Probing Dark Matter Halos of High-redshift Quasars via Wide-field Clustering
- 1Huazhong University of Science and Technology
- 2Hubei Fundamental Research Center for Physics
Abstract
High-redshift quasars are powerful tracers of both astrophysical processes and large-scale structure in the early Universe. Using a sample of 1242 spectroscopically confirmed quasars and 827 highly reliable photometric quasar candidates selected with a machine learning framework, all at 4.7 ≤ z < 6.3 (excluding 5.4 < z < 5.6) and with a median luminosity of M ₁₄₅₀ ∼ −25.5, we investigate the large-scale environments of quasars near the end of cosmic reionization. We measure the projected autocorrelation function of the quasar population and derive bias parameters of b = 22.1 1 − 2.19 + 2.17 and 28.5 5 − 5.75 + 5.76 for the redshift intervals 4.7 ≤ z < 5.4 and 5.6 ≤ z < 6.3, respectively. These correspond to characteristic dark matter halo masses of log ( M h / M ⊙ ) = 12.6 6 − 0.11 + 0.10 and 12.6 2 − 0.21 + 0.21 , respectively. We further estimate quasar duty cycles of 0.01 1 − 0.007 + 0.017 and 0.01 2 − 0.011 + 0.104 for the two redshift bins. These measurements are consistent with previous studies and the observed f duty – M halo relation, indicating that only a small fraction of suitable dark matter halos host optically luminous quasars at any given time. The inferred low duty cycles suggest that a substantial fraction of supermassive black hole (SMBH) growth may occur during obscured accretion phases. Our results provide new constraints on the connection between high-redshift quasars and their host dark matter halos, offering valuable insights into the coevolution of SMBHs and large-scale structure in the early Universe.
Related
- Discovering Substellar Dark Matter Halos with Astrometric Weak Lensing of Multiply Imaged Quasars
- High-redshift supermassive black hole population from core-collapse in self-interacting dark matter halos
- Climbing the N-point Ladder Part I: Information in the Higher-Order Configuration-Space Clustering of Dark Matter Halos
- Probing the matter-dominated expansion with multi-redshift Lyman-α BAO from DESI DR2
- Near-Infrared Spectroscopy of Low-Redshift Palomar-Green Quasars and Composite Spectra
BibTeX
@article{蒙2026probing,
title = {{Probing Dark Matter Halos of High-redshift Quasars via Wide-field Clustering}},
author = {Hao 皓 Meng 蒙 and Guangping 广平 Ye 叶 and Huanian 华年 Zhang 张},
journal = {The Astrophysical Journal Letters},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3847/2041-8213/aea06f},
url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aea06f},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Probing Dark Matter Halos of High-redshift Quasars via Wide-field Clustering
AU - Hao 皓 Meng 蒙
AU - Guangping 广平 Ye 叶
AU - Huanian 华年 Zhang 张
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - The Astrophysical Journal Letters
DO - 10.3847/2041-8213/aea06f
UR - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aea06f
AB - High-redshift quasars are powerful tracers of both astrophysical processes and large-scale structure in the early Universe. Using a sample of 1242 spectroscopically confirmed quasars and 827 highly reliable photometric quasar candidates selected with a machine learning framework, all at 4.7 ≤ z < 6.3 (excluding 5.4 < z < 5.6) and with a median luminosity of M ₁₄₅₀ ∼ −25.5, we investigate the large-scale environments of quasars near the end of cosmic reionization. We measure the projected autocorrelation function of the quasar population and derive bias parameters of b = 22.1 1 − 2.19 + 2.17 and 28.5 5 − 5.75 + 5.76 for the redshift intervals 4.7 ≤ z < 5.4 and 5.6 ≤ z < 6.3, respectively. These correspond to characteristic dark matter halo masses of log ( M h / M ⊙ ) = 12.6 6 − 0.11 + 0.10 and 12.6 2 − 0.21 + 0.21 , respectively. We further estimate quasar duty cycles of 0.01 1 − 0.007 + 0.017 and 0.01 2 − 0.011 + 0.104 for the two redshift bins. These measurements are consistent with previous studies and the observed f duty – M halo relation, indicating that only a small fraction of suitable dark matter halos host optically luminous quasars at any given time. The inferred low duty cycles suggest that a substantial fraction of supermassive black hole (SMBH) growth may occur during obscured accretion phases. Our results provide new constraints on the connection between high-redshift quasars and their host dark matter halos, offering valuable insights into the coevolution of SMBHs and large-scale structure in the early Universe.
SN - 2041-8205
SN - 2041-8213
ER -