THE GALAXY ENVIRONMENT OF A QSO AT z {approx} 5.7
- Max Planck Institut fuer Astronomie, Koenigstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg (Germany)
- Max Planck Institut fuer Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse, D-68165 Garching (Germany)
- Department of Astronomy, University of Texas at Austin, 2515 Speedway, Stop C1400, Austin, TX 78712-1205 (United States)
- Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa 277-8582 (Japan)
High-redshift quasars are believed to reside in massive halos in the early universe and should therefore be located in fields with overdensities of galaxies, which are thought to evolve into galaxy clusters seen in the local universe. However, despite many efforts, the relationship between galaxy overdensities and z {approx} 6 quasars is ambiguous. This can possibly be attributed to the difficulty of finding galaxies with accurate redshifts in the vicinity of z {approx} 6 quasars. So far, overdensity searches around z {approx} 6 quasars have been based on studies of Lyman break galaxies (LBGs), which probe a redshift range of {Delta}z Almost-Equal-To 1. This range is large enough to select galaxies that may not be physically related to the quasar. We use deep narrow- and broadband imaging to study the environment of the z = 5.72 quasar ULAS J0203+0012. The redshift range probed by our narrow-band selection of Lyman alpha emitters (LAEs) is {Delta}z Almost-Equal-To 0.1, which is significantly narrower than the LBG searches. This is the first time that LAEs were searched for near a z {approx} 6 quasar, in an effort to provide clues about the environments of quasars at the end of the epoch of reionization. We find no enhancement of LAEs in the surroundings of ULAS J0203+0012 in comparison with blank fields. We explore different explanations and interpretations for this non-detection of a galaxy overdensity, including that (1) the strong ionization from the quasar may prevent galaxy formation in its immediate vicinity and (2) high-redshift quasars may not reside in the center of the most massive dark matter halos.
- OSTI ID:
- 22130948
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 773, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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