Probing the Wind Component of Radio Emission in Luminous High-Redshift Quasars

TL;DR

This study investigates the contribution of wind-related shocks to radio emission in high-redshift, radio-quiet quasars using deep radio observations, revealing complex origins involving jets, coronae, star formation, and accretion disk winds.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the origins of radio emission in radio-quiet quasars at high redshift, highlighting the roles of winds, jets, and star formation, based on combined VLA and LOFAR data.

Findings

Radio detection fraction varies with CIV emission-line properties.

Evidence suggests multiple origins of radio emission in radio-quiet quasars.

Radio emission correlates with Eddington ratio and accretion disk winds.

Abstract

We discuss a probe of the contribution of wind-related shocks to the radio emission in otherwise radio-quiet quasars. Given 1) the non-linear correlation between UV and X-ray luminosity in quasars, 2) that such correlation leads to higher likelihood of radiation-line-driven winds in more luminous quasars, and 3) that luminous quasars are more abundant at high redshift, deep radio observations of high-redshift quasars are needed to probe potential contributions from accretion disk winds. We target a sample of 50 $z\simeq 1.65$ color-selected quasars that span the range of expected accretion disk wind properties as traced by broad CIV emission. 3-GHz observations with the Very Large Array to an rms of $\approx10\mu$Jy beam$^{-1}$ probe to star formation rates of $\approx400\,M_{\rm Sun}\,{\rm yr}^{-1}$, leading to 22 detections. Supplementing these pointed observations are survey data of 388 sources from the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey Data Release 1 that reach comparable depth (for a typical radio spectral index), where 123 sources are detected. These combined observations reveal a radio detection fraction that is a non-linear function of \civ\ emission-line properties and suggest that the data may require multiple origins of radio emission in radio-quiet quasars. We find evidence for radio emission from weak jets or coronae in radio-quiet quasars with low Eddingtion ratios, with either (or both) star formation and accretion disk winds playing an important role in optically luminous quasars and correlated with increasing Eddington ratio. Additional pointed radio observations are needed to fully establish the nature of radio emission in radio-quiet quasars.