Suppression of black-hole growth by strong outflows at redshifts 5.8-6.6
Journal
Date Issued
2022
Author(s)
•
•
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Arav, N.
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Bañados, E.
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Becker, G.
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Bosman, S. E. I.
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Carniani, S.
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•
•
Davies, R.
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Eilers, A. C.
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Farina, E. P.
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Ferrara, A.
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Maiolino, R.
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Mazzucchelli, C.
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Mesinger, A.
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Meyer, R. A.
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Onoue, M.
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•
Ryan-Weber, E.
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Schindler, J. -T.
•
Wang, F.
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Yang, J.
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Zhu, Y.
•
Abstract
Bright quasars, powered by accretion onto billion-solar-mass black holes, already existed at the epoch of reionization, when the Universe was 0.5-1 billion years old1. How these black holes formed in such a short time is the subject of debate, particularly as they lie above the correlation between black-hole mass and galaxy dynamical mass2,3 in the local Universe. What slowed down black-hole growth, leading towards the symbiotic growth observed in the local Universe, and when this process started, has hitherto not been known, although black-hole feedback is a likely driver4. Here we report optical and near-infrared observations of a sample of quasars at redshifts 5.8 ≲ z ≲ 6.6. About half of the quasar spectra reveal broad, blueshifted absorption line troughs, tracing black-hole-driven winds with extreme outflow velocities, up to 17% of the speed of light. The fraction of quasars with such outflow winds at z ≳ 5.8 is ≈2.4 times higher than at z ≈ 2-4. We infer that outflows at z ≳ 5.8 inject large amounts of energy into the interstellar medium and suppress nuclear gas accretion, slowing down black-hole growth. The outflow phase may then mark the beginning of substantial black-hole feedback. The red optical colours of outflow quasars at z ≳ 5.8 indeed suggest that these systems are dusty and may be caught during an initial quenching phase of obscured accretion5.
Volume
605
Issue
7909
Start page
244
Issn Identifier
0028-0836
Ads BibCode
2022Natur.605..244B
Rights
open.access
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