First systematic search for oxygen-line blobs at high redshift: Uncovering agn feedback and star formation quenching

We present the first systematic search for extended metal-line [O II] λλ3726, 3729 nebulae, or [O II] blobs (O IIBs), at z = 1.2 using deep narrowband imaging with a survey volume of 1.9 × 10⁵ Mpc³ on the 0.62 deg² sky of Subaru-XMM Deep Survey (SXDS) field. We discover a giant O IIB, called "O IIB 1," with a spatial extent over ∼75 kpc at a spectroscopic redshift of z = 1.18, and also identify a total of 12 O IIBs with a size of >30 kpc. Our optical spectrum of O IIB 1 presents [Ne V] λ3426 line at the 6σ level, indicating that this object harbors an obscured type-2 active galactic nucleus (AGN). The presence of gas outflows in this object is suggested by two marginal detections of Fe II λ2587 absorption and Fe II* λ2613 emission lines both of which are blueshifted at as large as 500-600 km s^-1, indicating that the heating source of O IIB 1 is AGN or associated shock excitation rather than supernovae produced by starbursts. The number density of O IIB 1-type giant blobs is estimated to be ∼5 × 10^-6 Mpc^-3 at z ∼ 1.2, which is comparable with that of AGNs driving outflow at a similar redshift, suggesting that giant O IIBs are produced only by AGN activity. On the other hand, the number density of small O IIBs, 6 × 10^-5 Mpc^-3, compared to that of z ∼ 1 galaxies in the blue cloud in the same MB range, may imply that 3% of star-forming galaxies at z ∼ 1 are quenching star formation through outflows involving extended [O II] emission.