XMM-Newton observations of the extremely X-ray luminous quasar CFHQS J142952+544717=SRGE J142952.1+544716 at redshift z=6.18

TL;DR

This study reports on XMM-Newton observations of a high-redshift quasar, revealing its extreme X-ray luminosity, soft spectrum, and potential jet-related inverse Compton scattering, contributing to understanding early universe quasars.

Contribution

First detailed X-ray spectral analysis of a z=6.18 quasar showing extreme luminosity and soft spectrum, suggesting jet-related inverse Compton processes at high redshift.

Findings

Detected high X-ray luminosity of 5.5 x 10^46 erg/s

Observed a soft spectrum with photon index 2.5

Found excess absorption possibly at the quasar's redshift

Abstract

We present results from a 20 ks XMM-Newton DDT observation of the radio-load quasar CFHQS J142952+544717 at z=6.18, whose extreme X-ray luminosity was recently revealed by the SRG/eROSITA telescope in the course of its first all-sky survey. The quasar has been confidently detected with a total of $\sim 1400$ net counts in the 0.2-10 keV energy band (1.4 to 72 keV in the object's rest frame). Its measured spectrum is unusually soft and can be described by an absorbed power-law model with a photon index of $\Gamma = 2.5\pm0.2$. There are no signs of a high-energy cutoff or reflected component, with an 90 % upper limit on the fluorescence iron K$\alpha$ equivalent width of $\approx 290$ eV and the corresponding upper limit on the iron K-edge absorption depth of 0.6. We have detected, at the $> 95\%$ confidence level, an excess absorption above the Galactic value, corresponding to a column density $N_H= 3\pm2 \times 10^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$ of material located at z=6.18. The intrinsic luminosity of CFHQS J142952+544717 in the 1.4 to 72 keV energy band is found to be $5.5_{-0.6}^{+0.8} \times 10^{46}$ erg s$^{-1}$. We did not detect statistically significant flux changes between two SRG scans and the XMM-Newton observation, spanning over $\sim 7.5$ months, implying that the quasar remained at this extremely high luminosity level for at least a month in its rest frame. We put forward the hypothesis that the extreme X-ray properties of CFHQS J142952+544717 are associated with inverse Compton scattering of cosmic microwave background photons (at z=6.18) in its relativistic jets.