Detalles de publicación
PP 09057
Resolved Dust Emission in a Quasar at z = 3.65
(1)Physics Department, Imperial College, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK
(2)Submillimetre Array, Hilo, HI, USA
(3)Astronomy Centre, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QH, UK
(4)European Southern Observatory, Garching, Munich, Germany
(5)IAC, Tenerife, Spain
(6)IPAC, Caltech, Pasadena, CA, USA
(7)Spitzer Science Centre, Caltech, Pasadena, CA, USA
(8)Universita di Padova, Padova, Italy
(9)Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, USA
(10)UCSD, San Diego, CA, USA
We present submillimeter observations of the z= 3.653 quasar SDSS 160705+533558 together with data in the optical and infrared. The object is unusually bright in the far-IR and submillimeter with an IR luminosity of ~1014 L sun. We ascribe this luminosity to a combination of active galactic nucleus (AGN) and starburst emission, with the starburst forming stars at a rate of a few thousand solar masses per year. Submillimeter Array imaging observations with a resolution ~1'' show that the submillimeter (850 μm) emission is extended on scales of 10- 35 kpc and is offset from the optical position by ~10 kpc. This morphology is dissimilar to that found in submillimeter galaxies, which are generally unresolved or marginally resolved on arcsecond scales, or submillimeter-luminous AGNs where the AGN lies at the peak of the submillimeter or molecular emission. The simplest explanation is that the object is in the early stages of a merger between a gas-rich galaxy, which hosts the starburst, and a gas-poor AGN-host galaxy, which is responsible for the quasar emission. It is also possible that jet-induced star formation might contribute to the unusual morphology.

