The evolution of faint AGN between z ' 1 and z ' 5 from the COMBO-17 survey

By Christian Wolf, L. Wisotzki, A. Borch, S. Dye, M. Kleinheinrich, K. Meisenheimer. 2003

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We present a determination of the optical/UV AGN luminosity function and its evolution, based on a large sample of faint (R< 24) QSOs identified in the COMBO-17 survey. Using multi-band photometry in 17 filters within 350 nm < obs < 930 nm, we could simultaneously determine photometric redshifts with an accuracy of z < 0:03 and obtain spectral energy distributions. The redshift range covered by the sample is 1:2 < z < 4:8, which implies that even at z' 3, the sample reaches below luminosities corresponding to MB= 23, conventionally employed to distinguish between Seyfert galaxies and quasars. We clearly detect a broad plateau-like maximum of quasar activity around z ' 2 and map out the smooth turnover between z' 1a ndz' 4. The shape of the LF is characterised by some mild curvature, but no sharp "break" is present within the range of luminosities covered. Using only the COMBO-17 data, the evolving LF can be adequately described by either a pure density evolution (PDE) or a pure luminosity evolution (PLE) model. However, the absence of a strong L-like feature in the shape of the LF inhibits a robust distinction between these modes. We present a robust estimate for the integrated UV luminosity generation by AGN as a function of redshift. We find that the LF continues to rise even at the lowest luminosities probed by our survey, but that the slope is suciently shallow that the contribution of low-luminosity AGN to the UV luminosity density is negligible. Although our sample reaches much fainter flux levels than previous data sets, our results on space densities and LF slopes are completely consistent with extrapolations from recent major surveys such as SDSS and 2QZ.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Instrumentation

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Citations in the corpus

The bolometric quasar luminosity function at z = 0–7 (2020, methodology): “For the observations compiled in Hopkins et al. (2007) (Kennefick et al. 1995; Schmidt et al. 1995a; Fan et al. 2001a,b, 2003, 2004; Wolf et al. 2003; Cristiani et al. 2004; Croom et al. 2004; Hunt et al. 2004; Richards et al. 2005, 2006b; Siana et al. 2006), we include only those whose quasar…”
Observational Constraints on Cosmic Reionization (2006, result): “J., 626: 657-665 Wolf et al. 2003Wolf, C., Wisotzki, L., Borch, A., Dye, S., Kleinheinrich, M., & Meisenheimer, K. 2003, A&A, 408: 499-514 Wouthuysen 1952Wouthuysen, S. 1952, AJ, 57, 31-33 Wyithe & Loeb 2003Wyithe, J. S. B., & Loeb, A. 2003, ApJ, 586, 693 Wyithe & Loeb 2004Wyithe, J. S. B., & Loeb,…”
A Unified, Merger-driven Model of the Origin of Starbursts, Quasars, the Cosmic X-Ray Background, Supermassive Black Holes, and Galaxy Spheroids (2005, unknown): “The intervals are those of the COMBO17 luminosity function from Wolf et al. (2003), but we further compare to the observed luminosity functions of Warren et al. (1994); Schmidt, Schneider, & Gunn (1995); Kennefick, Djorgovski, & De Carvalho (1995); Fan et al. (2001); Richards et al. (2005) at the…”
An Observational Determination of the Bolometric Quasar Luminosity Function (2006, background): “However, such a fit does exhibit smoother curvature rather than a sharp break at L , evidence for which has been seen in some optical samples (e.g., Wolf et al. 2003; Richards et al. 2005).”
CONSTRAINTS ON BLACK HOLE GROWTH, QUASAR LIFETIMES, AND EDDINGTON RATIO DISTRIBUTIONS FROM THE SDSS BROAD-LINE QUASAR BLACK HOLE MASS FUNCTION (2010, background): “The luminosity density of quasars peaks at z ∼ 2 (e.g., Wolf et al. 2003; Hopkins et al. 2007c), matching the peak in black hole mass density observed in our work.”
GEMS: Galaxy Evolution from Morphologies and SEDs (2004, background): “Recently, the COMBO-17 project (Wolf et al. 2001; Wolf et al. 2003a, W03) has af- forded a thirty-fold increase by number over the earlier redshift surveys [See also Fried et al. 2001; Im et al. 2002; Le Fevre et al. 2003; Davis et al. 2002 for other recent or ongoing surveys] .”
The X-Ray-to-Optical Properties of Optically Selected Active Galaxies over Wide Luminosity and Redshift Ranges (2006, background): “LDDE is not seen in deep optical AGN surveys where the OLFs of low-luminosity AGNs are not well constrained and are consistent with both PLE and pure density evolution (PDE) models (Wolf et al. 2003).”
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Survey: Quasar Luminosity Function from Data Release 3 (2006, methodology): “Small area samples such as the most sensitive hard X-ray surveys (Ueda et al. 2003; Barger et al. 2005) and the COMBO-17 survey (Wolf et al. 2003) primarily probe the low-luminosity end of the QLF, where the slope is flatter, thus it is not surprising that they systematically find flatter slopes…”
The luminosity dependence of the type 1 active galactic nucleus fraction (2005, background): “Wolf et al. (2003) find a downturn in the shape of the LF at faint absolute magnitudes (MB > −22, not probed by 2QZ) which allows the luminosity density integral to converge.”
The 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO Survey: the QSO luminosity function at 0.4 < z < 2.6 (2009, methodology): “The COMBO-17 LF (Wolf et al. 2003) is shown in Fig.”
DEEP EXTRAGALACTIC X-RAY SURVEYS (2005, background): “The current X-ray constraints at z > 4 are plausibly consistent with the optical luminosity function from COMBO-17 (Wolf et al. 2003).”
LOW-RESOLUTION SPECTRAL TEMPLATES FOR ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI AND GALAXIES FROM 0.03 TO 30 μm (2010, background): “In particular, the addition of narrow and medium photometric bands observations can help constrain the photometric redshifts for AGNs, as shown by Wolf et al. (2003), who obtained a dispersion of σ = 0.03 for AGNs in the COMBO-17 survey, and by Salvato et al. (2009), who obtained σ/(1 + z) ∼ 0.015…”
Cosmological simulations of black hole growth: AGN luminosities and downsizing (2013, background): “The downsizing trend is also seen in the optical (Wolf et al. 2003; Cristiani et al. 2004; Croom et al. 2004; Fan et al. 2004; Hunt et al. 2004; Richards et al. 2006) and the near-infrared (NIR; e.g. Matute et al. 2006).”
THE SDSS-III BARYON OSCILLATION SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY: THE QUASAR LUMINOSITY FUNCTION FROM DATA RELEASE NINE (2012, background): “…Richards et al. 2009) and since that time, there has been a large effort to measure the QLF in the UV/optical (Boyle et al. 2000; Fan et al. 2001; Wolf et al. 2003; Hunt et al. 2004; Fan et al. 2004; Croom et al. 2004; Hao et al. 2005; Richards et al. 2005, 2006b; Fan et al. 2006; Jiang et al.…”
Galaxy Zoo: 'Hanny's Voorwerp', a quasar light echo? (2009, background): “It has long been clear that the AGN population evolves over time (see e.g. Boyle et al. 2000; Wolf et al. 2003; Richards et al. 2006), but it is harder to constrain the time-scales on which individual objects undergo change.”
The XMM-Newton Wide-Field Survey in the COSMOS Field. I. Survey Description (2006, background): “The most recent deep optical surveys reach surface densities of ∼250 deg−2 in the case of COMBO–17 (Classifying Objects by Medium-Band Observations – a spectrophotometric 17–filter survey) (Wolf et al. 2003), and ∼470 deg−2 (Gavignaud et al. 2006) in the case of the Virmos–VLT Deep Survey (VVDS).”
The Fall of Active Galactic Nuclei and the Rise of Star-forming Galaxies: A Close Look at the Chandra Deep Field X-Ray Number Counts (2004, background): “…densities of 7166þ304 292 sources deg 2 (soft band) and 4558þ216 207 sources deg 2 (hard band), which are factors of 10–20 higher than the 300–500 sources deg 2 found in the deepest optical spectroscopic AGN surveys (e.g., Hall et al. 2000; Steidel et al. 2002; Wolf et al. 2003; Hunt et al. 2004).”