Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Luminous quasars at the redshift frontier z > 7 serve as stringent probes of super-massive black hole (SMBH) formation and they are thought to undergo much of their growth obscured by dense gas and dust in their host galaxies. Fully characterizing the symbiotic evolution of SMBHs and hosts requires rest-frame optical observations that span spatial scales from the broad-line region (BLR) to the interstellar and circumgalactic medium (ISM and CGM). The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) now provides the necessary spatially resolved spectroscopy to do so. However, the physical conditions that regulate the interplay between SMBHs and their hosts at the highest redshifts, especially the nature of early feedback phases, remain unclear. We present JWST/NIRSpec integral field unit (IFU) observations of J0313−1806 at z = 7.64, the most distant luminous quasar known. From the rest-frame optical spectrum of the unresolved quasar, we derived a black hole mass of MBH = (1.63 ± 0.10)×109 M⊙ based on Hβλ4861 (Hβ) and an Eddington rate of λ = L/LEdd = 0.80 ± 0.05, consistent with previous Mg IIλ2800-based estimates. J0313–1806 exhibits no detectable [O III] λλ4959, 5007 emission on nuclear scales (3σ upper limit equivalent width of [O III] λ5007 < 1.42 Å). Most remarkably, we did detect an ionized gas shell extending out to ∼1.8 kpc traced by Hβ emission that also lacks any significant [O III] λλ4959, 5007, with a 3σ upper limit on the [O III] λ5007 to Hβ flux ratio of log10(F([O III])/F(Hβ)) = −1.15. Through photoionization modeling, we demonstrate that the extended emission is consistent with a thin, clumpy outflowing shell where [O III] is collisionally de-excited by dense gas. We interpret this structure as a fossil remnant of a recent blowout phase, providing evidence for episodic feedback cycles in one of the earliest quasars. These findings suggest that dense ISM phases may play a crucial role in shaping the spectral properties of quasars across cosmic time.
Authors: Julien Wolf, Eduardo Bañados, Xiaohui Fan, Antoine Dumont, James E. Davies, David S. N. Rupke, Jinyi Yang, Weizhe Liu, Silvia Belladitta, Aaron Barth, Sarah Bosman, Tiago Costa, Frederick B. Davies, Roberto Decarli, Dominika Ďurovčíková, Anna-Christina Eilers, Hyunsung D. Jun, Yichen Liu, Federica Loiacono, Alessandro Lupi, Chiara Mazzucchelli, Maria Pudoka, Sofía Rojas-Ruiz, Jan-Torge Schindler, Wei Leong Tee, Benny Trakhtenbrot, Fabian Walter, Huanian Zhang
Institutions: Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, University of Arizona, University of Michigan, Heidelberg University, Newcastle University, Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio, National Institute for Astrophysics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Korea Institute for Advanced Study, Northwestern College - Iowa, Universidad Diego Portales, University of California, Los Angeles, Tel Aviv University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: Smithsonian Institution, U.S. Department of Energy, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Yale University, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Vanderbilt University, Ohio State University, University of Utah, University of Washington, Johns Hopkins University, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Notre Dame, University of Portsmouth, New Mexico State University, Space Telescope Science Institute, York University, University of Oxford, European Commission, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo, Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Office of Science, University of Colorado Boulder, Leibniz-Gemeinschaft, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Awards: G103270039, G1338664626, G2329447088, G2428672771, G256731684, Entstehung und frühe Entwicklung supermassereicher schwarzer Löcher in den ersten zwei Milliarden Jahren unseres Universums, G4066435496, EXC 2094: ORIGINS: Vom Ursprung des Universums bis zu den ersten Bausteinen des Lebens, A PANCHROMATIC VIEW OF RADIO-LOUD QUASARS IN THE EARLY UNIVERSE, G5568641063, G7883656575, CENTRO DE ASTROFISICA Y TECNOLOGIAS AFINES (CATA)
OpenAlex ID: W7133309759
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