X-ray properties of z>6.5 quasars

TL;DR

This study presents X-ray observations of high-redshift quasars, revealing their spectral properties and luminosities, and finds no significant evolution in their X-ray to optical characteristics from early universe to present.

Contribution

First detailed X-ray analysis of z>6.5 quasars showing their spectral similarity to lower-redshift counterparts and identifying the most X-ray luminous quasar at z>6.5.

Findings

Two quasars detected with high significance.

X-ray spectral index consistent with lower-redshift quasars.

Most X-ray luminous quasar at z>6.5 identified.

Abstract

We present XMM-Newton X-ray observations and analysis of three DES $z>6.5$ quasars (VDES J0020$-$3653 at $z=6.824$, VDES J0244$-$5008 at $z=6.724$ and VDES J0224$-$4711 at $z=6.526$) and six other quasars with $6.438 < z < 6.747$ from the XMM-Newton public archive. Two of the nine quasars are detected at a high ($>$4$\sigma$) significance level: VDES J0224$-$4711(z=6.53) at $9\sigma$ and PSO J159$-$02 ($z=6.38$) at $8\sigma$. They have a photon index of $\Gamma=1.82^{+0.29}_{-0.27}$ and $\Gamma=1.94^{+0.31}_{-0.29}$ respectively, which is consistent with the mean value of $\sim1.9$ found for quasars at all redshifts. The rest-frame $2-10$ keV luminosity of VDES J0224$-$4711, is $L_{2-10\mathrm{keV}} = (2.92\pm0.43)\times10^{45}\;\mathrm{erg\;s^{-1}}$, which makes this quasar one of the most X-ray luminous quasars at $z>5.5$ and the most X-ray luminous quasar at $z>6.5$, with a luminosity 6 times and 2.5 times larger than ULAS J1120+0641 ($z=7.08$) and ULAS J1342+0928 ($z=7.54$) respectively. The X-ray-to-optical power-law slopes of the nine quasars are consistent with the previously observed anti-correlation of $\alpha_{ox}$ with UV luminosity $L_{2500\mathrm{\AA}}$. We find no evidence for evolution of $\alpha_{ox}$ with redshift when the anti-correlation with UV luminosity is taken into account. Similar to previous studies at z$\sim$6 we have found remarkably consistent X-ray spectral properties between low (z$\sim$1) and high-redshift quasars. Our results add further evidence to the picture that the observable properties of high luminosity quasars over the UV to X-ray spectral region have not evolved significantly from $z\sim7$ to the present day and that quasars comparable to local versions existed 800 million years after the big bang.