A population of young starbursting QSOs at high redshift?

Details A population of young starbursting QSOs at high redshift? A population of young starbursting QSOs at high redshift?

Jun 2005

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005sptz.prop20493m&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #20493

Physics

Scientific paper

In low redshift QSOs the Narrow Line Region (NLR) tends to disappear at high luminosities. This effect has been interpreted as a consequence of the NLR size extending beyond the size of the host galaxy. At high redshift, many luminous QSOs are also characterized by the total absence of the NLR, in keeping with the findings at low redshift. However, we have also found a large population of QSOs, emerging at z>2, characterized by an extremely strong [OIII]5007 Narrow Line. The inferred densities of the Narrow Line Region in these peculiar QSOs are orders of magnitude higher than in "classical" NLRs of low redshift AGNs. A possible explanation is that the hosts of QSOs with strong [OIII] emission are experiencing powerful starburst activity and that the large amount of dense gas associated with the starburst enhances the [OIII] emissivity. If this interpretation is correct, then high-z QSOs with strong [OIII] are tracing episodes of vigorous star formation associated to the Black Hole accretion. We propose to test this scenario by means of IRS low resolution spectra of a sample of QSOs z>2 with strong [OIII] emission. We expect that such mid-IR spectra should reveal PAH features tracing the putative starburst activity (at variance with low-z and [OIII]-weak QSOs), and also enhanced mid-IR emission due to a larger covering factor of the dust associated with the dense clouds emitting [OIII]. We also include a control smaple of QSOs with weak/absent [OIII], at the same redshifts. Due to the overwhelming AGN light dominating at essentially all wavelengths, PAH emission features is probably the only tool to unambiguosly test the stabursting scenario for the [OIII]-luminous QSOs at z>2.

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