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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Outflows in a super-Eddington quasar drive clumpy circumgalactic medium and extended H α nebulae at z ≳ 6

  • Lucas Tortora1
  • Tiago Costa2
  • Debora Sijacki1
  • Jake S Bennett3
  1. 1Institute of Astronomy and Kavli Institute for Cosmology, Cambridge, University of Cambridge , Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA ,
  2. 2School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics, Newcastle University , Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU ,
  3. 3School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Nottingham, University Park , Nottingham, NG7 2RD ,
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Abstract

The discovery of gargantuan black holes with masses exceeding a billion solar masses at z≳ 6 suggests rapid black hole growth and significant energy input into their host galaxies in the early Universe. With James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) probing previously unseen phases of the interstellar (ISM) and circumgalactic (CGM) medium around z gt 6 quasars, detailed theoretical studies can now be directly confronted with observations. We use zoom-in simulations of a massive protocluster at z∼ 6, employing both the fiducial fable galaxy formation model and modifications that allow earlier black hole seeding and mildly super-Eddington accretion. The central quasar remains Compton-thick throughout most of its evolution, with the obscuration arising from the ISM of its compact host galaxy. The onset of sufficiently strong quasar feedback drives a ‘blow-out’ episode, clearing out escape channels for ionizing radiation and leaving the central engine unobscured. This leads to a complete transformation of the CGM, whereby powerful, metal-enriched outflows produce a population of cold, fast, neutral clumps, significantly increasing the covering fraction of neutral hydrogen in the host halo. Radiative transfer calculations performed with a new ray-tracing code show that the CGM responds to quasar activity through the formation of Hα nebulae, whose size and luminosity increase with the strength of quasar feedback and decrease with obscuration level. Enhanced early black hole growth thus fundamentally reshapes the ISM and CGM of z∼ 6 quasars, leaving clear observable signatures in their obscuration, neutral hydrogen distribution, and extended H α emission.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{tortora2026outflows,
  title = {{Outflows in a super-Eddington quasar drive clumpy circumgalactic medium and extended H α nebulae at z ≳ 6}},
  author = {Lucas Tortora and Tiago Costa and Debora Sijacki and Jake S Bennett},
  journal = {Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1093/mnras/stag1942},
  url = {https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag1942/8914595},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Outflows in a super-Eddington quasar drive clumpy circumgalactic medium and extended H α nebulae at z ≳ 6
AU  - Lucas Tortora
AU  - Tiago Costa
AU  - Debora Sijacki
AU  - Jake S Bennett
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/13
JO  - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
DO  - 10.1093/mnras/stag1942
UR  - https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag1942/8914595
AB  - The discovery of gargantuan black holes with masses exceeding a billion solar masses at z≳ 6 suggests rapid black hole growth and significant energy input into their host galaxies in the early Universe. With James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) probing previously unseen phases of the interstellar (ISM) and circumgalactic (CGM) medium around z gt 6 quasars, detailed theoretical studies can now be directly confronted with observations. We use zoom-in simulations of a massive protocluster at z∼ 6, employing both the fiducial fable galaxy formation model and modifications that allow earlier black hole seeding and mildly super-Eddington accretion. The central quasar remains Compton-thick throughout most of its evolution, with the obscuration arising from the ISM of its compact host galaxy. The onset of sufficiently strong quasar feedback drives a ‘blow-out’ episode, clearing out escape channels for ionizing radiation and leaving the central engine unobscured. This leads to a complete transformation of the CGM, whereby powerful, metal-enriched outflows produce a population of cold, fast, neutral clumps, significantly increasing the covering fraction of neutral hydrogen in the host halo. Radiative transfer calculations performed with a new ray-tracing code show that the CGM responds to quasar activity through the formation of Hα nebulae, whose size and luminosity increase with the strength of quasar feedback and decrease with obscuration level. Enhanced early black hole growth thus fundamentally reshapes the ISM and CGM of z∼ 6 quasars, leaving clear observable signatures in their obscuration, neutral hydrogen distribution, and extended H α emission.
SN  - 0035-8711
SN  - 1365-2966
ER  -