Detections of [O III] 88 µm in two quasars in the reionization epoch

Abstract

We report on detections with the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array of the far-infrared [O III] 88 μm line and the underlying dust continuum in two quasars in the reionization epoch, J205406.48-000514.8 (hereafter J2054-0005) at z = 6.0391 ± 0.0002 and J231038.88+185519.7 (hereafter J2310+1855) at z = 6.0035 ± 0.0007. The [O III] luminosities of J2054-0005 and J2310+1855 are L_{[O III]} = (6.8 ± 0.6) × 10⁹ and (2.4 ± 0.6) × 10⁹ L_⊙, corresponding to ∼0.05% and 0.01% of the total infrared luminosity, L_TIR, respectively. Combining these [O III] luminosities with [C II] 158 μm luminosities in the literature, we find that J2054-0005 and J2310+1855 have [O III]-to-[C II] luminosity ratios of 2.1 ± 0.4 and 0.3 ± 0.1, respectively, the latter of which is the lowest among objects so far reported at z > 6. Combining [O III] observations at z ≈ 6-9 from our study and the literature, we identify the [O III] line deficit: objects with a larger L_TIR (total infrared luminosity) have lower L_{[O III]}-to-L_TIR ratios. Furthermore, we also find that the anti-correlation is shifted toward a higher L_TIR value when compared with the local [O III] line deficit.