Kavli Affiliate: Luis C. Ho
| First 5 Authors: Yongda Zhu, Yongda Zhu, , ,
| Summary:
Accreting supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are thought to influence the
evolution of their host galaxies through multi-phase feedback driven by
powerful nuclear outflows. Although this mechanism is central to theoretical
models of SMBH–galaxy co-evolution across cosmic time, direct observational
evidence connecting nuclear winds to large-scale cold gas outflows remains
limited, especially in the early universe. Here we report statistical evidence
for such a connection in a sample of luminous quasars at $z sim 5.5$. We
compare stacked [C,sc ii] 158 $mu$m emission profiles from ALMA
observations, which trace galactic-scale neutral gas, for quasars with and
without broad absorption lines (BALs) that indicate powerful nuclear winds on
sub-kiloparsec scales. The BAL quasar stack exhibits a significant (S/N = 4.45)
blueshifted broad component in the [C,sc ii] line profile, with a velocity
offset of $Delta v_rm b = -2.1 times 10^2,mathrmkm,s^-1$ and a full
width at half maximum of $1.18 times 10^3,mathrmkm,s^-1$, whereas the
non-BAL stack shows no such feature. We estimate that a few percent to
one-quarter of the nuclear wind energy may be transferred to cold neutral gas
on kiloparsec scales. These results suggest that BAL winds can couple to the
host galaxy’s interstellar medium, providing empirical support for models of
multi-phase AGN feedback. This mechanism may also contribute to the observed
diversity in $M_rm BH/M_*$ among luminous quasars recently identified by
JWST.
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