Quasar Radiative Feedback May Suppress Galaxy Growth on Intergalactic Scales at $z = 6.3$
Yongda Zhu, Eiichi Egami, Xiaohui Fan, Fengwu Sun, George D. Becker, Christopher Cain, Huanqing Chen, Anna-Christina Eilers, Yoshinobu Fudamoto, Jakob M. Helton, Xiangyu Jin, Maria Pudoka, Andrew J. Bunker, Zheng Cai, Jaclyn B. Champagne, Zhiyuan Ji, Xiaojing Lin, Weizhe Liu, Hai-Xia Ma, Zheng Ma, Roberto Maiolino, George H. Rieke, Marcia J. Rieke, Pierluigi Rinaldi, Yang Sun, Wei Leong Tee, Feige Wang, Jinyi Yang, Minghao Yue, Junyu Zhang
公開日: 2025/8/29
Abstract
We present observational evidence that intense ionizing radiation from a luminous quasar suppresses nebular emission in nearby galaxies on intergalactic scales at $z=6.3$. Using JWST/NIRCam grism spectroscopy from the SAPPHIRES and EIGER programs, we identify a pronounced decline in [O III] $\lambda5008$ luminosity relative to the UV continuum ($L_{5008}/L_{1500}$) among galaxies within $\sim$10 comoving Mpc (cMpc) of the quasar J0100$+$2802, the most UV-luminous quasar known at this epoch ($M_{1450}=-29.26$). While $L_{1500}$ remains roughly constant with transverse distance, $L_{5008}$ increases significantly, suggesting suppression of very recent star formation toward the quasar. The effect persists after controlling for completeness, local density, and UV luminosity, and correlates with the projected photoionization-rate profile $\Gamma_{\mathrm{qso}}$. A weaker but directionally consistent suppression in $L_{5008}/L_{1500}$ is also observed along the line of sight. The transverse suppression radius ($\sim$8-10 cMpc) implies a recent radiative episode with a cumulative duration $\sim$4.5 Myr, shorter than required for thermal photoheating to dominate and thus more naturally explained by rapid H$_2$ photodissociation and related radiative processes. Environmental effects alone appear insufficient to explain the signal. Our results provide direct, geometry-based constraints on large-scale quasar radiative feedback and recent quasar lifetimes.