- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/243/1
- Title:
- A catalogue of faint UV-excess objects
- Short Name:
- J/MNRAS/243/1
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Spectra, positions, magnitudes and colours are presented for 1400 faint (B<~21mag) stellar objects identified in a complete, ultraviolet-excess (UVX) survey. The objects were selected from COSMOS machine measurements of UK Schmidt U and J plates and observed with the Fibre Optic Coupled Aperture Plate (FOCAP) system at the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT). In total, 420 QSOs were identified, of which nine belong to the broad absorption line (BAL) class of QSOs. A further 57 galaxies with narrow emission lines were found. Halo subdwarfs from the vast majority (~90 per cent) of the 824 galactic stars identified in this survey; the remaining galactic stars are comprised principally of hot white dwarfs (42 objects) and horizontal branch stars (nine objects). Updated versions of the QSO number-magnitude relation and luminosity function derived from this survey are also presented in this paper.
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- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/737/101
- Title:
- AGN pairs from SDSS-DR7. I.
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/737/101
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Galaxy-galaxy mergers and close interactions have long been regarded as a viable mechanism for channeling gas toward the central supermassive black holes (SMBHs) of galaxies which are triggered as active galactic nuclei (AGNs). AGN pairs, in which the central SMBHs of a galaxy merger are both active, are expected to be common from such events. We conduct a systematic study of 1286 AGN pairs at \bar{z}~0.1 with line-of-sight velocity offsets {Delta}v<600km/s and projected separations r_p_<100h^-1^_70_kpc, selected from the Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS, Cat. II/294). This AGN pair sample was drawn from 138070 AGNs optically identified based on diagnostic emission line ratios and/or line widths. The fraction of AGN pairs with 5h^-1^_70_kpc<~r_p_<100h^-1^_70_kpc among all spectroscopically selected AGNs at 0.02<z<0.16 is 3.6% after correcting for SDSS spectroscopic incompleteness; ~30% of these pairs show morphological tidal features in their SDSS images, and the fraction becomes >~80% for pairs with the brightest nuclei.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/887/268
- Title:
- Bright QSOs in Southern Hemisphere (QUBRICS)
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/887/268
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The study of absorptions along the lines of sight to bright high-z QSOs is an invaluable cosmological tool that provides a wealth of information on the inter-/circum-galactic medium, dark matter, primordial elements, reionization, fundamental constants, and general relativity. Unfortunately, the number of bright (i<~18) QSOs at z>~2 in the southern hemisphere is much lower than that in the north, due to the lack of wide multiwavelength surveys at decl. {delta}<0{deg}, hampering the effectiveness of observations from southern observatories. In this work we present a new method based on Canonical Correlation Analysis to identify such objects, taking advantage of a number of available databases: Skymapper, Gaia DR2, WISE, and 2MASS. Our QSO candidate sample lists 1476 sources with i<18 over 12400deg^2^ in the southern hemisphere. With a preliminary campaign we observed spectroscopically 69 of them, confirming 54 new bright QSOs at z>2.5, corresponding to a success rate of our method of ~80%. Furthermore, we estimate a completeness of ~90% of our sample at completion of our observation campaign. The new QSOs confirmed by this first and the forthcoming campaigns (QUBRICS survey) will be the targets of subsequent studies using higher resolution spectrographs, like ESPRESSO, UVES, and (in the long term) ELT/HIRES.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/655/A109
- Title:
- Chandra view of the LX-LUV relation in quasars
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/655/A109
- Date:
- 22 Feb 2022
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present a study of the relation between X-rays and ultraviolet emission in quasars for a sample of broad-line, radio-quiet objects obtained from the cross-match of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR14 with the latest Chandra Source Catalog 2.0 (2332 quasars) and the Chandra COSMOS Legacy survey (273 quasars). The non-linear relation between the ultraviolet (at 2500{AA}, LUV) and the X-ray (at 2keV, LX) emission in quasars has been proved to be characterised by a smaller intrinsic dispersion than the observed one, as long as a homogeneous selection, aimed at preventing the inclusion of contaminants in the sample, is fulfilled. By leveraging on the low background of Chandra, we performed a complete spectral analysis of all the data available for the SDSS-CSC2.0 quasar sample (i.e. 3430 X-ray observations), with the main goal of reducing the uncertainties on the source properties (e.g. flux, spectral slope). We analysed whether any evolution of the LX-LUV relation exists by dividing the sample in narrow redshift intervals across the redshift range spanned by our sample, z~=0.5-4. We find that the slope of the relation does not evolve with redshift and it is consistent with the literature value of 0.6 over the explored redshift range, implying that the mechanism underlying the coupling of the accretion disc and hot corona is the same at the different cosmic epochs. We also find that the dispersion decreases when examining the highest redshifts, where only pointed observations are available. These results further confirm that quasars are 'standardisable candles', that is we can reliably measure cosmological distances at high redshifts where very few cosmological probes are available.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/883/78
- Title:
- Column densities of CGM absorption lines
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/883/78
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We investigate the geometric distribution of gas metallicities in the circumgalactic medium (CGM) around 47, z<0.7 galaxies from the "Multiphase Galaxy Halos" Survey. Using a combination of quasar spectra from Hubble Space Telescope (HST)/COS and from Keck/HIRES or Very Large Telescope/UVES, we measure column densities of, or determine limits on, CGM absorption lines. We then use a Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach with Cloudy to estimate the metallicity of cool (T~10^4^K) CGM gas. We also use HST images to determine host-galaxy inclination and quasar-galaxy azimuthal angles. Our sample spans a HI column density range of 13.8cm^-2^<logN_HI_<19.9cm^-2^. We find (1) while the metallicity distribution appears bimodal, a Hartigan dip test cannot rule out a unimodal distribution (0.4{sigma}). (2) CGM metallicities are independent of halo mass, spanning three orders of magnitude at a fixed halo mass. (3) The CGM metallicity does not depend on the galaxy azimuthal and inclination angles regardless of HI column density, impact parameter, and galaxy color. (4) The ionization parameter does not depend on azimuthal angle. We suggest that the partial Lyman limit metallicity bimodality is not driven by a spatial azimuthal bimodality. Our results are consistent with simulations where the CGM is complex and outflowing, accreting, and recycled gas are well-homogenized at z<0.7. The presence of low-metallicity gas at all orientations suggests that cold streams of accreting filaments are not necessarily aligned with the galaxy plane at low redshifts or intergalactic transfer may dominate. Finally, our results support simulations showing that strong metal absorption can mask the presence of low-metallicity gas in integrated line-of-sight CGM metallicities.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/871/258
- Title:
- ELQS in SDSS. III. The full ELQS quasar catalog
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/871/258
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We have designed the Extremely Luminous Quasar Survey (ELQS) to provide a highly complete census of unobscured UV-bright quasars during the cosmic noon, z=2.8-5.0. Here we report the discovery of 70 new quasars in the ELQS South Galactic Cap (ELQS-S) quasar sample, doubling the number of known extremely luminous quasars in 4237.3deg^2^ of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey footprint. These observations conclude the ELQS and we present the properties of the full ELQS quasar catalog, containing 407 quasars over 11838.5deg^2^. Our novel ELQS quasar selection strategy resulted in unprecedented completeness at the bright end and allowed us to discover 109 new quasars in total. This marks an increase of ~36% (109/298) in the known population at these redshifts and magnitudes, while we further are able to retain a selection efficiency of ~80%. On the basis of 166 quasars from the full ELQS quasar catalog, which adhere to the uniform criteria of the Two Micron All Sky Survey point source catalog, we measure the bright-end quasar luminosity function (QLF) and extend it one magnitude brighter than previous studies. Assuming a single power law with exponential density evolution for the functional form of the QLF, we retrieve the best-fit parameters from a maximum likelihood analysis. We find a steep bright-end slope of {beta}~-4.1, and we can constrain the bright-end slope to {beta}<=-3.4 with 99% confidence. The density is well modeled by the exponential redshift evolution, resulting in a moderate decrease with redshift ({gamma}~-0.4).
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/865/56
- Title:
- Emission line & R-band continuum LCs of 17 QSOs
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/865/56
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present reverberation mapping (RM) results for 17 high-redshift, high-luminosity quasars with good-quality R-band and emission-line light curves. We are able to measure statistically significant lags for Ly{alpha} (11 objects), Si IV (5 objects), C IV (11 objects), and C III] (2 objects). Using our results and previous lag determinations taken from the literature, we present an updated C IV radius-luminosity relation and provide for the first time radius-luminosity relations for Ly{alpha}, Si IV, and C III]. While in all cases the slopes of the correlations are statistically significant, the zero points are poorly constrained because of the lack of data at the low- luminosity end. We find that the emissivity-weighted distances from the central source of the Ly{alpha}, Si IV, and C III] line-emitting regions are all similar, which corresponds to about half that of the H{beta} region. We also find that 3/17 of our sources show an unexpected behavior in some emission lines, two in the Ly{alpha} light curve and one in the Si IV light curve, in that they do not seem to follow the variability of the UV continuum. Finally, we compute RM black hole (BH) masses for those quasars with highly significant lag measurements and compare them with C IV single-epoch (SE) mass determinations. We find that the RM-based BH mass determinations seem smaller than those found using SE calibrations.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/757/51
- Title:
- FIRST-2MASS dust-reddened QSO spectra
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/757/51
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present a sample of 120 dust-reddened quasars identified by matching radio sources detected at 1.4GHz in the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty Centimeters survey (FIRST) with the near-infrared Two Micron All Sky Survey catalog (2MASS) and color-selecting red sources. Optical and/or near-infrared spectroscopy provide broad wavelength sampling of their spectral energy distributions that we use to determine their reddening, characterized by E(B-V). We demonstrate that the reddening in these quasars is best described by Small-Magellanic-Cloud-like dust. This sample spans a wide range in redshift and reddening (0.1<~z<~3, 0.1<~E(B-V)<~1.5), which we use to investigate the possible correlation of luminosity with reddening. At every redshift, dust-reddened quasars are intrinsically the most luminous quasars. We interpret this result in the context of merger-driven quasar/galaxy co-evolution where these reddened quasars are revealing an emergent phase during which the heavily obscured quasar is shedding its cocoon of dust prior to becoming a "normal" blue quasar. When correcting for extinction, we find that, depending on how the parent population is defined, these red quasars make up <~15%-20% of the luminous quasar population. We estimate, based on the fraction of objects in this phase, that its duration is 15%-20% as long as the unobscured, blue quasar phase.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/874/8
- Title:
- Follow-up spectroscopy of SDSS changing-look QSOs
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/874/8
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) that show strong rest-frame optical/UV variability in their blue continuum and broad line emission are classified as changing-look AGN, or at higher luminosities, changing-look quasars (CLQs). These surprisingly large and sometimes rapid transitions challenge accepted models of quasar physics and duty cycles, offer several new avenues for study of quasar host galaxies, and open a wider interpretation of the cause of differences between broad and narrow-line AGN. To better characterize extreme quasar variability, we present follow-up spectroscopy as part of a comprehensive search for CLQs across the full Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) footprint using spectroscopically confirmed quasars from the SDSS DR7 catalog. Our primary selection requires large-amplitude (|{Delta}g|>1mag, |{Delta}r|>0.5mag) variability over any of the available time baselines probed by the SDSS and Pan-STARRS 1 surveys. We employ photometry from the Catalina Sky Survey to verify variability behavior in CLQ candidates where available, and confirm CLQs using optical spectroscopy from the William Herschel, MMT, Magellan, and Palomar telescopes. For our adopted signal-to-noise ratio threshold on variability of broad H{beta} emission, we find 17 new CLQs, yielding a confirmation rate of >~20%. These candidates are at lower Eddington ratio relative to the overall quasar population, which supports a disk-wind model for the broad line region. Based on our sample, the CLQ fraction increases from 10% to roughly half as the continuum flux ratio between repeat spectra at 3420{AA} increases from 1.5 to 6. We release a catalog of more than 200 highly variable candidates to facilitate future CLQ searches.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJS/193/28
- Title:
- Galaxy survey around 20 UV-bright quasars
- Short Name:
- J/ApJS/193/28
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We publish the survey for galaxies in 20 fields containing ultraviolet bright quasars (with z_em_~0.1-0.5) that can be used to study the association between galaxies and absorption systems from the low-z intergalactic medium (IGM). The survey is magnitude limited (R~19.5mag) and highly complete out to 10' from the quasar in each field. It was designed to detect dwarf galaxies (L~0.1L*) at an impact parameter {rho}~1Mpc (z=0.1) from a quasar. The complete sample (all 20 fields) includes R-band photometry for 84718 sources and confirmed redshifts for 2800 sources. This includes 1198 galaxies with 0.005<z<(z_em_-0.01) at a median redshift of 0.18, which may associated with IGM absorption lines. All of the imaging was acquired with cameras on the Swope 40" telescope and the spectra were obtained via slit mask observations using the WFCCD spectrograph on the Dupont 100" telescope at Las Campanas Observatory.