A Potential Link between Nuclear Winds and Cold Gas Outflows on Kiloparsec Scales in Reionization-era Quasars
Journal article, 2026
Feedback from accreting supermassive black holes may regulate galaxy evolution, but statistical evidence linking nuclear winds to kiloparsec-scale cold gas outflows remains limited in the early Universe. Here, we report statistical evidence for such a connection in a sample of luminous quasars at z ∼ 5.5. We compare stacked [C ii] 158 μm emission profiles from Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations, which trace galactic-scale neutral gas, for quasars with and without broad absorption lines (BALs) that indicate powerful nuclear winds on subkiloparsec scales. A total of 5 BAL and 11 non-BAL quasar spectra are included in the stacking analysis. The BAL quasar stack exhibits a potential blueshifted broad component in the [C ii] line profile, with a velocity offset of Δvb = −2.1 × 102 km s−1 and a full width at half-maximum of 1.18 × 103 km s−1, whereas the non-BAL stack shows no obvious broad component. Using a conservative “clean-stack” selection that excludes quasars with partial [C ii] spectral coverage, the BAL broad residual is reduced to a hint-level feature. We estimate that up to a few percent to one quarter of the nuclear wind energy may be transferred to cold neutral gas on kiloparsec scales. Although the sample size is limited, these results suggest a potential link between BAL winds and cold gas feedback in quasar host galaxies. These results provide empirical motivation for future tests of how multiphase outflows relate to the diversity of quasar host properties, including M BH/M*.
Author
Yongda Zhu
University of Arizona
M. Rieke
University of Arizona
Luis C. Ho
Beijing University of Technology
Yang Sun
University of Arizona
G. H. Rieke
University of Arizona
Feng Yuan
Fudan University
Tom Bakx
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics
George D. Becker
University of California
Jinyi Yang
University of Michigan
Eduardo Bañados
Max Planck Society
M. Bischetti
Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste
University of Pisa
Christopher Cain
Arizona State University
Xiaohui Fan
University of Arizona
Yoshinobu Fudamoto
University of Arizona
Chiba University
Seyedazim Hashemi
University of California
Ryota Ikeda
The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI)
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
Zhiyuan Ji
University of Arizona
Xiangyu Jin
University of Arizona
Weizhe Liu
University of Arizona
Yichen Liu
University of Arizona
Jianwei Lyu
University of Arizona
Hai Xia Ma
Nagoya University
Tsutomu T. Takeuchi
Nagoya University
The Institute of Statistical Mathematics
H. Umehata
Nagoya University
Feige Wang
University of Michigan
Wei Leong Tee
University of Arizona
Astrophysical Journal
0004-637X (ISSN) 1538-4357 (eISSN)
Vol. 1000 2 312Subject Categories (SSIF 2025)
Fusion, Plasma and Space Physics
Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Cosmology
DOI
10.3847/1538-4357/ae4ed1