Work

Infrared emission from z ∼ 6.5 quasar host galaxies: a direct estimate of dust physical properties

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Quasars at the dawn of cosmic time ( z > 6) are fundamental probes for investigating the early coevolution of supermassive black holes and their host galaxy. Nevertheless, their infrared spectral energy distribution currently remains poorly constrained because the photometric coverage that probes the far-infrared wavelength range in which the dust modified blackbody is expected to peak (∼80 μm) is limited. We studied the high-frequency dust emission via a dedicated ALMA Band 8 (∼400 GHz) campaign targeting 11 quasar host galaxies at 6 < z < 7. Combined with archival observations in other ALMA bands, this program enables a detailed characterization of their infrared emission, which allowed us to derive dust masses ( M d ), dust emissivity indexes ( β ), dust temperatures ( T d ), infrared luminosities ( L IR ), and associated star formation rates (SFRs). Our analysis confirmed that dust temperature is higher in this sample (34−65 K) than in local main-sequence galaxies, and this finding can be linked to the increased star formation efficiency we derived, as also suggested by the [CII] 158 μm deficit. Most remarkably, we note that the average value of T d of this sample does not differ from the one that is observed in luminous, ultraluminous and hyperluminous infrared galaxies at different redshifts that show no signs of hosting a quasar. Finally, our findings suggest that the presence of a bright AGN does not significantly bias the derived infrared properties, although further high frequency observations with a high spatial resolution might reveal more subtle effects on subkiloparsec scales.

Source: Astronomy and Astrophysics

DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202556812