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441. Low-redshift QSOs in SDSS Stripe 82
ID:
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/441/1802
Title:
Low-redshift QSOs in SDSS Stripe 82
Short Name:
J/MNRAS/441/1802
Date:
21 Oct 2021
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
We study the environments of low-redshift (z<0.5) quasars based on a large and homogeneous data set from the Stripe 82 region of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We have compared the <1Mpc scale environments of 302 quasars that were resolved in our recent study to those of 288 inactive galaxies with closely matched redshifts. Crucially, the luminosities of the inactive galaxies and the quasar host galaxies are also closely matched, unlike in most previous studies. The environmental overdensities were studied by measuring the number density of galaxies within a projected distance of 200kpc to 1Mpc. The galaxy number density of the quasar environments is comparable to that of the inactive galaxies with similar luminosities, both classes of objects showing significant excess compared to the background galaxy density for distances <400kpc. There is no significant dependence of the galaxy number density on redshift, quasar or host galaxy luminosity, black hole mass or radio loudness. This suggests that the fuelling and triggering of the nuclear activity is only weakly dependent on the local environment of quasars, and the quasar phase may be a short-lived common phase in the life cycle of all massive galaxies.
442. Low-redshift quasars in SDSS Stripe 82
ID:
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/440/476
Title:
Low-redshift quasars in SDSS Stripe 82
Short Name:
J/MNRAS/440/476
Date:
21 Oct 2021
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
We present a photometrical and morphological study of the properties of low-redshift (z<0.5) quasars based on a large and homogeneous data set of objects derived from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7. This study over number by a factor of ~5 any other previous study of quasi-stellar object (QSO) host galaxies at low redshift undertaken either on ground or on space surveys. We used ~400 quasars that were imaged in the SDSS Stripe 82 that is up to 2mag deeper than standard Sloan images. For these quasars we undertake a study of the host galaxies and of their environments. In this paper we report the results for the quasar hosts. We are able to detect the host galaxy for more than 3/4 of the whole data set and characterize the properties of their hosts. We found that QSO hosts are dominated by luminous galaxies of absolute magnitude M*-3<M(R)<M*. For the unresolved objects we computed an upper limit to the host luminosity. For each well-resolved quasar we are also able to characterize the morphology of the host galaxy that turn out to be more complex than what found in previous studies. QSOs are hosted in a variety of galaxies from pure ellipticals to complex/composite morphologies that combine spheroids, disc, lens and halo. The black hole (BH) mass of the quasar, estimated from the spectral properties of the nuclei, is poorly correlated with the total luminosity of the host galaxy. However, taking into account only the bulge component we found a significant correlation between the BH mass and the bulge luminosity of the host.
443. Low-z BQS Quasars
ID:
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/263/425
Title:
Low-z BQS Quasars
Short Name:
J/MNRAS/263/425
Date:
21 Oct 2021
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
(no description available)
444. LQRF: Large Quasar Reference Frame
ID:
ivo://CDS.VizieR/I/313
Title:
LQRF: Large Quasar Reference Frame
Short Name:
I/313
Date:
21 Oct 2021
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
The LQRF (Large Quasar Reference Frame) was built with the care of avoiding wrong matches of its constituents quasars, of homogenizing the astrometry from the different catalogs and lists from which the constituent quasars are gathered, and of attaining the milli-arcsec global alignment to the ICRF (International Celestial Reference Frame), as well as typical individual source position accuracies even to better than 100 milli-arcsec. Starting from the updated and presumably complete LQAC (Large Quasar Astrometric Catalog) list of QSOs, initial optical positions for those quasars are found in the USNO B1.0 and GSC2.3 catalogs, and from the SDSS Data Release 5. The initial positions are next placed onto UCAC2 based reference frames, following by an alignment to the ICRF, as well as of the most precise sources from the VLBA calibrator list and from the VLA calibrator list - when reliable optical counterparts exist. Finally the LQRF axes are inspected through spherical harmonics, contemplating right ascension, declination and magnitude terms.
445. Luminosity function of broad-line quasars
ID:
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/746/169
Title:
Luminosity function of broad-line quasars
Short Name:
J/ApJ/746/169
Date:
21 Oct 2021
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
We jointly constrain the luminosity function (LF) and black hole mass function (BHMF) of broad-line quasars with forward Bayesian modeling in the quasar mass-luminosity plane, based on a homogeneous sample of ~58000 Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7 quasars at z~0.3-5. We take into account the selection effect of the sample flux limit; more importantly, we deal with the statistical scatter between true BH masses and FWHM-based single-epoch virial mass estimates, as well as potential luminosity-dependent biases of these mass estimates. The LF is tightly constrained in the regime sampled by SDSS and makes reasonable predictions when extrapolated to ~3 mag fainter. Downsizing is seen in the model LF. On the other hand, we find it difficult to constrain the BHMF to within a factor of a few at z >~ 0.7 (with Mg II and C IV-based virial BH masses). This is mainly driven by the unknown luminosity-dependent bias of these mass estimators and its degeneracy with other model parameters, and secondly driven by the fact that SDSS quasars only sample the tip of the active BH population at high redshift. Nevertheless, the most likely models favor a positive luminosity-dependent bias for Mg II and possibly for C IV, such that at fixed true BH mass, objects with higher-than-average luminosities have overestimated FWHM-based virial masses. There is tentative evidence that downsizing also manifests itself in the active BHMF, and the BH mass density in broad-line quasars contributes an insignificant amount to the total BH mass density at all times. Within our model uncertainties, we do not find a strong BH mass dependence of the mean Eddington ratio, but there is evidence that the mean Eddington ratio (at fixed BH mass) increases with redshift.
446. Luminosity function of broad-line quasars. II.
ID:
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/764/45
Title:
Luminosity function of broad-line quasars. II.
Short Name:
J/ApJ/764/45
Date:
21 Oct 2021
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
We employ a flexible Bayesian technique to estimate the black hole (BH) mass and Eddington ratio functions for Type 1 (i.e., broad line) quasars from a uniformly selected data set of ~58000 quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR7. We find that the SDSS becomes significantly incomplete at M_BH_<~3x10^8^M_{sun}_ or L/L_Edd_<~0.07, and that the number densities of Type 1 quasars continue to increase down to these limits. Both the mass and Eddington ratio functions show evidence of downsizing, with the most massive and highest Eddington ratio BHs experiencing Type 1 quasar phases first, although the Eddington ratio number densities are flat at z<2. We estimate the maximum Eddington ratio of Type 1 quasars in the observable universe to be L/L_Edd_~3. Consistent with our results in Shen & Kelly (Paper I, Cat. J/ApJ/746/169), we do not find statistical evidence for a so-called sub-Eddington boundary in the mass-luminosity plane of broad-line quasars, and demonstrate that such an apparent boundary in the observed distribution can be caused by selection effect and errors in virial BH mass estimates. Based on the typical Eddington ratio in a given mass bin, we estimate growth times for the BHs in Type 1 quasars and find that they are comparable to or longer than the age of the universe, implying an earlier phase of accelerated (i.e., with higher Eddington ratios) and possibly obscured growth. The large masses probed by our sample imply that most of our BHs reside in what are locally early-type galaxies, and we interpret our results within the context of models of self-regulated BH growth.
447. Luminous dust-poor SDSS QSOs at z<4.5
ID:
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/779/104
Title:
Luminous dust-poor SDSS QSOs at z<4.5
Short Name:
J/ApJ/779/104
Date:
21 Oct 2021
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
We identify and characterize a population of luminous, dust-poor quasars at 0<z<5 that is photometrically similar to objects previously found at z>6. This class of active galactic nuclei is known to show little IR emission from dusty structure, but it is poorly understood in terms of number evolution and dependence on physical quantities. To better understand the properties of these quasars, we compile a rest-frame UV to IR library of 41000 optically selected type 1 quasars with L_bol_>10^45.7^erg/s. After fitting the broadband spectral energy distributions (SEDs) with accretion disk and dust components, we find 0.6% of our sample to be hot dust-poor, with rest-frame 2.3{mu}m to 0.51{mu}m flux density ratios of -0.5dex or less. The dust-poor SEDs are blue in the UV-optical and weak in the mid-IR, such that their accretion disks are less obscured and the hot dust emission traces that of warm dust down to the dust-poor regime. At a given bolometric luminosity, dust-poor quasars are lower in black hole mass and higher in Eddington ratio than general luminous quasars, suggesting that they are in a rapidly growing evolutionary state in which the dust-poor phase appears as a short or rare phenomenon. The dust-poor fraction increases with redshift, and possible implications for their evolution are discussed.
448. Luminous K-band selected QSOs from UKIDSS
ID:
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/386/1605
Title:
Luminous K-band selected QSOs from UKIDSS
Short Name:
J/MNRAS/386/1605
Date:
21 Oct 2021
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
The largest K-band flux-limited sample of luminous quasars to date has been constructed from the UKIRT (UK Infrared Telescope) Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) Large Area Survey Early Data Release, covering an effective area of 12.8deg^2^. Exploiting the K-band excess (KX) of all quasars with respect to foreground stars, including quasars experiencing dust reddening and objects with non-standard spectral energy distributions (SEDs), a list of targets suitable for spectroscopic follow-up observations with the AAOmega multi-object spectrograph is constructed, resulting in more than 200 confirmed active galactic nuclei (AGN). KX selection successfully identifies as quasar candidates objects that are excluded from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) quasar selection algorithm due to their colours being consistent with the stellar locus in optical colour space (with the space density of the excluded objects agreeing well with results from existing completeness analyses). Nearly half of the KX-selected quasars with K<=17.0 at z<3 are too faint in the i band to have been targeted by the SDSS quasar selection algorithm, revealing a large population of quasars with red i-K colours.
449. Luminous of high-z QSOs with SDSS and WISE. II
ID:
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/829/33
Title:
Luminous of high-z QSOs with SDSS and WISE. II
Short Name:
J/ApJ/829/33
Date:
21 Oct 2021
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
This is the second paper in a series on a new luminous z~5 quasar survey using optical and near-infrared colors. Here we present a new determination of the bright end of the quasar luminosity function (QLF) at z~5. Combining our 45 new quasars with previously known quasars that satisfy our selections, we construct the largest uniform luminous z~5 quasar sample to date, with 99 quasars in the range of 4.7<=z<5.4 and -29<M_1450_<=-26.8, within the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) footprint. We use a modified 1/V_a_ method including flux limit correction to derive a binned QLF, and we model the parametric QLF using maximum likelihood estimation. With the faint-end slope of the QLF fixed as {alpha}=-2.03 from previous deeper samples, the best fit of our QLF gives a flatter bright end slope {beta}=-3.58+/-0.24 and a fainter break magnitude M_1450_^*^=-26.98+/-0.23 than previous studies at similar redshift. Combined with previous work at lower and higher redshifts, our result is consistent with a luminosity evolution and density evolution model. Using the best-fit QLF, the contribution of quasars to the ionizing background at z~5 is found to be 18%-45% with a clumping factor C of 2-5. Our sample suggests an evolution of radio loud fraction with optical luminosity but no obvious evolution with redshift.
450. Luminous radio galaxies & type-2 quasars
ID:
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/436/997
Title:
Luminous radio galaxies & type-2 quasars
Short Name:
J/MNRAS/436/997
Date:
21 Oct 2021
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
We present the results of a comparison between the environments of (1) a complete sample of 46 southern 2-Jy radio galaxies at intermediate redshifts (0.05<z<0.7), (2) a complete sample of 20 radio-quiet type-2 quasars (0.3<=z<=0.41), and (3) a control sample of 107 quiescent early-type galaxies at 0.2<=z<0.7 in the Extended Groth Strip. The environments have been quantified using angular clustering amplitudes (Bgq) derived from deep optical imaging data. Based on these comparisons, we discuss the role of the environment in the triggering of powerful radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars. When we compare the Bgq distributions of the type-2 quasars and quiescent early-type galaxies, we find no significant difference between them. This is consistent with the radio-quiet quasar phase being a short-lived but ubiquitous stage in the formation of all massive early-type galaxies. On the other hand, powerful radio galaxies are in denser environments than the quiescent population, and this difference between distributions of Bgq is significant at the 3{sigma} level. This result supports a physical origin of radio loudness, with high-density gas environments favouring the transformation of active galactic nucleus (AGN) power into radio luminosity, or alternatively, affecting the properties of the supermassive black holes themselves. Finally, focusing on the radio-loud sources only, we find that the clustering of weak-line radio galaxies (WLRGs) is higher than the strong-line radio galaxies (SLRGs), constituting a 3{sigma} result. 82 percent of the 2-Jy WLRGs are in clusters, according to our definition (Bgq>~400), versus only 31 percent of the SLRGs.