Subaru High- z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs) – XXV. Large-scale environments of low-luminosity quasars at z ∼ 6 traced by Ly α emitters

ABSTRACT High-z quasars are believed to reside in massive dark matter haloes, suggesting that they reside in galaxy overdense regions. However, previous observations have shown a range of environments around them. These fields have been limited to luminous quasars ($M_{1450}\lesssim -25$), for which photoevaporation may hinder galaxy formation in their vicinity. Here, we present Subaru/Hyper-Suprime Cam observations of the environments of four low-luminosity quasars ($-24\lt M_{1450}\lt -22$) at $z\sim 6.18$, which are expected to have a smaller photoevaporation effect. We detect Lyman $\alpha$ emitters (LAEs) with narrow-band NB872 imaging, and measure the local LAE overdensity. One quasar (J0844–0132) resides in an overdense region ($\delta _\mathrm{LAE}=1.97\pm 0.40$), whereas the other three fields are consistent with no overdensity. These results hold over the proximity zone of each quasar, suggesting that the diverse environment around quasars is independent of photoevaporation. We find no significant correlation between the LAE overdensities and the characteristics of host galaxies and supermassive black holes. Our quasars have host stellar mass measurements from JWST, allowing us to compare them with the LAE overdensity around galaxies without quasar activity with comparable stellar masses. We find that the LAE overdensity in the J0844–0132 field is stronger than that of galaxies with similar stellar mass at $z\sim 6$.