- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/867/131
- Title:
- Blazar candidates behind the Magellanic Clouds
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/867/131
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We report the identification of blazar candidates behind the Magellanic Clouds. The objects were selected from the Magellanic Quasars Survey (MQS), which targeted the entire Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and 70% of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). Among the 758 MQS quasars and 898 of the unidentified (featureless spectra) objects, we identified a sample of 44 blazar candidates, including 27 flat-spectrum radio quasars and 17 BL Lacertae objects, respectively. All the blazar candidates from our sample were identified with respect to their radio, optical, and midinfrared properties. The newly selected blazar candidates possess the long-term, multicolor photometric data from the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment, multicolor midinfrared observations, and archival radio data for one frequency at least. In addition, for nine of them, the radio polarization data are available. With such data, these objects can be used to study the physics behind the blazar variability detected in the optical and midinfrared bands, as a tool to investigate magnetic field geometry of the LMC and SMC, and as an exemplary sample of point-like sources most likely detectable in the {gamma}-ray range with the newly emerging Cherenkov Telescope Array.
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- 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/607/60
- Title:
- FIRST-2MASS faint sources
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/607/60
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We have constructed a sample of bright near-infrared sources that are detected at radio wavelengths but undetected on the first-generation Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSSI) plates in order to search for a population of dust-obscured quasars. Optical and infrared spectroscopic follow-up of the sample has led to the discovery of 17 heavily reddened quasars (B-K>6.5), 14 of which are reported here for the first time. This has allowed us to define a region in the R-K, J-K color plane in which 50% of the radio-selected objects are highly reddened quasars. We compare the surface density of this previously overlooked population to that of ultraviolet-excess radio-selected quasars, finding that they make up ~20% of the total quasar population for K<~15.5.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/863/144
- Title:
- The ELQS in SDSS footprint. II. North Gal. Cap
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/863/144
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present the North Galactic Cap sample of the Extremely Luminous Quasar Survey (ELQS-N), which targets quasars with M_1450_{<}-27 at 2.8<=z<5 in an area of ~7600deg^2^ of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) footprint with 90{deg}<RA<270{deg}. Based on a near-infrared/infrared JKW2 color cut, the ELQS selection efficiently uses random forest methods to classify quasars and to estimate photometric redshifts; this scheme overcomes some of the difficulties of pure optical quasar selection at z~3. As a result, we retain a completeness of >70% over z~3.0-5.0 at m_i_<~17.5, limited toward fainter magnitudes by the depth of the Two Micron All Sky Survey. The presented quasar catalog consists of a total of 270 objects, of which 39 are newly identified in this work with spectroscopy obtained at the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope and the MMT 6.5m telescope. In addition to the high completeness, which allowed us to discover new quasars in the already well-surveyed SDSS North Galactic Cap, the efficiency of our selection is relatively high at ~79%. Using 120 objects of this quasar sample we are able to extend the previously measured optical quasar luminosity function (QLF) by one magnitude toward the bright end at 2.8<=z<=4.5. A first analysis of the QLF suggests a relatively steep bright-end slope of {beta}~-4 for this sample. This result contrasts with previous results in the same redshift range, which find a much flatter slope around {beta}~-2.5, but agrees with recent measurements of the bright-end slope at lower and higher redshifts. Our results constrain the bright-end slope at z=2.8-4.5 to {beta}{<}-2.94 with a 99% confidence.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/844/78
- Title:
- The high-redshift COBRA survey: IRAC obs.
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/844/78
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present 190 galaxy cluster candidates (most at high redshift) based on galaxy overdensity measurements in the Spitzer/IRAC imaging of the fields surrounding 646 bent, double-lobed radio sources drawn from the Clusters Occupied by Bent Radio AGN (COBRA) Survey. The COBRA sources were chosen as objects in the Very Large Array FIRST survey that lack optical counterparts in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to a limit of m_r_=22, making them likely to lie at high redshift. This is confirmed by our observations: the redshift distribution of COBRA sources with estimated redshifts peaks near z=1 and extends out to z~3. Cluster candidates were identified by comparing our target fields to a background field and searching for statistically significant (>=2{sigma}) excesses in the galaxy number counts surrounding the radio sources; 190 fields satisfy the >=2{sigma} limit. We find that 530 fields (82.0%) have a net positive excess of galaxies surrounding the radio source. Many of the fields with positive excesses but below the 2{sigma} cutoff are likely to be galaxy groups. Forty-one COBRA sources are quasars with known spectroscopic redshifts, which may be tracers of some of the most distant clusters known.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJS/241/34
- Title:
- The SDSS Reverberation Mapping (SDSS-RM) project
- Short Name:
- J/ApJS/241/34
- Date:
- 07 Mar 2022 07:38:42
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present a detailed characterization of the 849 broad-line quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping (SDSS-RM) project. Our quasar sample covers a redshift range of 0.1<z<4.5 and is flux-limited to i_PSF_<21.7 without any other cuts on quasar properties. The main sample characterization includes: (1) spectral measurements of the continuum and broad emission lines for individual objects from the coadded first-season spectroscopy in 2014, (2) identification of broad and narrow absorption lines in the spectra, and (3) optical variability properties for continuum and broad lines from multi-epoch spectroscopy. We provide improved systemic redshift estimates for all quasars and demonstrate the effects of the signal-to-noise ratio on the spectral measurements. We compile measured properties for all 849 quasars along with supplemental multi-wavelength data for subsets of our sample from other surveys. The SDSS-RM sample probes a diverse range in quasar properties and shows well-detected continuum and broad-line variability for many objects from first-season monitoring data. The compiled properties serve as the benchmark for follow-up work based on SDSS-RM data.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/778/127
- Title:
- UKIDSS+FIRST+SDSS red QSOs candidates
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/778/127
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present the results of a pilot survey to find dust-reddened quasars by matching the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters (FIRST) radio catalog to the UKIDSS near-infrared survey and using optical data from Sloan Digital Sky Survey to select objects with very red colors. The deep K-band limit provided by UKIDSS allows for finding more heavily reddened quasars at higher redshifts as compared with previous work using FIRST and Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS). We selected 87 candidates with K<=17.0 from the UKIDSS Large Area Survey (LAS) First Data Release (DR1), which covers 190deg^2^. These candidates reach up to ~1.5mag below the 2MASS limit and obey the color criteria developed to identify dust-reddened quasars. We have obtained 61 spectroscopic observations in the optical and/or near-infrared, as well as classifications in the literature, and have identified 14 reddened quasars with E(B-V)>0.1, including 3 at z>2. We study the infrared properties of the sample using photometry from the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer and find that infrared colors improve the efficiency of red quasar selection, removing many contaminants in an infrared-to-optical color-selected sample alone. The highest-redshift quasars (z>~2) are only moderately reddened, with E(B-V)~0.2-0.3. We find that the surface density of red quasars rises sharply with faintness, comprising up to 17% of blue quasars at the same apparent K-band flux limit. We estimate that to reach more heavily reddened quasars (i.e., E(B-V)>~0.5) at z>2 and a depth of K=17, we would need to survey at least ~2.5 times more area.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/854/158
- Title:
- z<0.5 PG quasars IR energy distributions
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/854/158
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The interstellar medium is crucial to understanding the physics of active galaxies and the coevolution between supermassive black holes and their host galaxies. However, direct gas measurements are limited by sensitivity and other uncertainties. Dust provides an efficient indirect probe of the total gas. We apply this technique to a large sample of quasars, whose total gas content would be prohibitively expensive to measure. We present a comprehensive study of the full (1 to 500{mu}m) infrared spectral energy distributions of 87 redshift <0.5 quasars selected from the Palomar-Green sample, using photometric measurements from 2MASS, WISE, and Herschel, combined with Spitzer mid-infrared (5-40{mu}m) spectra. With a newly developed Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo fitting method, we decompose various overlapping contributions to the integrated spectral energy distribution, including starlight, warm dust from the torus, and cooler dust on galaxy scales. This procedure yields a robust dust mass, which we use to infer the gas mass, using a gas-to-dust ratio constrained by the host galaxy stellar mass. Most (90%) quasar hosts have gas fractions similar to those of massive, star-forming galaxies, although a minority (10%) seem genuinely gas-deficient, resembling present-day massive early-type galaxies. This result indicates that "quasar mode" feedback does not occur or is ineffective in the host galaxies of low-redshift quasars. We also find that quasars can boost the interstellar radiation field and heat dust on galactic scales. This cautions against the common practice of using the far-infrared luminosity to estimate the host galaxy star formation rate.
