Infrared emission from $z \sim 6.5$ quasar host galaxies: a direct estimate of dust physical properties

TL;DR

This study uses ALMA observations to characterize dust properties in $z \\sim 6.5$ quasar host galaxies, revealing higher dust temperatures linked to increased star formation efficiency, and finds AGN presence does not bias infrared measurements.

Contribution

First detailed infrared emission analysis of $z \\sim 6.5$ quasar hosts combining new ALMA Band 8 data with archival observations.

Findings

Dust temperature is higher (34-65 K) compared to local galaxies.

Star formation efficiency is increased in these quasar hosts.

AGN presence does not significantly bias infrared property estimates.

Abstract

Quasars at the dawn of Cosmic Time ($z>6$) are fundamental probes to investigate the early co-evolution of supermassive black holes and their host galaxy. Nevertheless, their infrared spectral energy distribution remains at the present time poorly constrained, due to the limited photometric coverage probing the far-infrared wavelength range where the dust modified black-body is expected to peak ($\sim80$ $\mathrm{\mu m}$). Here we present a study of the high-frequency dust emission via a dedicated ALMA Band 8 ($\sim$400 GHz) campaign targeting 11 quasar host galaxies at $6<z<7$. Combined with archival observations in other ALMA bands, this program enables a detailed characterization of their infrared emission, allowing for the derivation of dust masses ($M_{d}$), dust emissivity indexes ($\beta$), dust temperatures ($T_{d}$), infrared luminosities ($L_{IR}$), and associated star formation rates (SFRs). Our analysis confirms that dust temperature is on average higher in this sample (34-65 K) if compared to local main-sequence galaxies' values, and that this finding can be linked to the increased star formation efficiency we derive in our work, as also suggested by the [CII]$_{158\mu m}$ deficit. Most remarkably, we note that the average value of $T_d$ of this sample doesn't differ from the one that is observed in luminous, ultra-luminous and hyper-luminous infrared galaxies at different redshifts that show no signs of hosting a quasar. Finally, our findings suggest that the presence of a bright AGN does not significantly bias the derived infrared properties, although further high-frequency, high-spatial resolution observations might reveal more subtle impacts on sub-kiloparsec scales.