2023/07/05 by Salak, Dragan, Hashimoto, Takuya, Inoue, Akio K. +8
#Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #FOS: Physical sciences
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2307.02104
Molecular outflows are expected to play a key role in galaxy evolution at high redshift. To study the impact of outflows on star formation at the epoch of reionization, we performed sensitive ALMA observations of OH 119 μm toward J2054-0005, a luminous quasar at z=6.04. The OH line is detected and exhibits a P-Cygni profile that can be fitted with a broad blue-shifted absorption component, providing unambiguous evidence of an outflow, and an emission component at near-systemic velocity. The mean and terminal outflow velocities are estimated to be vout≈670~km~s-1 and 1500~km~s-1, respectively, making the molecular outflow in this quasar one of the fastest at the epoch of reionization. The OH line is marginally spatially resolved for the first time in a quasar at z>6, revealing that the outflow extends over the central 2 kpc region. The mass outflow rate is comparable to the star formation rate (Mout/SFR∼2), indicating rapid (∼107~yr) quenching of star formation. The mass outflow rate in a sample star-forming galaxies and quasars at 4