Other
Scientific paper
Jan 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21535904s&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #215, #359.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.546
Other
Scientific paper
High redshift quasars are thought to represent an early stage of galaxy evolution, in which major mergers trigger violent star formation and the rapid growth of a central super massive black hole. However, the timing of the quasar phase during a galaxy's evolution is less well understood: quasar feedback could quench or trigger star formation in host galaxies, or have little effect at all. The gas-phase metal abundance works as a fossil record for the star formation in the host galaxy before the visible quasar epoch and has been probed in the near-quasar environment out to high redshifts, consistently showing metallicities near or above the solar value. This result suggests that there is always significant star formation before the black hole becomes a luminous quasar. We investigate this phenomenon further at redshifts 3 to 4 by making extensive use of narrow absorption lines in quasar spectra to probe the metallicities in a range of near-quasar environments, including quasar outflows and host galaxy halos. We detect a wide range of abundances, up to several times solar. The narrow absorption lines also contain other unique information about the gaseous environments, including velocities, column densities, locations, etc., which we use to directly probe one form of quasar outflow/feedback, blowouts from violent star formation and/or recent merger remnants. In addition, we compare the metallicities in high-redshift quasars to the ongoing star formation rates (SFR) in their host galaxies using measurements of broad emission lines and far-infrared luminosities. This study can constrain the late stages of starburst-quasar evolution and the possible effects of quasar feedback on star formation. We detect high metallicities throughout the sample; up to several times solar, but no trend in metallicity versus SFR, reconfirming that star formation must have occurred well before the visible quasar.
Hamann Fred
Simon Leah
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