. These large radio lobes have been argued to remain elusive at z > 4 due to energy losses in the synchrotron emitting plasma as a result of scattering of the strong cosmic microwave background at these high redshifts. Nonetheless, the 0 .′′ 3 resolution radio image of J1601+3102 reveals a northern and a southern radio lobe located at 9 and 57 kpc from the optical quasar, respectively. The measured jet size of 66 kpc makes J1601+3102 the largest extended radio jet at z > 4 to date. However, it is expected to have an even larger physical size in reality due to projection effects brought about by the viewing angle. Furthermore, we observe the rest-frame UV spectrum of J1601+3102 with Gemini/GNIRS to examine its black hole properties, which results in a mass of 4.5 × 108 M⊙ with an Eddington luminosity ratio of 0.45. The black hole mass is relatively low compared to the known high-z quasar population, which suggests that a high black hole mass is not strictly necessary to generate a powerful jet. This discovery of the first ∼​​​​​100 kpc radio jet at z > 4 shows that these objects exist despite energy losses from inverse Compton scattering and can put invaluable constraints on the formation of the first radio-loud sources in the early Universe.

Abstract:

We present the active galactic nuclei (AGN) catalog from the fourth data release (HDR4) of the Hobby–Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment Survey (HETDEX). HETDEX is an untargeted spectroscopic survey. HDR4 contains 345,874 Integral Field Unit observations from 2017 January to 2023 August covering an effective area of 62.9 deg2. With no imaging preselection, our spectroscopic confirmed AGN sample includes low-luminosity AGN, narrow-line AGN, and/or red AGN down to g ∼ 25. This catalog has 15,940 AGN across the redshifts of z = 0.1 ∼ 4.6, giving a raw AGN number density of 253.4 deg−2. Among them, 10,499 (66%) have redshifts either confirmed by line pairs or matched to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Catalog. For the remaining 5441 AGN, 2083 are single broad-line AGN candidates, while the remaining 3358 are single intermediate broad-line (full width at half-maximum, FWHM ∼1200 km s−1) AGN candidates. A total of 4060 (39%) of the 10,499 redshift-confirmed AGN have emission-line regions 3σ more extended than the image quality, which could be strong outflows blowing into the outskirts of the host galaxies or ionized intergalactic medium.

Abstract:

We present a 19.7–214 μm imaging atlas of local (4–181 Mpc; median 43 Mpc) active galactic nuclei (AGN) observed with FORCAST and HAWC+ on board the SOFIA telescope with angular resolutions ~3″–20″. This atlas comprises 22 Seyferts (17 Type 2 and five Type 1) with a total of 69 images, 41 of which have not been previously published. The AGN span a range of luminosities of log10(Lbol[ergs-1])=[42, 46] with a median of log10(Lbol[ergs−1])=44.1±1.0 . We provide the total fluxes of our sample using aperture photometry for point-source objects and a 2D Gaussian fitting for objects with extended host galaxy emission, which was used to estimate the unresolved nuclear component. Most galaxies in our sample are pointlike sources; however, four sources (Centaurus A, Circinus, NGC 1068, and NGC 4388) show extended emission in all wavelengths. The 30–40 μm extended emission in NGC 4388 is coincident with the narrow-line region at PA ~ 50°, while the dusty extension at longer wavelengths arises from the host galaxy at PA ~ 90°. Our new observations allow us to construct the best-sampled parsec-scales (spectral energy distributions, SEDs) available between 30 and 500 μm for a sample of nearby AGN. We estimate that the average peak wavelength of the nuclear SEDs is ~40 μm in νFν, which we associate with an unresolved extended dusty region heated by the AGN.