We have investigated a sample of 5088 quasars from the SDSS DR2 in order to determine how the frequency and properties of BALs depend on black hole mass, bolometric luminosity, Eddington fraction (L/L_Edd_), and spectral slope. We focus only on high-ionization BALs and find a number of significant results. While quasars accreting near the Eddington limit are more likely to show BALs than lower L/LEdd systems, BALs are present in quasars accreting at only a few percent Eddington. We find a stronger effect with bolometric luminosity, such that the most luminous quasars are more likely to show BALs. There is an additional effect, previously known, that BAL quasars are redder on average than unabsorbed quasars. The strongest effects involving the quasar physical properties and BAL properties are related to terminal outflow velocity. Maximum observed outflow velocities increase with both the bolometric luminosity and the blueness of the spectral slope, suggesting that the ultraviolet luminosity to a great extent determines the acceleration. These results support the idea of outflow acceleration via ultraviolet line scattering.
We constructed a sample of 185 flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) by cross-correlating Shen et al.'s (2006MNRAS.369.1639S) Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 3 (SDSS DR3) X-ray quasar sample with the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty Centimeters (FIRST) and Green Bank 6-cm survey (GB6) radio catalogues. From the spectral energy distribution (SED) constructed using multi-band (radio, UV, optical, infrared and X-ray) data, we derived the synchrotron peak frequency and peak luminosity. The black hole mass MBH and the broad-line region (BLR) luminosity (then the bolometric luminosity Lbol) were obtained by measuring the linewidth and strength of broad emission lines from SDSS spectra. We define a subsample of 118 FSRQs for which non-thermal jet emission is thought to dominate over thermal emission from the accretion disc and host galaxy.
The aim of this project is to identify low-redshift host galaxies of quasar absorption-line systems by selecting galaxies that are seen in projection onto quasar sightlines. To this end, we use the Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to construct a parent sample of 97489 galaxy/quasar projections at impact parameters of up to 100 kpc to the foreground galaxy. We then search the quasar spectra for absorption-line systems of CaII and NaI within +/-500km/s1 of the galaxy's velocity. This yields 92 CaII and 16 NaI absorption systems.
Isolated galaxies in low-density regions are significant in the sense that they are least affected by the hierarchical pattern of galaxy growth and interactions with perturbers, at least for the last few gigayears. To form a comprehensive picture of the star-formation history of isolated galaxies, we constructed a catalog of isolated galaxies and their comparison sample in relatively denser environments. The galaxies are drawn from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 in the redshift range of 0.025<z<0.044. We performed a visual inspection and classified their morphology following the Hubble classification scheme. For the spectroscopic study, we make use of the catalog provided by Oh et al. (2011ApJS..195...13O). We confirm most of the earlier understanding on isolated galaxies. The most remarkable additional results are as follows. Isolated galaxies are dominantly late type with the morphology distribution (E:S0:S:Irr)=(9.9:11.3:77.6:1.2)%. The frequency of elliptical galaxies among isolated galaxies is only a third of that of the comparison sample. Most of the photometric and spectroscopic properties are surprisingly similar between the isolated and comparison samples. However, early-type isolated galaxies are less massive by 50% and younger (by H{beta}) by 20% than their counterparts in the comparison sample. This can be explained as a result of different merger and star-formation histories for differing environments in the hierarchical merger paradigm.
We study the baryon content of low-mass galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS DR8), focusing on galaxies in isolated environments where the complicating physics of galaxy-galaxy interactions are minimized. We measure neutral hydrogen (HI) gas masses and line widths for 148 isolated galaxies with stellar mass between 10^7^ and 10^9.5^M_{sun}_. We compare isolated low-mass galaxies to more massive galaxies and galaxies in denser environments by remeasuring HI emission lines from the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA survey 40% data release. All isolated low-mass galaxies either have large atomic gas fractions or large atomic gas fractions cannot be ruled out via their upper limits. We measure a median atomic gas fraction of f_gas_=0.81+/-0.13 for our isolated low-mass sample with no systems below 0.30. At all stellar masses, the correlations between galaxy radius, baryonic mass, and velocity width are not significantly affected by environment. Finally, we estimate a median baryon to total dynamical mass fraction of f_baryon,disk_=0.15+/-0.17. We also estimate two different median baryon to halo mass fractions using the results of semi-analytic models (f_baryon,disk_=0.04+/-0.06) and abundance matching (f_baryon,halo_=0.04+/-0.02). Baryon fractions estimated directly using HI observations appear independent of environment and maximum circular velocity, while baryon fractions estimated using abundance matching show a significant depletion of baryons at low maximum circular velocities.
We present a spectroscopic catalog of 70,841 visually inspected M dwarfs from the seventh data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. For each spectrum, we provide measurements of the spectral type, a number of molecular band heads, and the H{alpha}, H{beta}, H{gamma}, H{delta}, and CaII-K emission lines. In addition, we calculate the metallicity-sensitive parameter {zeta} and identify a relationship between {zeta} and the g-r and r-z colors of M dwarfs. We assess the precision of our spectral types (which were assigned by individual examination), review the bulk attributes of the sample, and examine the magnetic activity properties of M dwarfs, in particular those traced by the higher order Balmer transitions. Our catalog is cross-matched to 2MASS infrared data, and contains photometric distances for each star. Finally, we identify eight new late-type M dwarfs that are possibly within 25 pc of the Sun. Future studies will use these data to thoroughly examine magnetic activity and kinematics in late-type M dwarfs and examine the chemical and dynamical history of the local Milky Way.
SDSS-DR7 optical spectra analysis of radio galaxies
Short Name:
J/ApJ/765/62
Date:
21 Oct 2021
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
We study a large sample of narrow-line radio galaxies (NLRGs) with extended radio structures. Using 1.4GHz radio luminosities L_1.4_, narrow optical emission line luminosities L_[OIII]_ and L_Halpha_, as well as black hole masses M_BH_ derived from stellar velocity dispersions measured from the optical spectra obtained with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we find that (1) NLRGs cover about four decades of the Eddington ratio, {lambda}{equiv}L_bol_/L_Edd_{prop.to}L_line_/M_BH_; (2) L_1.4_/M_BH_ strongly correlates with {lambda}; and (3) radio loudness, R=L_1.4_/L_Line_, strongly anti-correlates with {lambda}. A very broad range of the Eddington ratio indicates that the parent population of NLRGs includes both radio-loud quasars (RLQs) and broad-line radio galaxies (BLRGs). The correlations they obey and their high jet production efficiencies favor a jet production model which involves the so-called magnetically choked accretion scenario. In this model, production of the jet is dominated by the Blandford-Znajek mechanism, and the magnetic fields in the vicinity of the central black hole are confined by the ram pressure of the accretion flow. Since large net magnetic flux accumulated in central regions of the accretion flow required by the model can take place only via geometrically thick accretion, we speculate that the massive, "cold" accretion events associated with luminous emission-line active galactic nucleus can be accompanied by an efficient jet production only if preceded by a hot, very sub-Eddington accretion phase.
We report the results of a systematic search for signatures of metal lines in quasar spectra of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data release 3 (DR3), focusing on finding intervening absorbers via detection of their OVI doublet. Here, we present the search algorithm and criteria for distinguishing candidates from spurious Ly{alpha} forest lines. In addition, we compare our findings with simulations of the Ly{alpha} forest in order to estimate the detectability of OVI doublets over various redshift intervals. We have obtained a sample of 1756 OVI doublet candidates with rest-frame equivalent width (EW)>=0.05{AA} in 855 active galactic nuclei spectra (out of 3702 objects with redshifts in the accessible range for OVI detection).
From the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 12, which covers the full Baryonic Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) footprint, we investigate the possible variation of the fine-structure constant over cosmological time-scales. We analyse the largest quasar sample considered so far in the literature, which contains 13175 spectra (10363 from SDSS-III/BOSS DR12+2812 from SDSS-II DR7) with redshift z<1. We apply the emission-line method on the [OIII] doublet ({lambda}{lambda}4960, 5008{AA}) and obtain {Delta}{alpha}/{alpha}=(0.9+/-1.8)x10^-5^ for the relative variation of the fine-structure constant. We also investigate the possible sources of systematics: misidentification of the lines, sky OH lines, H{beta} and broad line contamination, Gaussian and Voigt fitting profiles, optimal wavelength range for the Gaussian fits, chosen polynomial order for the continuum spectrum, signal-to-noise ratio and good quality of the fits. The uncertainty of the measurement is dominated by the sky subtraction. The results presented in this work, being systematics limited, have sufficient statistics to constrain robustly the variation of the fine-structure constant in redshift bins ({Delta}z~0.06) over the last 7.9Gyr. In addition, we study the [NeIII] doublet ({lambda}{lambda}3869, 3968{AA}) present in 462 quasar spectra and discuss the systematic effects on using these emission lines to constrain the fine-structure constant variation. Better constraints on {Delta}{alpha}/{alpha}(<10^-6^) using the emission-line method would be possible with high-resolution spectroscopy and large galaxy/qso surveys.
The spectrum of a quasar contains important information about its properties. Thus, it can be expected that two quasars with similar spectra will have similar properties, but just how similar has not before been quantified. Here we compare the ultraviolet spectra of a sample of 5553 quasars from Data Release 7 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, focusing on the 1350{AA}<={lambda}<=2900{AA} rest-frame region which contains prominent emission lines from SiIV, OIV], CIV, CIII], and MgII species. We use principal component analysis to determine the dominant components of spectral variation, as well as to quantitatively measure spectral similarity. As suggested by both the Baldwin effect and modified Baldwin effect, quasars with similar spectra have similar properties: bolometric luminosity, Eddington fraction, and black hole mass. The latter two quantities are calculated from the luminosity in conjunction with spectral features, and the variation between quasars with virtually identical spectra (which we call doppelgangers) is driven by the variance in the luminosity plus measurement uncertainties. In the doppelgangers the luminosity differences show 1{sigma} uncertainties of 57 per cent (or 0.63mag) and ~70 per cent 1{sigma} uncertainties for mass and Eddington fraction. Much of the difference in luminosities may be attributable to time lags between the spectral lines and the continuum. Furthermore, we find that suggestions that the mostly highly accreting quasars should be better standard candles than other quasars are not borne out for doppelgangers. Finally, we discuss the implications for using quasars as cosmological probes and the nature of the first two spectral principal components.
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