An Observational Determination of the Bolometric Quasar Luminosity Function

By P. Hopkins, Gordon Richards, L. Hernquist. 2006

902 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We combine a large set of quasar luminosity function (QLF) measurements from the rest-frame optical, soft and hard X-ray, and near- and mid-IR bands to determine the bolometric QLF in the redshift interval z = 0-6. Accounting for the observed distributions of quasar column densities and variation of SED shapes, as well as their dependence on luminosity, makes it possible to integrate the observations in a reliable manner and provides a baseline in redshift and luminosity larger than that of any individual survey. We infer the QLF break luminosity and faint-end slope out to z ~ 4.5 and confirm at high significance (≳10 σ) previous claims of a flattening in both the faint- and bright-end slopes with redshift. With the best-fit estimates of the column density distribution and quasar SED, which both depend on luminosity, a single bolometric QLF self-consistently reproduces the observed QLFs in all bands and at all redshifts for which we compile measurements. Ignoring this luminosity dependence does not yield a self-consistent bolometric QLF and there is no evidence for any additional dependence on redshift. We calculate the expected relic black hole mass function and mass density, cosmic X-ray background, and ionization rate as a function of redshift and find that they are consistent with existing measurements. The peak in the total quasar luminosity density is well constrained at z = 2.15 ± 0.05. We provide a number of fitting functions to the bolometric QLF and its manifestations in various bands, as well as a script to return the QLF at arbitrary frequency and redshift from these fits.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3a3f5bfd455ed95640e8611a59fe5cccde4ffa5f

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

In Nuclear and High Energy Physics

Citations in the corpus

The 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO Survey: the QSO luminosity function at 0.4 < z < 2.6 (2009, methodology): “We follow a parametrization similar to that of Hopkins et al. (2007) and use α(z) = αref ( 1 + z 1 + zref )pα , (20) where zref is fixed at zref = 2.”
Accretion-driven evolution of black holes: Eddington ratios, duty cycles and active galaxy fractions (2011, methodology): “Following previous work (e.g., Elvis et al. 1994; Marconi et al. 2004; Shankar et al. 2004; Hopkins et al. 2007), we have so far assumed that the bolometric correction depends only on bolometric luminosity (all the X-ray data in SWM were converted to bolometric luminosities using the L-dependent…”
Accreting supermassive black holes in the COSMOS field and the connection to their host galaxies (2012, methodology): “Because the simulation assumes that the AGNs have a uniform distribution in AGN bolometric luminosity, we used the bolometric luminosity function of Hopkins et al. (2007) to derive statistical weights for the AGN sample, depending on their Lbol.”
Direct Cosmological Simulations of the Growth of Black Holes and Galaxies (2007, methodology): “…the emerging picture from analysis of our merger runs (Hopkins et al. 2006a), and they are also fully reproduced in a recent semianalytic model by Hopkins et al. (2007a) in which gas-rich mergers produce quasars and the evolution of the gas fraction andmerger rates drives their evolution and…”
Resolving the mid-infrared cores of local Seyferts (2009, background): “…emissions based on observations over limited energy ranges are crucial for computing the total accretion energyrelease in the Cosmos, as well as studying black hole growth and evolution (e.g. Elvis et al. 1994; Fabian & Iwasawa 1999; Marconi et al. 2004; Hopkins et al. 2007; Gilli et al. 2007).”
Evolution of the Intergalactic Opacity: Implications for the Ionizing Background, Cosmic Star Formation, and Quasar Activity (2008, methodology): “Denoting by ǫB the emissivity at 4400 Å and assuming LB ≡ νLν | 4400 Å , ǫcomB = ∫ ∞ 0 dLB dφ dLB LB ν| 4400 Å , (27) where dφ/dLB is the B-band luminosity function derived by Hopkins et al. (2007) from their full spectral and obscuration modeling in comoving units.”
The X-ray to optical-UV luminosity ratio of X-ray selected type 1 AGN in XMM-COSMOS (2009, background): “It is also a first step towards an estimate of the AGN bolometric luminosity function (Hopkins et al. 2007) and the mass function of Supermassive Black Holes (SMBHs) (e.g. Marconi et al. 2004), and towards the understanding ofthe structure of the AGN accretion disk and X-ray corona.”
Science with a lunar low-frequency array: From the dark ages of the Universe to nearby exoplanets (2009, methodology): “In current models of galaxy and black hole formation and evolution (e.g. Bower et al., 2006; Croton et al., 2006; Hopkins et al., 2007), this AGN feedback is key to regulating the growth of the black hole and establishing the locally observed correlation between black-hole mass and large-scale…”
Radio transients from stellar tidal disruption by massive black holes (2011, background): “…and sensitivity limit∼ 5 mJy atν ∼ 3.1 GHz, we estimate that∼ 100 tidal disruptions could be detected per year, assuming fiducial values for the jet properties from equation (9); a tidal disruption rate∼ 10−5 yr−1 per galaxy; and a local black hole density ∼ 3×10−3 Mpc−3 (e.g. Hopkins et al. 2007).”
The DESI Experiment Part I: Science,Targeting, and Survey Design (2016, background): “14, along with previous estimates from [226] (25% lower) or from the LSST science book [227, 228] (40% higher).”
COSMIC REIONIZATION AFTER PLANCK: COULD QUASARS DO IT ALL? (2015, background): “Note that this emissivity does not drop at high redshift like, e.g., the LyC emissiv- ity of luminous quasars inferred by Hopkins et al. (2007) (see Fig.”
Dissipation and Extra Light in Galactic Nuclei. I. Gas-Rich Merger Remnants (2008, methodology): “While the central profiles of these objects are certainly interesting (and are considered in Hopkins et al. 2007e), they do not directly inform the history of gas-rich mergers and are therefore not the subject of our investigation here.”
A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies. I. Galaxy Mergers and Quasar Activity (2007, methodology): “…our halo occupationmodel predicts of orderk3 satellite M galaxies), and the expectation from a secular model, in which quasar clustering traces the observed clustering of star-forming galaxies (taken from the observations collected in Hopkins et al. 2007d)—neither agrees with the observations.”
EDDINGTON-LIMITED ACCRETION AND THE BLACK HOLE MASS FUNCTION AT REDSHIFT 6 (2010, methodology): “Also plotted are z = 6 bolometric luminosity function models from Hopkins et al. (2007) and Shankar et al. (2009; based on the compilation of Shankar & Mathur 2007).”
New Measurements of the Ionizing Ultraviolet Background over 2 < z < 5 and Implications for Hydrogen Reionization (2013, methodology): “Haardt & Madau (2012), for example, adopt an AGN ionizing emissivity based on bolometric luminosity functions compiled by Hopkins et al. (2007) that is roughly a factor of two higher than the Cowie et al. (2009) estimates.”