Enhanced x-ray emission from the most radio-powerful quasar in the universe's first billion years
Journal
THE ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Date Issued
2021
Author(s)
Connor, Thomas
•
Bañados, Eduardo
•
Stern, Daniel
•
Carilli, Chris
•
Fabian, Andrew
•
Momjian, Emmanuel
•
Rojas-Ruiz, Sofía
•
DECARLI, ROBERTO
•
Farina, Emanuele Paolo
•
Mazzucchelli, Chiara
•
Earnshaw, Hannah P.
Abstract
We present deep (265 ks) Chandra X-ray observations of PSO J352.4034-15.3373, a quasar at z=5.831 that, with a radio-to-optical flux ratio of R>1000, is one of the radio-loudest quasars in the early universe and is the only quasar with observed extended radio jets of kiloparsec scale at z6. Modeling the X-ray spectrum of the quasar with a power law, we find a best fit of G = - 1.99+0.28 0.29, leading to an X-ray luminosity of = ' - L 1.26+ 10 erg s- 2 10 0.33 0.45 45 1 - and an X-ray to UV brightness ratio of αOX=-1.45±-0.11. We identify a diffuse structure 50 kpc (∼8") to the NW of the quasar along the jet axis that corresponds to a 3σ enhancement in the angular density of emission and can be ruled out as a background fluctuation with a probability of P =0.9985. While with few detected photons the spectral fit of the structure is uncertain, we find that it has a luminosity of L2-10∼1044 erg s-1. These observations therefore potentially represent the most distant quasar jet yet seen in X-rays. We find no evidence for excess X-ray emission where the previously reported radio jets are seen (which have an overall linear extent of 0 28), and a bright X-ray point source located along the jet axis to the SE is revealed by optical and NIR imaging to not be associated with the quasar.
Volume
911
Issue
2
Start page
120
Issn Identifier
0004-637X
Rights
open.access