Quasars are the most luminous non-transient objects known, and as such, they
enable unparalleled studies of the universe at the earliest cosmic epochs.
However, despite extensive efforts from the astronomical community, the quasar
ULASJ1120+0641 at z=7.09 (hereafter J1120+0641) has remained as the only one
known at z>7 for more than half a decade. Here we report observations of the
quasar ULAS J134208.10+092838.61 (hereafter J1342+0928) at a redshift of
z=7.54. This quasar has a bolometric luminosity of 4e13 Lsun and a black hole
mass of 8e8 Msun. The existence of this supermassive black hole when the
universe was only 690 Myr old, i.e., just 5% its current age, reinforces early
black hole growth models that allow black holes with initial masses >1e4 Msun
or episodic hyper-Eddington accretion. We see strong evidence of the quasar's
Ly-alpha emission line being absorbed by a Gunn-Peterson damping wing from the
intergalactic medium, as would be expected if the intergalactic hydrogen
surrounding J1342+0928 is significantly neutral. We derive a significant
neutral fraction, although the exact value depends on the modeling. However,
even in our most conservative analysis we find xHI>0.33 (xHI>0.11) at 68% (95%)
probability, indicating that we are probing well within the reionization epoch.
Beschreibung
[1712.01860] An 800 million solar mass black hole in a significantly neutral universe at redshift 7.5
%0 Generic
%1 banados2017million
%A Bañados, E.
%A Venemans, B. P.
%A Mazzucchelli, C.
%A Farina, E. P.
%A Walter, F.
%A Wang, F.
%A Decarli, R.
%A Stern, D.
%A Fan, X.
%A Davies, F.
%A Hennawi, J. F.
%A Simcoe, R.
%A Turner, M. L.
%A Rix, H-W.
%A Yang, J.
%A Kelson, D. D.
%A Rudie, G.
%A Winters, J. M.
%D 2017
%K high quasars redshift
%R 10.1038/nature25180
%T An 800 million solar mass black hole in a significantly neutral universe
at redshift 7.5
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/1712.01860
%X Quasars are the most luminous non-transient objects known, and as such, they
enable unparalleled studies of the universe at the earliest cosmic epochs.
However, despite extensive efforts from the astronomical community, the quasar
ULASJ1120+0641 at z=7.09 (hereafter J1120+0641) has remained as the only one
known at z>7 for more than half a decade. Here we report observations of the
quasar ULAS J134208.10+092838.61 (hereafter J1342+0928) at a redshift of
z=7.54. This quasar has a bolometric luminosity of 4e13 Lsun and a black hole
mass of 8e8 Msun. The existence of this supermassive black hole when the
universe was only 690 Myr old, i.e., just 5% its current age, reinforces early
black hole growth models that allow black holes with initial masses >1e4 Msun
or episodic hyper-Eddington accretion. We see strong evidence of the quasar's
Ly-alpha emission line being absorbed by a Gunn-Peterson damping wing from the
intergalactic medium, as would be expected if the intergalactic hydrogen
surrounding J1342+0928 is significantly neutral. We derive a significant
neutral fraction, although the exact value depends on the modeling. However,
even in our most conservative analysis we find xHI>0.33 (xHI>0.11) at 68% (95%)
probability, indicating that we are probing well within the reionization epoch.
@misc{banados2017million,
abstract = {Quasars are the most luminous non-transient objects known, and as such, they
enable unparalleled studies of the universe at the earliest cosmic epochs.
However, despite extensive efforts from the astronomical community, the quasar
ULASJ1120+0641 at z=7.09 (hereafter J1120+0641) has remained as the only one
known at z>7 for more than half a decade. Here we report observations of the
quasar ULAS J134208.10+092838.61 (hereafter J1342+0928) at a redshift of
z=7.54. This quasar has a bolometric luminosity of 4e13 Lsun and a black hole
mass of 8e8 Msun. The existence of this supermassive black hole when the
universe was only 690 Myr old, i.e., just 5% its current age, reinforces early
black hole growth models that allow black holes with initial masses >1e4 Msun
or episodic hyper-Eddington accretion. We see strong evidence of the quasar's
Ly-alpha emission line being absorbed by a Gunn-Peterson damping wing from the
intergalactic medium, as would be expected if the intergalactic hydrogen
surrounding J1342+0928 is significantly neutral. We derive a significant
neutral fraction, although the exact value depends on the modeling. However,
even in our most conservative analysis we find xHI>0.33 (xHI>0.11) at 68% (95%)
probability, indicating that we are probing well within the reionization epoch.},
added-at = {2017-12-07T10:00:42.000+0100},
author = {Bañados, E. and Venemans, B. P. and Mazzucchelli, C. and Farina, E. P. and Walter, F. and Wang, F. and Decarli, R. and Stern, D. and Fan, X. and Davies, F. and Hennawi, J. F. and Simcoe, R. and Turner, M. L. and Rix, H-W. and Yang, J. and Kelson, D. D. and Rudie, G. and Winters, J. M.},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/22cec63b799f4ffa7c4ada237ff7225c6/miki},
description = {[1712.01860] An 800 million solar mass black hole in a significantly neutral universe at redshift 7.5},
doi = {10.1038/nature25180},
interhash = {9b688cbc7569687499b5ae46297cd212},
intrahash = {2cec63b799f4ffa7c4ada237ff7225c6},
keywords = {high quasars redshift},
note = {cite arxiv:1712.01860Comment: Published online in Nature on 06 December 2017},
timestamp = {2017-12-07T10:00:42.000+0100},
title = {An 800 million solar mass black hole in a significantly neutral universe
at redshift 7.5},
url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1712.01860},
year = 2017
}