Abstract
Understanding how super-massive black holes form and grow in the early Universe has become a major challenge1,2 since it was discovered that luminous quasars existed only 700 million years after the Big Bang3,4. Simulations indicate an evolutionary sequence of dust-reddened quasars emerging from heavily dust-obscured starbursts that then transition to unobscured luminous quasars by expelling gas and dust5. Although the last phase has been identified out to a redshift of 7.6 (ref. 6), a transitioning quasar has not been found at similar redshifts owing to their faintness at optical and near-infrared wavelengths. Here we report observations of an ultraviolet compact object, GNz7q, associated with a dust-enshrouded starburst at a redshift of 7.1899 ± 0.0005. The host galaxy is more luminous in dust emission than any other known object at this epoch, forming 1,600 solar masses of stars per year within a central radius of 480 parsec. A red point source in the far-ultraviolet is identified in deep, high-resolution imaging and slitless spectroscopy. GNz7q is extremely faint in X-rays, which indicates the emergence of a uniquely ultraviolet compact star-forming region or a Compton-thick super-Eddington black-hole accretion disk at the dusty starburst core. In the latter case, the observed properties are consistent with predictions from cosmological simulations7 and suggest that GNz7q is an antecedent to unobscured luminous quasars at later epochs.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
This paper makes use of HST data from the programmes 9583, 9727, 9728, 10189, 10339, 11600, 12442, 12443, 12444, 12445, 13063, 13420 and 13779, available at https://archive.stsci.edu/. The reduced HST and Spitzer image mosaics are available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4469734. Other products from the CHArGE project are avilable at https://gbrammer.github.io/projects/charge/. The NOEMA data that support our finding consists of ED19AD and W20EO, which are available at https://www.iram-institute.org/EN/content-page-386-7-386-0-0-0.html. The SED of the SDSS quasar at z = 3.11 used in Fig. 1 is available from the SDSS DR12 website at https://dr12.sdss.org/spectrumDetail?plateid=6839 mjd=56425 fiber=146. The SEDs of local quasar and starburst are available from the SWIRE template website at http://www.iasf-milano.inaf.it/~polletta/templates/swire_templates.html. The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Code availability
The HST and Spitzer data were processed with grizli and golfir, available at https://github.com/gbrammer/grizli and https://github.com/gbrammer/golfir, respectively. The HST F125W image was analysed with galfit, which is available at https://users.obs.carnegiescience.edu/peng/work/galfit/galfit.html. The NOEMA data were reduced using the GILDAS software. The CASA pipeline version of 5.6 is also used for imaging the NOEMA interferometric data. These are available at https://casa.nrao.edu/casa_obtaining.shtml and https://www.oso.nordic-alma.se/software-tools.php. The online Portable Interactive Multi-Mission Simulator is available at https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/Tools/w3pimms/w3pimms.pl.
References
Volonteri, M. The formation and evolution of massive black holes. Science 337, 544–547 (2012).
Inayoshi, K. et al. The assembly of the first massive black holes. Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 58, 27–97 (2020).
Mortlock, D. et al. A luminous quasar at a redshift of z = 7.085. Nature 474, 616–619 (2011).
Bañados, E. et al. An 800-million-solar-mass black hole in a significantly neutral Universe at a redshift of 7.5. Nature 553, 473–476 (2018).
Hopkins, P. et al. A cosmological framework for the co-evolution of quasars, supermassive black holes, and elliptical galaxies. II. Formation of red ellipticals. Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 175, 390–422 (2008).
Wang, F. et al. A luminous quasar at redshift 7.642. Astrophys. J. Lett. 907, L1 (2021).
Ginolfi, M. et al. The infrared-luminous progenitors of high-z quasars. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 483, 1256–1264 (2019).
Hathi, N. et al. Near-infrared survey of the GOODS-North field: search for luminous galaxy candidates at z > ~6.5. Astrophys. J. 757, 1 (2012).
Bouwens, R. et al. UV-continuum slopes of ≳4,000 z ~ 4−8 galaxies from the HUDF/XDF, HUDF09, ERS, CANDELS-South, and CANDELS-North fields. Astrophys. J. 793, 115 (2014).
Selsing, J. et al. An X-Shooter composite of bright 1 < z < 2 quasars from UV to infrared. Astron. Astrophys. 585, A87 (2016).
Alam, S. et al. The eleventh and twelfth data releases of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: final data from SDSS-III. Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 219, 12 (2015).
Xue, Y. et al. The 2 Ms Chandra Deep Field-North Survey and the 250 ks Extended Chandra Deep Field-South Survey: improved point-source catalogs. Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 224, 15 (2016).
Andrews, B. et al. Assessing radiation pressure as a feedback mechanism in star-forming galaxies. Astrophys. J. 727, 97 (2011).
Beelen, A. et al. 350 μm dust emission from high-redshift quasars. Astrophys. J. 642, 2 (2006).
Decarli, R. et al. Rapidly star-forming galaxies adjacent to quasars at redshifts exceeding 6. Nature 545, 457–461 (2017).
Barro, G. et al. CANDELS+3D-HST: compact SFGs at z ≃ 2–3, the progenitors of the first quiescent galaxies. Astrophys. J. 791, 1 (2014).
Tsai, C. et al. Super-Eddington accretion in the WISE-selected extremely luminous infrared galaxy W2246−0526. Astrophys. J. 819, 2 (2018).
Lusso, E. et al. The X-ray to optical-UV luminosity ratio of X-ray selected type 1 AGN in XMM-COSMOS. Astron. Astrophys. 512, A34 (2010).
Luo, B. et al. X-ray insights into the nature of PHL 1811 analogs and weak emission-line quasars: unification with a geometrically thick accretion disk? Astrophys. J. 805, 2 (2015).
Pu, X. et al. On the fraction of X-ray-weak quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Astrophys. J. 900, 2 (2020).
Wu, J. et al. A population of X-ray weak quasars: PHL 1811 analogs at high redshift. Astrophys. J. 736, 1 (2011).
Valiante, R. et al. From the first stars to the first black holes. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 457, 3356–3371 (2016).
Glickman, E. et al. FIRST-2MASS red quasars: transitional objects emerging from the dust. Astrophys. J. 757, 1 (2012).
Gehrels, N. Confidence limits for small numbers of events in astrophysical data. Astrophys. J. 303, 336–346 (1986).
Kato, N. et al. Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs). IX. Identification of two red quasars at z > 5.6. Publ. Astron. Soc. Jpn 528, 35 (2020).
Matsuoka, Y. et al. Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs). IV. Discovery of 41 quasars and luminous galaxies at 5.7 < z < 6.9. Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 237, 5 (2018).
Morishita, T. et al. SuperBoRG: exploration of point sources at z ~ 8 in HST parallel fields. Astrophys. J. 904, 1 (2020).
Ni, Y. et al. QSO obscuration at high redshift (z ≳7): predictions from the BLUETIDES simulation. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 495, 2135–2151 (2020).
Planck Collaboration Planck 2013 results. XVI. Cosmological parameters. Astron. Astrophys. 571, A16 (2014).
Onoue, M. et al. Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs). XIV. A candidate type II quasar at z = 6.1292. Astrophys. J. 919, 1 (2021).
Antonucci, R. Unified models for active galactic nuclei and quasars. Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 31, 473–521 (1993).
Urry, C. & Padovani, P. Unified schemes for radio-loud active galactic nuclei. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac. 107, 803 (1995).
Richards, et al. Red and reddened quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Astron. J 126, 1131–1147 (2003).
Ross, N. et al. Extremely red quasars from SDSS, BOSS and WISE: classification of optical spectra. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 453, 3932–3952 (2015).
Hamann, F. et al. Extremely red quasars in BOSS. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 464, 3431–3463 (2017).
Glikman, E. et al. FIRST-2Mass sources below the APM detection threshold: a population of highly reddened quasars. Astrophys. J. 607, 1 (2004).
Urrutia, T. et al. The FIRST-2MASS Red Quasar Survey. II. An anomalously high fraction of LoBALs in searches for dust-reddened quasars. Astrophys. J. 698, 2 (2009).
Lacy, M. et al. Optical spectroscopy and X-ray detections of a sample of quasars and active galactic nuclei selected in the mid-infrared from two Spitzer space telescope wide-area surveys. Astron. J 133, 1 (2007).
Glikman, E. et al. Dust reddened quasars in FIRST and UKIDSS: beyond the tip of the iceberg. Astrophys. J. 778, 186–205 (2013).
Krawczyk, C. et al. Mining for dust in type 1 quasars. Astrophys. J. 149, 6 (2015).
Díaz-santos, T. et al. The multiple merger assembly of a hyperluminous obscured quasar at redshift 4.6. Science 362, L17 (2018).
Díaz-santos, T. et al. Kinematics and star formation of high-redshift hot dust-obscured quasars as seen by ALMA. Astron. Astrophys. 654, A37 (2021).
Alexander, M. et al. Weighing the black holes in z ~ 2 submillimeter-emitting galaxies hosting active galactic nuclei. Astron. J 135, 1968–1981 (2008).
Finnerty, L. et al. Fast outflows in hot dust-obscured galaxies detected with Keck/NIRES. Astrophys. J. 905, 1 (2020).
GAIA Collaboration Gaia Data Release 2. Summary of the contents and survey properties. Astron. Astrophys. 616, A1 (2018).
Brammer, G. Grizli: grism redshift and line analysis software. Astrophysics Source Code Library ascl:1905.001 (2019).
Shindler, J. et al. The X-SHOOTER/ALMA sample of quasars in the epoch of reionization. I. NIR spectral modeling, iron enrichment, and broad emission line properties. Astrophys. J. 905, 1 (2020).
Yang, J. et al. Pōniuā’ena: a luminous z = 7.5 quasar hosting a 1.5 billion solar mass black hole. Astrophys. J. Lett. 897, L14 (2020).
Bowler, R. et al. Unveiling the nature of bright z≃7 galaxies with the Hubble Space Telescope. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 466, 3612–3635 (2017).
Matsuoka, Y. et al. Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs). I. Discovery of 15 quasars and bright galaxies at 5.7 ≲ z ≲ 6.9. Astrophys. J. 828, 1 (2016).
Matsuoka, Y. et al. Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs). II. Discovery of 32 quasars and luminous galaxies at 5.7 < z≤ 6.8. Publ. Astron. Soc. Jpn 70, S35 (2017).
Matsuoka, Y. et al. Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs). IV. Discovery of 41 quasars and luminous galaxies at 5.7 ≤ z ≤ 6.9. Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 237, 5 (2018).
Matsuoka, Y. et al. Discovery of the first low-luminosity quasar at z≥7. Astrophys. J. Lett. 872, L1 (2019).
Matsuoka, Y. et al. Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs). X. Discovery of 35 quasars and luminous galaxies at 5.7≤z≤7.0. Astrophys. J. 883, 2 (2019).
Onoue, M. et al. Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs). VI. Black hole mass measurements of six quasars at 6.1 ≤z≤6.7. Astrophys. J. 880, 2 (2019).
Schouws, S. et al. Significant dust-obscured star formation in luminous Lyman-break galaxies at z ~ 7−8. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.12133 (2021).
Peng, C. Y. et al. Detailed decomposition of galaxy images. II. Beyond axisymmetric models. Astron. J. 139, 2097–2129 (2010).
McMullin, J. et al. CASA architecture and applications. Astron. Data Anal. Softw. Syst. XVI 376, 127 (2007).
Martí-Vidal, I. et al. Over-resolution of compact sources in interferometric observations. Astron. Astrophys. 541, A135 (2012).
Fujimoto, S. et al. Demonstrating A New Census of Infrared Galaxies with ALMA (DANCING-ALMA). I. FIR size and luminosity relation at z = 0−6 revealed with 1034 ALMA sources. Astrophys. J. 850, 1 (2017).
Franco, M. et al. GOODS-ALMA: 1.1 mm galaxy survey. I. Source catalog and optically dark galaxies. Astron. Astrophys. 620, A152 (2018).
Franco, M. et al. GOODS-ALMA: the slow downfall of star formation in z = 2–3 massive galaxies. Astron. Astrophys. 643, A30 (2020).
Wang, T. et al. A dominant population of optically invisible massive galaxies in the early Universe. Nature 572, 211–214 (2019).
Fudamoto, Y. et al. Normal, dust-obscured galaxies in the epoch of reionization. Nature 597, 489–492 (2021).
Cortzen, I. et al. Deceptively cold dust in the massive starburst galaxy GN20 at z ~ 4. Astron. Astrophys. 634, L14 (2007).
Jin, S. et al. Discovery of four apparently cold dusty galaxies at z = 3.62−5.85 in the COSMOS field: direct evidence of cosmic microwave background impact on high-redshift galaxy observables. Astrophys. J. 887, 2 (2019).
Da Cunha, E. et al. An ALMA survey of sub-millimeter galaxies in the extended Chandra Deep Field South: physical properties derived from ultraviolet-to-radio modeling. Astrophys. J. 806, 110 (2015).
Kajisawa, M. et al. MOIRCS Deep Survey. IX. Deep near-infrared imaging data and source catalog. Publ. Astron. Soc. Jpn 63, 379 (2011).
Magnelli, B. et al. Evolution of the dusty infrared luminosity function from z = 0 to z = 2.3 using observations from Spitzer. Astron. Astrophys. 528, 35 (2011).
Cowie, L. et al. A submillimeter perspective on the GOODS fields (SUPER GOODS). I. An ultradeep SCUBA-2 survey of the GOODS-N. Astrophys. J. 837, 139 (2017).
Owen, F. Deep JVLA Imaging of GOODS-N at 20 cm. Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 235, 2 (2018).
Liu, D. et al. Super-deblended dust emission in galaxies. I. The GOODS-North catalog and the cosmic star formation rate density out to redshift 6. Astrophys. J. 853, 172 (2018).
Oliver, S. et al. The Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey: HerMES. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 424, 1614–1645 (2018).
Murphy, E. et al. The GOODS-N Jansky VLA 10-GHz pilot survey: sizes of star-forming μJy radio sources. Astrophys. J. 839, 1 (2017).
Geach, J. et al. The SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey: 850 μm maps, catalogues and number counts. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 465, 1789–1806 (2017).
Nanni, R. et al. The X-ray properties of z ~ 6 luminous quasars. Astron. Astrophys. 603, A128 (2017).
Vito, F. et al. Heavy X-ray obscuration in the most luminous galaxies discovered by WISE. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 474, 4528–4540 (2018).
HI4PI Collaboration. HI4PI: A full-sky H I survey based on EBHIS and GASS. Astron. Astrophys. 594, A116 (2016).
Wang, F. et al. Revealing the accretion physics of supermassive black holes at redshift z ~ 7 with Chandra and infrared observations. Astrophys. J. 908, 1 (2021).
Lusso, E. et al. The tight relation between X-Ray and ultraviolet luminosity of quasars. Astrophys. J. 819, 2 (2016).
Vito, F. et al. The X-ray properties of z > 6 quasars: no evident evolution of accretion physics in the first Gyr of the Universe. Astron. Astrophys. 630, A118 (2019).
Shemmer, O. et al. Chandra observations of the highest redshift quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Astrophys. J. 644, 1 (2006).
Chiaraluce, E. et al. The X-ray/UV ratio in active galactic nuclei: dispersion and variability. Astron. Astrophys. 619, A95 (2018).
Zou, F. et al. X-ray properties of dust-obscured galaxies with broad optical/UV emission lines. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 499, 1823–1840 (2020).
Kim, Y. et al. High star formation rates of low Eddington ratio quasars at z ≳6. Astrophys. J. 879, 2 (2019).
Iwasawa, K. et al. C-GOALS: Chandra observations of a complete sample of luminous infrared galaxies from the IRAS Revised Bright Galaxy Survey. Astron. Astrophys. 529, A106 (2011).
Veilleux, B. et al. A deep Hubble Space Telescope H-band imaging survey of massive gas-rich mergers. II. The QUEST QSOs. Astrophys. J. 701, 1 (2009).
Ni, Q. et al. Connecting the X-ray properties of weak-line and typical quasars: testing for a geometrically thick accretion disk. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 480, 5184–5202 (2018).
Marques-Chaves, R. et al. The discovery of the most UV-Lyα luminous star-forming galaxy: a young, dust- and metal-poor starburst with QSO-like luminosities. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 499, 1 (2020).
Shibuya, T. et al. Morphologies of ~190,000 galaxies at z = 0−10 revealed with HST legacy data. I. Size evolution. Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 219, 15 (2019).
Conroy, C. et al. The propagation of uncertainties in stellar population synthesis modeling. I. The relevance of uncertain aspects of stellar evolution and the initial mass function to the derived physical properties of galaxies. Astrophys. J. 699, 486 (2009).
Conroy, C. & Gunn, J. The propagation of uncertainties in stellar population synthesis modeling. III. Model calibration, comparison, and evaluation. Astrophys. J. 712, 833 (2010).
Brammer, G. et al. EAZY: A fast, public photometric redshift code. Astrophys. J. 686, 2 (2008).
Polletta, M. et al. Spectral energy distributions of hard X-ray selected active galactic nuclei in the XMM-Newton medium deep survey. Astrophys. J. 663, 1 (2007).
Glikman, E. et al. A near-infrared spectral template for quasars. Astrophys. J. 640, 2 (2006).
Leipski, C. et al. Spectral energy distributions of QSOs at z > 5: common active galactic nucleus-heated dust and occasionally strong star-formation. Astrophys. J. 785, 2 (2014).
Nenkova, M. et al. AGN dusty tori. I. Handling of clumpy media. Astrophys. J. 685, 147 (2008).
Leja, J. et al. Hot dust in panchromatic SED fitting: identification of active galactic nuclei and improved galaxy properties. Astrophys. J. 854, 62 (2018).
Diamond-Stanic, A. et al. High-redshift SDSS quasars with weak emission lines. Astrophys. J. 699, 1 (2009).
Andika, I. et al. Probing the nature of high-redshift weak emission line quasars: a young quasar with a starburst host galaxy. Astrophys. J. 903, 1 (2020).
Wu, J. et al. X-ray and multiwavelength insights into the nature of weak emission-line quasars at low redshift. Astrophys. J. 747, 1 (2012).
Vito, F. et al. Chandra and Magellan/FIRE follow-up observations of PSO167-13: an X-ray weak QSO at z = 6.515. Astron. Astrophys. 649, A133 (2021).
Gallagher, S. C. et al. X-raying the ultraluminous infrared starburst galaxy and broad absorption line QSO Markarian 231 with Chandra. Astrophys. J. 569, 655 (2002).
Braito, V. et al. The XMM-Newton and BeppoSAX view of the ultra luminous infrared galaxy MKN 231. Astron. Astrophys. 420, 79 (2004).
Lipari, S., Colina, L. & Macchetto, F. Galaxies with extreme infrared and Fe II emission. I. Markarian 231: the signature of a young infrared QSO. Astron. Astrophys. 427, 174L (1994).
Veilleux, S. et al. The complete ultraviolet spectrum of the archetypal “wind-dominated” quasar Mrk 231: absorption and emission from a high-speed dusty nuclear outflow. Astrophys. J. 825, 42 (2016).
Kokorev, V. et al. The evolving interstellar medium of star-forming galaxies, as traced by stardust. Astrophys. J. 921, 1 (2021).
Draine, B. & Li, A. Infrared emission from interstellar dust. IV. The silicate–graphite–PAH model in the post-Spitzer era. Astrophys. J. 657, 2 (2007).
Mullaney, J. et al. GOODS-Herschel: the far-infrared view of star formation in active galactic nucleus host galaxies since z≈3. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 419, 95–115 (2012).
Shen, Y. et al. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: velocity shifts of quasar emission lines. Astrophys. J. 831, 1 (2016).
Murphy, E. et al. Calibrating extinction-free star formation rate diagnostics with 33 GHz free-free emission in NGC 6946. Astrophys. J. 737, 67 (2011).
Kroupa, P. On the variation of the initial mass function. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 322, 231–246 (2001).
Simpson, J. et al. The SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey: ALMA resolves the rest-frame far-infrared emission of sub-millimeter galaxies. Astrophys. J. 799, 81 (2015).
Lehmer, B. et al. The evolution of normal galaxy X-ray emission through cosmic history: constraints from the 6 MS Chandra Deep Field-South. Astrophys. J. 825, 1 (2016).
Fornasini, F. et al. The MOSDEF survey: the metallicity dependence of X-ray binary populations at z ~ 2. Astrophys. J. 885, 1 (2019).
Fornasini, F. et al. Connecting the metallicity dependence and redshift evolution of high-mass X-ray binaries. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 495, 771–783 (2020).
Novak, M. et al. An ALMA multiline survey of the interstellar medium of the redshift 7.5 quasar host galaxy J1342+0928. Astrophys. J. 881, 1 (2019).
Magdis, G. et al. The evolving interstellar medium of star-forming galaxies since z = 2 as probed by their infrared spectral energy distributions. Astrophys. J. 760, 1 (2012).
Scoville, N. et al. ISM masses and the star formation law at z = 1 to 6: ALMA observations of dust continuum in 145 galaxies in the COSMOS Survey Field. Astrophys. J. 820, 2 (2016).
Zanella, A. et al. The [C ii] emission as a molecular gas mass tracer in galaxies at low and high redshifts. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 481, 1976–1999 (2018).
Crocker, A. et al. [C i](1–0) and [C i](2–1) in resolved local galaxies. Astrophys. J. 887, 1 (2019).
Riechers, D. et al. A dust-obscured massive maximum-starburst galaxy at a redshift of 6.34. Nature 496, 329–333 (2013).
Strandet, M. et al. ISM properties of a massive dusty star-forming galaxy discovered at z ~ 7. Astrophys. J. Lett. 842, L15 (2017).
Solmon, P. et al. Mass, luminosity, and line width relations of galactic molecular clouds. Astrophys. J. 319, 730 (1987).
Valentino, F. et al. A survey of atomic carbon [C i] in high-redshift main-sequence galaxies. Astrophys. J. 869, 1 (2018).
Bothwell, S. et al. A survey of molecular gas in luminous sub-millimetre galaxies. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 429, 3047–3067 (2013).
Wang, R. et al. Star formation and gas kinematics of quasar host galaxies at z ~ 6: new insights from ALMA. Astrophys. J. 773, 44 (2013).
Decarli, R. et al. An ALMA [C ii] aurvey of 27 quasars at z ≳ 5.94. Astrophys. J. 854, 97 (2018).
Izumi, T. et al. Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs). III. Star formation properties of the host galaxies at z ≳ 6 studied with ALMA. Publ. Astron. Soc. Jpn 70, 3 (2018).
Di Teodoro, T. et al. Spitzer observations of young red quasars. Astrophys. J. 757, 2 (2012).
Zakamska, N. et al. Discovery of extreme [O iii] λ5007 A outflows in high-redshift red quasars. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 459, 3144–3160 (2016).
Bongiorno, A. et al. The MBH–M⊙ relation for X-ray-obscured, red QSOs at 1.2 < z < 2.6. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 443, 2077–2091 (2014).
Dáz-Santos, T. et al. Explaining the [C ii] 157.7 μm deficit in luminous infrared galaxies—first results from a Herschel/PACS study of the GOALS sample. Astrophys. J. 774, 1 (2013).
Spilker, J. et al. ALMA imaging and gravitational lens models of South Pole Telescope—selected dusty, star-forming galaxies at high redshifts. Astrophys. J. 826, 2 (2016).
Gullberg, B. et al. The dust and [C ii] morphologies of redshift ~4.5 sub-millimeter galaxies at ~200 pc resolution: the absence of large clumps in the interstellar medium at high-redshift. Astrophys. J. 859, 1 (2018).
Marrone, D. et al. Galaxy growth in a massive halo in the first billion years of cosmic history. Nature 553, 51–54 (2018).
Laporte, N. et al. Dust in the reionization era: ALMA observations of a z = 8.38 gravitationally lensed galaxy. Astrophys. J. Lett. 837, L21 (2017).
Hashimoto, T. et al. Big Three Dragons: a z = 7.15 Lyman-break galaxy detected [O iii] 88 μm, [C ii] 158 μm, and dust continuum with ALMA. Publ. Astron. Soc. Jpn 71, 4 (2019).
Bakx, T. et al. ALMA uncovers the [C ii] emission and warm dust continuum in a z = 8.31 Lyman break galaxy. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 493, 4294–4307 (2020).
Izumi, T. et al. Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs). XII. Extended [C ii] structure (merger or outflow) in a z = 6.72 red quasar. Astrophys. J. 908, 2 (2021).
Fan, L. et al. The spectral energy distribution of the hyperluminous, hot dust-obscured galaxy W2246−0526. Astrophys. J. 854, 2 (2018).
Venemans, B. et al. Kiloparsec-scale ALMA Imaging of [C ii] and dust continuum emission of 27 quasar host galaxies at z ~ 6. Astrophys. J. 904, 130 (2020).
Hashimoto, T. et al. Detections of [O iii] 88 μm in two quasars in the reionization epoch. Publ. Astron. Soc. Jpn 71, 6 (2019).
Walter, F. et al. No evidence for enhanced [O iii] 88 μm emission in a z ~ 6 quasar compared to its companion starbursting galaxy. Astrophys. J. Lett. 869, L22 (2018).
Harikane, Y. et al. Large population of ALMA galaxies at z > 6 with very high [O iii] 88 μm to [C ii] 158 μm flux ratios: evidence of extremely high ionization parameter or PDR deficit? Astrophys. J. 896, 2 (2020).
Pensabene, A. et al. The ALMA view of the high-redshift relation between supermassive black holes and their host galaxies. Astron. Astrophys. 637, A84 (2020).
Neeleman, M. et al. The kinematics of z ≳ 6 quasar host galaxies. Astrophys. J. 911, 141 (2021).
Willott, C. et al. Star formation rate and dynamical mass of 108 solar mass black hole host galaxies at redshift 6. Astrophys. J. 801, 2 (2015).
Willott, C. et al. A wide dispersion in star formation rate and dynamical mass of 108 solar mass black hole host galaxies at redshift 6. Astrophys. J. 850, 108 (2017).
Venemans, B. et al. The compact, ≃1 kpc host galaxy of a quasar at a redshift of 7.1. Astrophys. J. 837, 146 (2017).
Izumi, T. et al. Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs). VIII. A less biased view of the early co-evolution of black holes and host galaxies. Publ. Astron. Soc. Jpn 71, 6 (2019).
Kormendy, J. & Ho, L. Coevolution (or not) of supermassive black holes and host galaxies. Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 51, 511–653 (2013).
Reines, A. et al. Relations between central black hole mass and total galaxy stellar mass in the local Universe. Astrophys. J. 813, 2 (2015).
Ibar, E. et al. Deep multi-frequency radio imaging in the Lockman Hole—II. The spectral index of submillimetre galaxies. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 401, L53–L57 (2010).
Yun, M. et al. Radio properties of infrared-selected galaxies in the IRAS 2 Jy sample. Astrophys. J. 554, 2 (2001).
Magnelli, B. et al. Far-infrared properties of submillimeter and optically faint radio galaxies. Astron. Astrophys. 518, L28 (2010).
Delhaize, J. et al. The VLA-COSMOS 3 GHz Large Project: the infrared-radio correlation of star-forming galaxies and AGN to z ≲ 6. Astron. Astrophys. 602, A4 (2017).
Dunlop, J. et al. Quasars, their host galaxies and their central black holes. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 401, 1095–1135 (2003).
Valiante, R. et al. The origin of the dust in high-redshift quasars: the case of SDSS J1148+5251. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 416, 1916–1935 (2011).
Valiante, R. et al. High-redshift quasars host galaxies: is there a stellar mass crisis? Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 444, 2442–2455 (2014).
Pezzulli, E. et al. Faint progenitors of luminous z ~ 6 quasars: why do not we see them? Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 466, 2131–2142 (2017).
Mazzucchelli, C. et al. Physical properties of 15 quasars at z ≳6.5. Astrophys. J. 849, 2 (2017).
Morganson, E. et al. The first high-redshift quasar from Pan-STARRS. Astron. J 143, 6 (2012).
Lawrence, A. et al. The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS). Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 379, 1599–1617 (2007).
Willott, C. et al. The Canada–France High-z Quasar Survey: nine new quasars and the luminosity function at redshift 6. Astron. J 139, 906–918 (2010).
Davies, F. B., Hennawi, J. F. & Eilers, A.-C. Evidence for low radiative efficiency or highly obscured growth of z > 7 quasars. Astrophys. J. Lett. 884, L19 (2019).
Vestergaard, M. & Peterson, B. M. Determining central black hole masses in distant active galaxies and quasars. II. Improved optical and UV scaling relationships. Astrophys. J. 641, 689 (2006).
Anderson, J. Empirical Models for the WFC3/IR PSF (Space Telescope Science Institute, 2016).
Just, D. et al. The X-ray properties of the most luminous quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Astrophys. J. 665, 2 (2007).
Sargsyan, L. et al. [C ii] 158 μm luminosities and star formation rate in dusty starbursts and active galactic nuclei. Astrophys. J. 755, 2 (2012).
Acknowledgements
We thank M. Onoue, K. Ichikawa, Y. Harikane and Y. Ono for discussions on the physical properties of GNz7q and the AGN fraction among the brightest Lyman-break galaxies at z ≈ 7; E. Murphy and F. Owen for sharing their JVLA data; D. Marrone for sharing the best-fit SED model of SPT0311-58W; K. Whitaker for a helpful advice on writing the manuscript. This work is based on the archival data of Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer, Chandra, Subaru, Herschel, James Clerk Maxwell Telescope and the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, and the observations of IRAM/NOEMA interferometer (programme ID: E19AD and W20EO). We acknowledge support from: the Danish National Research Foundation under grant number 140; the European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant funding scheme (project ConTExt, grant number 648179); Independent Research Fund Denmark grants DFF-7014-00017 and DFF-8021-00130; the Villum Fonden research grant 37440, ‘The Hidden Cosmos’.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
G.B.B. reduced and analysed the optical–NIR data of HST and Spitzer and discovered GNz7q. S.F., G.B.B., S.T., G.E.M., D.W., F.V., C.L.S., J.P.U.F., L.C., R.M.-C. M.V. and F.W. discussed and planned the follow-up observing strategy and the data analysis. G.B.B., G.E.M. and V.K. conducted the SED analysis and wrote the relevant Methods section. G.B.B. produced Figs. 1, 2, Extended Data Figs. 2, 8. D.W. analysed the X-ray properties from the Chandra data and wrote the relevant Methods section. T.R.G. reduced and analysed the SCUBA2 data, and M.K. and I.C. reduced the NOEMA data. R.V., M.G. and R.S. performed the cosmological semianalytical simulation GAMETE/QSOdust and wrote the relevant Methods section. F.R. worked on the three-dimensional modelling for the NOEMA [C ii]-line data cube. P.A.O. investigated the properties of the dust-continuum object identified near GNz7q. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript. S.F. led the team, being principal investigator of the follow-up NOEMA programmes, analysed the NOEMA data, wrote the main text and the Methods section, and produced Figs. 3, 4, Extended Data Tables 1, 2, Extended Data Figs. 1, 3–7, 9–11.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Peer review
Peer review information
Nature thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Peer reviewer reports are available.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Extended data figures and tables
Extended Data Fig. 1 Rest-frame UV properties of GNz7q.
The rest-frame 1,450 Å luminosity as a function of redshift (a) and the UV continuum slope (b). GNz7q falls between the typical luminosity ranges of quasars and galaxies in the literature2,6,47,48, where both faint quasars and luminous galaxies have been also identified49,50,51,52,53,54,56,148. GNz7q shows the reddest UV continuum slope among both galaxies and quasars at z > 6. The galaxies without spectroscopic redshifts and the quasars without a UV continuum slope measurement are displayed in the open symbols. The error bars denote the 1σ measurement uncertainty.
Extended Data Fig. 2 Point-source morphology of GNz7q.
a, HST 4″ × 4″ cutout in the HST WFC3/IR filters of F105W, F125W, F140W, and F160W (left), instrumental point spread function (PSF) models168 (centre), and PSF fit residuals (right). b, Radial profile for the rest-frame UV continuum of GNz7q observed in F125W. The black circles show the observed values, while the dark and light red squares and lines present the PSF and the best-fit Sérsic models (Methods). The error bars denote the 68th percentile in each annulus, and the dotted line indicates the standard deviation of the pixel.
Extended Data Fig. 3 NOEMA 1-mm observation results.
a, 1.3-mm continuum (left) and the velocity-integrated [C ii] maps (middle) with the natural weighting. We identify a nearby continuum object with a ~3″ offset from GNz7q at the northern east part, dubbed “ND1”. The intensity of the 1.3-mm continuum and the velocity integrated [C ii] is shown in the right panel in green and red contours, respectively, overlaid on the HST/F160W 4″ × 4″ cutout. The solid contours are drawn at 3σ, 5σ, and 7σ levels, while the dashed white contours are drown at −3σ level. The NOEMA synthesized beam is presented at the left bottom. b, [C ii] line spectrum within a 1″0 radius aperture. The blue curve is the best-fit Gaussian for the [C ii] line. The yellow shaded indicates the velocity range of [−200: +200] km s−1 used for the velocity-integrated map in panel a. c, [C ii] line kinematics. The top and bottom panel present the velocity-weighted and the velocity-dispersion maps (4″ × 4″), respectively.
Extended Data Fig. 4 NOEMA 3-mm observation results.
Left: 3.3-mm continuum (top) and the velocity-integrated CO(7–6) maps with the natural weighting. The black (white) contours are drown at 3σ, 4σ, and 5σ (−3σ). Right: NOEMA 3-mm band spectrum for LSB (top) and USB (bottom) with a 2″0 radius aperture. The dashed vertical line indicates the observed frequency of the expected far-IR lines based on the source redshift of z = 7.1899 determined by the [C ii] line. The blue curve is the best-fit Gaussian for the CO(7–6) line. The yellow shade indicates the velocity range used for the velocity-integrated map in the left panel.
Extended Data Fig. 5 1.3-mm continuum (top) and [C ii] (bottom) size measurement results.
Left: Observed map, which is the same as Extended Data Fig. 3a. Middle: Residual map by subtracting the best-fit model visibility obtained with uvmodelfit. For the dust continuum, we subtract the best-fit model visibility by fixing the major-axis effective radius as the upper limit value of re,FIR = 0.48 kpc. The visibility of ND1 is subtracted by assuming its profile as a point source before running uvmodelfit. Right: Amplitude as a function of uv distance. The black circles shows the observed visibility. The error bars show the standard error of the mean in each uv distance bin. The red curve denotes the best-fit uv model for the [C ii] line, while the red dashed curve for the dust continuum indicates the uv model with the upper limit size.
Extended Data Fig. 6 Optical luminosity vs. αox correlation.
The black and blue squares denote SDSS quasars18,80,169 at z ~ 0–4 and blue quasars76,81,82 at z > 5 respectively, taken from the literature. The arrows present the upper limits. The black line represents the best-fit relation based on 1544 quasars taken from the literature76. The gray shaded region denotes the 68th percentile derivation, evaluated by propagating the 1σ uncertainties of the parameters that define the best-fit relation. The αox upper limit of GNz7q (99% confidence level) is estimated after the extinction correction and deviated from the best-fit relation by more than 5σ.
Extended Data Fig. 7 Rest-frame UV size and luminosity relation.
The black and blue circles show the rest-frame UV size measurements in the literature for galaxies49,90 at z > 5.5 and for compact galaxies reported at z ~ 2–3, respectively16,89, but no objects similarly compact and luminous to GNz7q have been identified. The error bar denotes the 1σ measurement uncertainty, and the sources whose errors exceed the measurements are not presented. The dashed line indicates the SFR surface density (ΣSFR) by converting the UV luminosity to SFR111. If the compact UV emission in GNz7q is attributed to the star-forming activity, ΣSFR reaches ≳ 5,000 M⊙ yr−1 kpc−2. Note that the UV luminosity is the observed value, and thus ΣSFR of GNz7q after dust correction will be more extreme in the star-forming scenario.
Extended Data Fig. 8 NIR–MIR SED of GNz7q.
Left: Observed-frame SED of GNz7q traced by the Spitzer IRAC and MIPS 24 μm bands. The dark blue curve is the best-fit galaxy template (stellar continuum plus nebular emission from ionized gas in Hii regions) constrained at λobs < 10 μm. The thin light blue curves are additional galaxy templates that largely span the galaxy color space at lower redshifts93, and the thicker light blue curves are templates of nearby dusty starbursts M82 and Arp22094. The thick green curves are templates of Type 1 and 2 quasars94, and the brown curve is a composite spectrum of nearby quasars95. The light green curves show the broad-band SEDs of high-redshift quasars at 5 < z < 6.496 interpolated to the redshift of GNz7q. Other than the galaxy fit, all SEDs and templates are normalized to the observed 8 μm flux density of GNz7q. Right: Observed-frame MIR flux ratio diagram for the flux densities at 5.8 μm, 8 μm, and 24 μm as observed for GNz7q and integrated from the SEDs displayed in the left panel. No templates from stars and star formation alone (blue curves and points) can reproduce the flux enhancement at 24 μm (rest-frame 3 μm) of GNz7q, which is fully consistent with the colors of luminous quasars at both low and high redshifts and likely arises from hot dust associated with an active nucleus. The error bars are obtained by propagating the 1σ measurement uncertainty of each photometry.
Extended Data Fig. 9 L[CII] and LIR properties compared with other populations.
We show L[CII]/LIR as a function of LIR (a) and ΣLIR (b). For comparison, we also show observational results of local composite systems of AGN and starburst (black square), dusty starbursts at z ~ 0–7 (orange diamond), blue quasars at z ~ 6–7 (blue square), and red quasars at z ~ 3–5 (magenta square) taken from the literature6,42,48,117,122,128,133,134,170. GNz7q is at the extreme end of the relationship painted by known starbursts and quasars. The LIR values of the blue quasars are calculated by assuming the single modified blackbody (Td = 47 K; βd = 1.6), where the blue bar at the bottom left of the left panel shows a potential error scale with a change of Td by ± 10 K from the assumption. For GNz7q, the error bar is obtained by propagating the 1σ uncertainties of L[CII] and LIR.
Extended Data Fig. 10 Host galaxy properties compared with other populations at z > 6.
a–d, We show (a) SFR, (b) Mdust, (c) Mgas, (d) and τdepl. as a function of redshift. For comparison, we also show other galaxy populations with spectroscopic redshifts: blue quasars (blue square), red quasars (magenta circle and shaded region), Lyman-break galaxies (green triangle), and a dusty starburst galaxy (orange circle) that are taken from the literature6,25,136,42,48,85,117,123,137,138,139,140,141,142,143. The magenta shade represents the 68th percentile of the host galaxy properties of the super-Eddington accretion red quasar, W2246−0526, at z = 4.642,141. The host galaxy of GNz7q show the most vigorously star-forming system at z > 7 with the large gas reservoir. The filled and open symbols in c denote Mgas estimates from CO and [C ii] lines, respectively. The error bars of SFR and Mdust are estimated by propagating the 1σ measurement uncertainty and a 0.2-dex uncertainty of the Td assumption, when they are derived from a single submm-mm band (Section 8). The error bars of Mgas and τdepl. are estimated with the 1σ measurement uncertainty and the propagation from both SFR and Mgas uncertainties, respectively. For all populations, the different assumptions of the initial mass function and the dust opacity coefficient among the literature are corrected.
Extended Data Fig. 11 Mdyn and MBH relation.
The colour scale and the vertical range of red-shade regions correspond to those of Fig. 3. The red circle and the red-shade regions show the potential MBH range of GNz7q suggested by its faint Lbol and extremely faint X-ray property, respectively. The horizontal range of the red-shade regions indicates the 68th percentile of the Mdyn estimate from the [C ii] line. For comparison, we also present MBH and Mdyn (or Mstar) estimates for blue quasars at z ~ 6–7 (blue squares)47,127,128,146,147,148,150,151 and red quasars at z ~ 2 (magenta circles)132. The error bars denote the 1σ uncertainties taken from the literature. The Mdyn values from the kinematic analysis based on the 3D modeling are shown in the filled blue squares with the 1σ error bars146,147. The Mdyn measurements based on the rotation-disk assumption in the literature are shown by the open blue squares. The best-fit relation for the filled blue squares is shown by the blue line146. The black solid line represents the best-fit relation between the bulge mass and MBH among local quiescent galaxies152. The black dashed line denotes the best-fit relation between the stellar mass of the entire system and MBH among local AGNs153. The shaded regions present the 1σ confidence level for the best-fit relations.
Supplementary information
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fujimoto, S., Brammer, G.B., Watson, D. et al. A dusty compact object bridging galaxies and quasars at cosmic dawn. Nature 604, 261–265 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04454-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04454-1
This article is cited by
-
A high black-hole-to-host mass ratio in a lensed AGN in the early Universe
Nature (2024)
-
Evolutionary stages in a noninteger dimensional universe
Indian Journal of Physics (2023)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.