Pushy Black Hole: The giant black holes that sit at the centers of most galaxies influence the way galaxies evolve in poorly understood ways.
Morganti
et al. (p. 1082 ; see the Perspective by McNamara ) have acquired high-resolution radio images of a galaxy with an actively accreting black hole from which a jet of relativistic particles emanates. The observations show that a cloud of neutral hydrogen gas is being driven outward, possibly limiting star formation and galaxy growth.
19 March 2018 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
We report the results of a pilot study of CO(4 − 3) emission line of three Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)-selected hyper-luminous, dust-obscured quasars (QSOs) with sensitive ALMA Band 3 observations. These obscured QSOs with Lbol > 1014L⊙ are among the most luminous objects in the universe. All three QSO hosts are clearly detected both in continuum and in CO(4 − 3) emission line. Based on CO(4 − 3) emission line detection, we derive the molecular gas masses (∼1010−11M⊙), suggesting that these QSOs are gas-rich systems. We find that the obscured QSOs in our sample follow the similar relation as unobscured QSOs at high redshifts. We also find the complex velocity structures of CO(4 − 3) emission line, which provide the possible evidence for a gas-rich merger in W0149+2350 and possible molecular outflow in W0220+0137 and W0410−0913. Massive molecular outflow can blow away the obscured interstellar medium and make obscured QSOs evolve toward the UV/optical bright, unobscured phase. Our result is consistent with the popular active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback scenario involving the co-evolution between the supermassive black holes and host galaxy.
29 November 2014 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
The solar analogues 16 Cyg A and B are excellent asteroseismic targets in the Kepler field of view and together with a red dwarf and a Jovian planet form an interesting system. For these more evolved Sun-like stars we cannot detect surface rotation with the current Kepler data but instead use the technique of asteroseimology to determine rotational properties of both 16 Cyg A and B. We find the rotation periods to be $23.8^{+1.5}_{-1.8}$ and $23.2^{+11.5}_{-3.2} \rm \, d$ , and the angles of inclination to be $56^{+6}_{-5} \, ^{\circ }$ and $36^{+17}_{-7} \, ^{\circ }$ , for A and B, respectively. Together with these results we use the published mass and age to suggest that, under the assumption of a solar-like rotation profile, 16 Cyg A could be used when calibrating gyrochronology relations. In addition, we discuss the known 16 Cyg B star–planet eccentricity and measured low obliquity which is consistent with Kozai cycling and tidal theory.
To investigate the radio properties of the recently found high-redshift population, we collected a sample of 919 little red dots (LRDs) from the literature. By cross-matching their co-ordinates with the radio catalogues based on the first- and second-epoch observations of the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS) and the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-centimeters (FIRST) survey, we found no radio counterparts coinciding with any of the LRDs. To uncover possible sub-milli-Jansky-level weak radio emission, we performed mean and median image stacking analyses of empty-field ‘quick look’ VLASS and FIRST image cutouts centred on the LRD positions. We found no radio emission above 3σ noise levels (∼11 and ∼18 μJy beam−1 for the VLASS and FIRST maps, respectively) in either of the stacked images for the LRD sample, while the noise levels of the single-epoch images are comparable to those found earlier in the stacking of high-redshift radio-quiet active galactic nuclei (AGNs). The non-detection of radio emission in LRDs suggests that these sources host weaker (or no) radio AGNs.
The gas content of galaxies is a key factor for their growth, starting from star formation and black hole accretion to galaxy mergers. Thus, characterizing its properties through observations of tracers like the CO emission line is of big importance in order to understand the bigger picture of galaxy evolution. We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of dust continuum, CO(5–4) and CO(8–7) line emission in the quasar–star-forming companion system SMM J04135+10277 (z = 2.84). Earlier low-J CO studies of this system found a huge molecular gas reservoir associated with the companion galaxy, while the quasar appeared gas-poor. Our CO observations revealed that the host galaxy of the quasar is also gas-rich, with an estimated molecular gas mass of $\sim (0.7{\!-\!}2.3)\times 10^{10}\, \rm M_{\odot}$. The CO line profiles of the companion galaxy are very broad ($\sim 1000\, \rm km\, s^{-1}$), and show signs of rotation of a compact, massive system. In contrast to previous far-infrared observations, we resolve the continuum emission and detect both sources, with the companion galaxy dominating the dust continuum and the quasar having a $\sim 25{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ contribution to the total dust emission. By fitting the infrared spectral energy distribution of the sources with mr-moose and empirical templates, the infrared luminosities of the quasar and the companion are in the range of $L_{\rm IR, QSO}\sim (2.1{\!-\!}9.6)\times 10^{12}\, \rm L_{\odot}$ and $L_{\rm IR, Comp.}\sim (2.4{\!-\!}24)\times 10^{12}\, \rm L_{\odot}$, while the estimated star formation rates are $\sim 210{\!-\!}960$ and $\sim 240{\!-\!}2400\, \rm M_{\odot }\, yr^{-1}$, respectively. Our results demonstrate that non-detection of low-J CO transition lines in similar sources does not necessarily imply the absence of massive molecular gas reservoir but that the excitation conditions favour the excitation of high-J transitions.