- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/620/A118
- Title:
- Highly Accreting Quasars: SDSS Low z Catalog
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/620/A118
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The most highly accreting quasars are of special interest in studies of the physics of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and host galaxy evolution. Quasars accreting at high rates (L/LEdd~1) hold promise for use as "standard candles": distance indicators detectable at very high redshift. However, their observational properties are still largely unknown. We seek to identify a significant number of extreme accretors. A large sample can clarify the main properties of quasars radiating near L/LEdd~1 (in this paper they are designated as extreme Population A quasars or simply as extreme accretors) in the H{beta} spectral range for redshift <~0.8. We use selection criteria derived from four-dimensional Eigenvector 1 (4DE1) studies to identify and analyze spectra for a sample of 334 candidate sources identified from the SDSS DR7 database. The source spectra were chosen to show a ratio R_FeII_ between the FeII emission blend at {lambda}4570 and H{beta}, R_FeII_ > 1. Composite spectra were analyzed for systematic trends as a function of FeII strength, line width, and [OIII] strength. We introduced tighter constraints on the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) and R_FeII_ values that allowed us to isolate sources most likely to be extreme accretors. We provide a database of detailed measurements. Analysis of the data allows us to confirm that H{beta} shows a Lorentzian function with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of H{beta}<=4000km/s. We find no evidence for a discontinuity at 2000km/s in the 4DE1, which could mean that the sources below this FWHM value do not belong to a different AGN class. Systematic [OIII] blue shifts, as well as a blueshifted component in H{beta} are revealed. We interpret the blueshifts as related to the signature of outflowing gas from the quasar central engine. The FWHM of H{beta} is still affected by the blueshifted emission; however, the effect is non-negligible if the FWHM H{beta} is used as a "virial broadening estimator" (VBE). We emphasize a strong effect of the viewing angle on H{beta} broadening, deriving a correction for those sources that shows major disagreement between virial and concordance cosmology luminosity values. The relatively large scatter between concordance cosmology and virial luminosity estimates can be reduced (by an order of magnitude) if a correction for orientation effects is included in the FWHM H{beta} value; outflow and sample definition yield relatively minor effects.
Number of results to display per page
Search Results
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/897/177
- Title:
- 142 high-redshift blazars at the cosmic dawn
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/897/177
- Date:
- 11 Mar 2022
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The uncharted territory of the high-redshift (z>~3) universe holds the key to understanding the evolution of quasars. In an attempt to identify the most extreme members of the quasar population, that is, blazars, we have carried out a multiwavelength study of a large sample of radio-loud quasars beyond z=3. Our sample consists of nine {gamma}-ray-detected blazars and 133 candidate blazars selected based on the flatness of their soft X-ray spectra (0.3-10keV photon index <~1.75), including 15 with Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) observations. The application of the likelihood profile stacking technique reveals that the high-redshift blazars are faint {gamma}-ray emitters with steep spectra. The high-redshift blazars host massive black holes (<logM_BH,M{odot}_>>9) and luminous accretion disks (<L_disk_>>10^46^erg/s). Their broadband spectral energy distributions are found to be dominated by high-energy radiation, indicating their jets are among the most luminous ones. Focusing on the sources exhibiting resolved X-ray jets (as observed with the Chandra satellite), we find the bulk Lorentz factor to be larger with respect to other z>3 blazars, indicating faster moving jets. We conclude that the presented list of high-redshift blazars may act as a reservoir for follow-up observations, such as with NuSTAR, to understand the evolution of relativistic jets at the dawn of the universe.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/568/A46
- Title:
- High redshift cosmic web with quasar systems
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/568/A46
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- To understand the formation, evolution, and present-day properties of the cosmic web we need to study it at low and high redshifts. We trace the cosmic web at redshifts 1.0<z<1.8 using the quasar (QSO) data from in the SDSS DR7 QSO catalogue. We apply a friend-of-friend (FoF) algorithm to the quasar and random catalogues to determine systems at a series of linking length, and analyse richness and sizes of these systems. At the linking lengths l<=30Mpc/h, the number of quasar systems is larger than the number of systems detected in random catalogues, and the systems themselves have smaller diameters than random systems. The diameters of quasar systems are comparable to the sizes of poor galaxy superclusters in the local Universe. The richest quasar systems have four members. The mean space density of quasar systems is close to the mean space density of local rich superclusters. At intermediate linking lengths (40<=l<=70Mpc/h), the richness and length of quasar systems are similar to those derived from random catalogues. Quasar system diameters are similar to the sizes of rich superclusters and supercluster chains in the local Universe. The percolating system, which penetrate the whole sample volume appears in a quasar sample at a smaller linking length than in random samples (85Mpc/h). At the linking length 70Mpc/h, the richest systems of quasars have diameters exceeding 500Mpc. Quasar luminosities in systems are not correlated with the system richness. Quasar system catalogues in our web pages and at the Strasbourg Astronomical Data Center (CDS) serve as a database for searching for superclusters of galaxies and for tracing the cosmic web at high redshifts.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/130/2453
- Title:
- 9 high-redshift ESSENCE supernovae
- Short Name:
- J/AJ/130/2453
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present broadband light curves of nine supernovae ranging in redshift from 0.5 to 0.8. The supernovae were discovered as part of the ESSENCE project, and the light curves are a combination of Cerro Tololo 4m and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) photometry. On the basis of spectra and/or light-curve fitting, eight of these objects are definitely Type Ia supernovae, while the classification of one is problematic. The ESSENCE project is a 5yr endeavor to discover about 200 high-redshift Type Ia supernovae, with the goal of tightly constraining the time average of the equation-of-state parameter [w=p/({rho}c^2^)] of the "dark energy." To help minimize our systematic errors, all of our ground-based photometry is obtained with the same telescope and instrument. In 2003 the highest redshift subset of ESSENCE supernovae was selected for detailed study with HST. Here we present the first photometric results of the survey.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/442/841
- Title:
- High-redshift galaxy clusters
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/442/841
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present new spectroscopic data in the field of five high-redshift (z>~0.6) candidate galaxy clusters, drawn from the EIS Cluster Candidate Catalog. A total of 327 spectra were obtained using FORS1 at the VLT, out of which 266 are galaxies with secure redshifts. In this paper, we use these data for confirming the existence of overdensities in redshift space at the approximate same location as the matched-filter detections in the projected distribution of galaxies from the EIS I-band imaging survey. The spectroscopic redshifts, associated to these overdensities, are consistent but, in general, somewhat lower than those predicted by the matched-filter technique. Combining the systems presented here with those analyzed earlier, we have spectroscopically confirmed a total of nine overdensities in the redshift range 0.6<z<1.3, providing an important first step in building an optically-selected, high-redshift sample for more detailed studies, complementing those based on the few available X-ray selected systems.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/734/68
- Title:
- High redshift galaxy clusters in deep fields
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/734/68
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Identification of high-redshift clusters is important for studies of cosmology and cluster evolution. Using photometric redshifts of galaxies, we identify 631 clusters from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) wide field, 202 clusters from the CFHT deep field, 187 clusters from the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) field, and 737 clusters from the Spitzer Wide-area InfraRed Extragalactic Survey (SWIRE) field. The redshifts of these clusters are in the range 0.1<~z<~1.6. Merging these cluster samples gives 1644 clusters in the four survey fields, of which 1088 are newly identified and more than half are from the large SWIRE field. Among 228 clusters of z>=1, 191 clusters are newly identified, and most of them from the SWIRE field. With this large sample of high-redshift clusters, we study the color evolution of the brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs).
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/725/394
- Title:
- High-redshift Ly{alpha} emitters
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/725/394
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present an atlas of 88 z~5.7 and 30 z~6.5 Ly{alpha} emitters obtained from a wide-field narrowband survey. We combined deep narrowband imaging in 120{AA} bandpass filters centered at 8150{AA} and 9140{AA} with deep BVRIz broadband imaging to select high-redshift galaxy candidates over an area of 4180arcmin^2^. The goal was to obtain a uniform selection of comparable depth over the seven targeted fields in the two filters. For the GOODS-North region of the Hubble Deep Field-North field, we also selected candidates using a 120{AA} filter centered at 9210{AA}. We made spectroscopic observations with Keck DEIMOS of nearly all the candidates to obtain the final sample of Ly{alpha} emitters. At the 3.3{AA} resolution of the DEIMOS observations the asymmetric profile for Ly{alpha} emission can be clearly seen in the spectra of nearly all the galaxies. We show that the spectral profiles are surprisingly similar for many of the galaxies and that the composite spectral profiles are nearly identical at z=5.7 and z=6.5.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/761/112
- Title:
- High-redshift MgII absorption QSOs with FIRE
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/761/112
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present initial results from the first systematic survey for Mg II quasar absorption lines at z>2.5. Using infrared spectra of 46 high-redshift quasars, we discovered 111 Mg II systems over a path covering 1.9<z<6.3. Five systems have z>5, with a maximum of z=5.33 --the most distant Mg II system now known. The comoving Mg II line density for weaker systems (W_r_<1.0{AA}) is statistically consistent with no evolution from z=0.4 to 5.5, while that for stronger systems increases three-fold until z~3 before declining again toward higher redshifts. The equivalent width distribution, which fits an exponential, reflects this evolution by flattening as z-->3 before steepening again. The rise and fall of the strong absorbers suggests a connection to the star formation rate density, as though they trace galactic outflows or other byproducts of star formation. The weaker systems' lack of evolution does not fit within this interpretation, but may be reproduced by extrapolating low redshift scaling relations between host galaxy luminosity and absorbing halo radius to earlier epochs. For the weak systems, luminosity-scaled models match the evolution better than similar models based on Mg II occupation of evolving cold dark matter halo masses, which greatly underpredict dN/dz at early times unless the absorption efficiency of small halos is significantly larger at early times. Taken together, these observations suggest that the general structure of Mg II-bearing halos was put into place early in the process of galaxy assembly. Except for a transient appearance of stronger systems near the peak epoch of cosmic star formation, the basic properties of Mg II absorbers have evolved fairly little even as the (presumably) associated galaxy population grew substantially in stellar mass and half-light radius.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/693/8
- Title:
- High-redshift QSOs in the COSMOS survey
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/693/8
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present a new measurement of the space density of high-redshift (z~3.0-4.5), X-ray-selected quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) obtained by exploiting the deep and uniform multiwavelength coverage of the COSMOS survey. We have assembled a large (40 objects), homogeneous sample of z>3 QSOs with X-ray flux F0.5-2keV>10^-15^erg/cm^2^/s, and available spectroscopic (22) or photometric (18) redshifts. We discuss their optical (color-color diagrams) and X-ray properties, their number counts and space densities and compare our findings with previous works and model predictions.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/675/49
- Title:
- High-redshift QSOs in the SWIRE survey
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/675/49
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We use a simple optical/infrared (IR) photometric selection of high-redshift QSOs that identifies a Lyman break in the optical photometry and requires a red IR color to distinguish QSOs from common interlopers. The search yields 100 z~3 (U-dropout) QSO candidates with 19<r'<22 over 11.7deg^2^ in the ELAIS-N1 (EN1) and ELAIS-N2 (EN2) fields of the Spitzer Wide-area Infrared Extragalactic (SWIRE) Legacy Survey. The z~3 selection is reliable, with spectroscopic follow-up of 10 candidates confirming that they are all QSOs at 2.83<z<3.44. We find that our z~4 (g'-dropout) sample suffers from both unreliability and incompleteness but present seven previously unidentified QSOs at 3.50<z<3.89.
