ALMA observations of dual quasars: evidence of rich and diverse molecular gas environments

ABSTRACT We present a study of the molecular gas in five closely separated ($R_{\perp }\lt 20$ kpc) dual quasars ($L_{\rm bol}\gtrsim 10^{44}~\mathrm{erg~s}^{-1}$) at redshifts $0.4\lt z\lt 0.8$ with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. The dual quasar phase represents a distinctive stage during the interaction between two galaxies for investigating quasar fueling and feedback effects on the gas reservoir. The dual quasars were selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Subaru/Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Programme, with confirmatory spectroscopic validation. Based on the detection of the CO J = 2–1 emission line with Band 4, we derive key properties including CO luminosities, line widths, and molecular gas masses for these systems. Eight quasars, of the 10 in pairs, have line detections exceeding $5\sigma$ that result in molecular gas masses ($M_{\text{molgas}}$) between $10^{9.7-10.7}~\mathrm{{M}_{\odot }}$. The molecular gas-to-stellar mass ratios ($\mu _{\text{molgas}}$) of these dual quasars are typically between 18–50 per cent, which are similar to the single quasars in mergers and inactive star-forming galaxies. The results indicate no clear evidence of molecular gas depletion attributed to dual quasar activities on global scale. However, intriguing gas features in certain systems appear to show possible signatures of active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback effect.

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Journal
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Published
2025-03-13
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf416
Primary Topic
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
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article
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article

ALMA observations of dual quasars: evidence of rich and diverse molecular gas environments

Seiji Fujimoto, Zhaoxuan Liu, Toshihiro Kawaguchi, Masafusa Onoue et al.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
article

ALMA observations of dual quasars: evidence of rich and diverse molecular gas environments

Seiji Fujimoto, Zhaoxuan Liu, Toshihiro Kawaguchi, Masafusa Onoue, M. Banerji, J. D. Silverman, Tilman Hartwig, Shenli Tang, K. Jahnkę, Masatoshi Imanishi, Yoshihiro Ueda, Andy D. Goulding, Connor Bottrell, Malte Schramm, Tomoko L. Suzuki
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT We present a study of the molecular gas in five closely separated ($R_{\perp }\lt 20$ kpc) dual quasars ($L_{\rm bol}\gtrsim 10^{44}~\mathrm{erg~s}^{-1}$) at redshifts $0.4\lt z\lt 0.8$ with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. The dual quasar phase represents a distinctive stage during the interaction between two galaxies for investigating quasar fueling and feedback effects on the gas reservoir. The dual quasars were selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Subaru/Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Programme, with confirmatory spectroscopic validation. Based on the detection of the CO J = 2–1 emission line with Band 4, we derive key properties including CO luminosities, line widths, and molecular gas masses for these systems. Eight quasars, of the 10 in pairs, have line detections exceeding $5\sigma$ that result in molecular gas masses ($M_{\text{molgas}}$) between $10^{9.7-10.7}~\mathrm{{M}_{\odot }}$. The molecular gas-to-stellar mass ratios ($\mu _{\text{molgas}}$) of these dual quasars are typically between 18–50 per cent, which are similar to the single quasars in mergers and inactive star-forming galaxies. The results indicate no clear evidence of molecular gas depletion attributed to dual quasar activities on global scale. However, intriguing gas features in certain systems appear to show possible signatures of active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback effect.

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical SocietyVol. 538(4)
Johns Hopkins University (US), Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (JP), The University of Western Australia (AU), Princeton University (US), Peking University (CN), Kyoto University (JP), Kavli Institute for Theoretical Sciences (CN), Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (DE), Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (JP), German Environment Agency (DE), Institute for Physics (US), National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (JP), International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (AU), University of Southampton (GB), Onomichi City University (JP), University of Baltimore (US), Saitama University (JP), The University of Tokyo (JP), The University of Texas at Austin (US)
Openalex Percentile: Top 96%
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
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