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Obscuration beyond the nucleus: infrared quasars can be buried in extreme compact starbursts

Obscuration beyond the nucleus: infrared quasars can be buried in extreme compact starbursts
Obscuration beyond the nucleus: infrared quasars can be buried in extreme compact starbursts

In the standard quasar model, the accretion disc obscuration is due to the canonical dusty torus. Here, we argue that a substantial part of the quasar obscuration can come from the interstellar medium (ISM) when the quasars are embedded in compact starbursts. We use an obscuration-unbiased sample of 578 infrared (IR) quasars at z ≈ 1–3 and archival Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array submillimetre host galaxy sizes to investigate the ISM contribution to the quasar obscuration. We calculate star formation rates (SFR) and ISM column densities for the IR quasars and a control sample of submillimetre galaxies (SMGs) not hosting quasar activity and show that: (1) the quasar obscured fraction is constant up to SFR ≈ 300 M yr −1, and then increases towards higher SFR, suggesting that the ISM obscuration plays a significant role in starburst host galaxies, and (2) at SFR ≳ 300 M yr −1, the SMGs and IR quasars have similarly compact submillimetre sizes (R e ≈ 0.5–3 kpc) and consequently, the ISM can heavily obscure the quasar, even reaching Compton-thick (N H > 10 24 cm −2) levels in extreme cases. Based on our results, we infer that ≈10–30 per cent of the IR quasars with SFR ≳ 300 M yr −1 are obscured solely by the ISM.

galaxies: starburst, quasars: general, submillimetre: galaxies
1365-2966
L144-L150
Andonie, Carolina
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Alexander, David M.
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Greenwell, Claire
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Puglisi, Annagrazia
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Laloux, Brivael
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Alonso-Tetilla, Alba V.
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Rivera, Gabriela Calistro
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Harrison, Chris
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Hickox, Ryan C.
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Kaasinen, Melanie
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Lapi, Andrea
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López, Iván E.
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Petter, Grayson
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Almeida, Cristina Ramos
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Rosario, David J.
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Shankar, Francesco
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Villforth, Carolin
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Andonie, Carolina
05d3e7e3-65d4-433f-9bdf-c1e1668d713d
Alexander, David M.
c7e13f1a-f60e-417b-938a-96cd64c50c26
Greenwell, Claire
34ce34ea-9a03-44c4-801f-9aa1e6c2961d
Puglisi, Annagrazia
97237841-1e6d-48fb-9133-671b6f3af18b
Laloux, Brivael
a8be06b5-4182-4045-b14c-193c33134a9a
Alonso-Tetilla, Alba V.
5af2ce28-2842-4c5a-ab20-ab2a8420ad6c
Rivera, Gabriela Calistro
43947a52-bab7-4cf8-ac92-135086562dce
Harrison, Chris
d34df276-e5cb-4cbe-8445-78cfe485e849
Hickox, Ryan C.
fa3d8d11-419b-4625-892f-7183fba98e8a
Kaasinen, Melanie
148f3a58-9dee-4024-81ec-f942c6ddd906
Lapi, Andrea
126b5f87-60fa-4a57-8b84-802d5ffb1f17
López, Iván E.
b1faa3a5-76ff-4bd0-bbbe-d30d3d4aa1fc
Petter, Grayson
63b177d9-8d0b-4419-b6cb-b94c7332b6ed
Almeida, Cristina Ramos
407b9f57-0072-415e-826d-7f711fc5fe65
Rosario, David J.
d1194be4-0304-49ab-b2a7-293c75aa1550
Shankar, Francesco
b10c91e4-85cd-4394-a18a-d4f049fd9cdb
Villforth, Carolin
6853642c-f699-429a-bfb5-dc5c485f5934

Andonie, Carolina, Alexander, David M., Greenwell, Claire, Puglisi, Annagrazia, Laloux, Brivael, Alonso-Tetilla, Alba V., Rivera, Gabriela Calistro, Harrison, Chris, Hickox, Ryan C., Kaasinen, Melanie, Lapi, Andrea, López, Iván E., Petter, Grayson, Almeida, Cristina Ramos, Rosario, David J., Shankar, Francesco and Villforth, Carolin (2024) Obscuration beyond the nucleus: infrared quasars can be buried in extreme compact starbursts. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 527 (1), L144-L150, [slad144]. (doi:10.48550/arXiv.2310.02330).

Record type: Article

Abstract

In the standard quasar model, the accretion disc obscuration is due to the canonical dusty torus. Here, we argue that a substantial part of the quasar obscuration can come from the interstellar medium (ISM) when the quasars are embedded in compact starbursts. We use an obscuration-unbiased sample of 578 infrared (IR) quasars at z ≈ 1–3 and archival Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array submillimetre host galaxy sizes to investigate the ISM contribution to the quasar obscuration. We calculate star formation rates (SFR) and ISM column densities for the IR quasars and a control sample of submillimetre galaxies (SMGs) not hosting quasar activity and show that: (1) the quasar obscured fraction is constant up to SFR ≈ 300 M yr −1, and then increases towards higher SFR, suggesting that the ISM obscuration plays a significant role in starburst host galaxies, and (2) at SFR ≳ 300 M yr −1, the SMGs and IR quasars have similarly compact submillimetre sizes (R e ≈ 0.5–3 kpc) and consequently, the ISM can heavily obscure the quasar, even reaching Compton-thick (N H > 10 24 cm −2) levels in extreme cases. Based on our results, we infer that ≈10–30 per cent of the IR quasars with SFR ≳ 300 M yr −1 are obscured solely by the ISM.

Text
2310.02330v2 - Author's Original
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.
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Text
slad144 - Version of Record
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.
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Accepted/In Press date: 3 October 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 6 October 2023
Published date: 1 January 2024
Additional Information: Funding Information: This work was supported by the EU H2020-MSCA-ITN-2019 Project 860744 ‘BiD4BESt: Big Data applications for black hole Evolution STudies’. DMA and AP thank the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) for support from the Durham consolidated grant (ST/T000244/1). AP acknowledges partial support by STFC through grant ST/P000541/1. CH acknowledges funding from a UK Research and Innovation grant (code: MR/V022830/1). AL is partly supported by the PRIN MIUR 2017 prot. 20173ML3WW 002 ‘Opening the ALMA window on the cosmic evolution of gas, stars, and massive black holes’. DJR acknowledges the support of STFC grant NU-012097. Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2023.
Keywords: galaxies: starburst, quasars: general, submillimetre: galaxies

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 483402
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/483402
ISSN: 1365-2966
PURE UUID: d8555292-3875-4727-9c08-aca3805e5b18
ORCID for Alba V. Alonso-Tetilla: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-6916-9133

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 30 Oct 2023 17:34
Last modified: 26 Jul 2024 02:02

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Contributors

Author: Carolina Andonie
Author: David M. Alexander
Author: Claire Greenwell
Author: Annagrazia Puglisi
Author: Brivael Laloux
Author: Gabriela Calistro Rivera
Author: Chris Harrison
Author: Ryan C. Hickox
Author: Melanie Kaasinen
Author: Andrea Lapi
Author: Iván E. López
Author: Grayson Petter
Author: Cristina Ramos Almeida
Author: David J. Rosario
Author: Carolin Villforth

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