SDSS-V: Revealing a weak accretion state in X-ray selected red quasars

TL;DR

This study presents the first large X-ray sample of red quasars, revealing their intrinsic X-ray weakness, high gas absorption, and suggesting they are in a distinct evolutionary phase with suppressed black hole accretion.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive multi-wavelength analysis of 380 red quasars, highlighting their X-ray properties and proposing a new understanding of their evolutionary stage.

Findings

Red quasars are intrinsically X-ray weak compared to blue quasars.

Over 50% of red quasars have low X-ray luminosities below 10^{43.5} erg s^{-1}.

X-ray absorption likely arises from dust-free gas near the supermassive black hole.

Abstract

Red quasars (rQSOs) have been recognized as a short-lived, early stage in the evolutionary cycle of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), with fundamental differences in their intrinsic properties compared to blue quasars (bQSOs). In this work, we present the first large X-ray sample of 380 rQSOs, selected from the eROSITA/SDSS-V collaboration, providing uniform X-ray detection with optical spectroscopy accros half the sky, in the German hemisphere of eROSITA. We combine X-ray imaging, optical spectroscopy, and multi-wavelength photometry to fully probe the accretion, absorption and host properties of rQSOs. Independent Component Analysis is used to reconstruct optical spectra in a data-driven and non-parametric approach, while accounting for dust reddening and host contamination. rQSOs are intrinsically X-ray weak compared to bQSOs, with a higher fraction found at low X-ray luminosities (over 50$\%$ of the rQSO sample have $L_X < 10^{43.5} \, \rm erg \, s^{-1}$). We investigate the relative X-ray strength of rQSOs by measuring the spectral slope indicator $\alpha_{OX}$. Despite their suppressed X-ray emission, rQSOs are not optically faint, but show low $\alpha_{OX}$ values, indicating weak X-ray emission relative to their bright optical continua. X-ray spectral measurements reveal large gas column densities relative to optical reddening due to dust, implying that X-ray absorption could arise from dust-free gas close to the supermassive Black Hole (BH) rather than a classical dusty torus, while the dust responsible for optical reddening likely resides on larger host-galaxy scales or is associated with dusty gas carried in disc winds. rQSOs trace a phase of suppressed BH assembly relative to stellar mass growth, suggesting that they represent a distinct evolutionary stage where BH accretion is suppressed while the host galaxy continues to grow.