The WISSH quasars project VII. Outflows and metals in the circumgalactic medium around the hyper-luminous z~3.6 quasar J1538+08
Abstract
During the last years, Lyα nebulae have been routinely detected around high-z, radio-quiet quasars (RQQs) thanks to the advent of sensitive integral field spectrographs. Constraining the physical properties of the Lyα nebulae is crucial for a full understanding of the circum-galactic medium (CGM), which is a venue of feeding and feedback processes. The most luminous quasars are privileged test-beds to study these processes, given their large ionizing fluxes and dense CGM environments in which they are expected to be embedded. We aim at characterizing the rest-frame UV emission lines in the CGM around a hyper-luminous, broad emission line, RQQ at z~3.6, that exhibits powerful outflows at both nuclear and host galaxy scales. We analyze VLT/MUSE observations of the quasar J1538+08 and perform a search for extended UV emission lines to characterize its morphology, emissivity, kinematics and metal content. We report the discovery of a very luminous (2 ×1044~erg~s-1), giant Lyα nebula and a likely associated extended CIV nebula. The Lyα nebula emission exhibits moderate blueshift compared with the quasar systemic redshift and large average velocity dispersion (σv ~700 km~s-1) across the nebula, while the CIV nebula shows σv~350~km~s-1. The Lyα line profile exhibits a significant asymmetry towards negative velocity values at 20-30 kpc south of the quasar and is well parameterized by two Gaussian components: a narrow (σ~470~km~s-1) systemic one plus a broad (σ~1200 km~s-1), blueshifted (~1500 km~s-1) one. Our analysis of the MUSE observation of J1538+08 reveals metal-enriched CGM around this hyper-luminous quasar and our detection of blueshifted emission in the line profile of the Lyα nebula suggests that powerful nuclear outflows can propagate through the CGM over tens of kpc.