In this paper we probe the hot , post-shock gas component of quasar-driven winds through the thermal Sunyaev-Zel ’ dovich ( tSZ ) effect .
Combining datasets from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope , the Herschel Space Observatory , and the Very Large Array , we measure average spectral energy distributions ( SEDs ) of 109,829 optically-selected , radio quiet quasars from 1.4 GHz to 3000 GHz in six redshift bins between 0.3 < z < 3.5 .
We model the emission components in the radio and far-infrared , plus a spectral distortion from the tSZ effect .
At z > 1.91 , we measure the tSZ effect at 3.8 \sigma significance with an amplitude corresponding to a total thermal energy of 3.1 \times 10 ^ { 60 } ergs .
If this energy is due to virialized gas , then our measurement implies quasar host halo masses are \sim 6 \times 10 ^ { 12 } \leavevmode \nobreak h ^ { -1 } M _ { \odot } .
Alternatively , if the host dark matter halo masses are \sim 2 \times 10 ^ { 12 } \leavevmode \nobreak h ^ { -1 } M _ { \odot } as some measurements suggest , then we measure a > 90 per cent excess in the thermal energy over that expected due to virialization .
If the measured SZ effect is primarily due to hot bubbles from quasar-driven winds , we find that ( 5 ^ { +1.2 } _ { -1.3 } ) per cent of the quasar bolometric luminosity couples to the intergalactic medium over a fiducial quasar lifetime of 100 Myr .
An additional source of tSZ may be correlated structure , and further work is required to separate the contributions .
At z \leq 1.91 , we detect emission at 95 and 148 GHz that is in excess of thermal dust and optically thin synchrotron emission .
We investigate potential sources of this excess emission , finding that CO line emission and an additional optically thick synchrotron component are the most viable candidates .