THE z = 5 QUASAR LUMINOSITY FUNCTION FROM SDSS STRIPE 82

By I. McGreer, Linhua Jiang, Xiaohui Fan, Gordon Richards, M. Strauss, N. Ross, M. White, M. White, Yue Shen, D. Schneider and 6 more. 2012

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We present a measurement of the Type I quasar luminosity function at z = 5 using a large sample of spectroscopically confirmed quasars selected from optical imaging data. We measure the bright end (M1450 < −26) with Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data covering ∼6000 deg2, then extend to lower luminosities (M1450 < −24) with newly discovered, faint z ∼ 5 quasars selected from 235 deg2 of deep, coadded imaging in the SDSS Stripe 82 region (the celestial equator in the Southern Galactic Cap). The faint sample includes 14 quasars with spectra obtained as ancillary science targets in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, and 59 quasars observed at the MMT and Magellan telescopes. We construct a well-defined sample of 4.7 < z < 5.1 quasars that is highly complete, with 73 spectroscopic identifications out of 92 candidates. Our color selection method is also highly efficient: of the 73 spectra obtained, 71 are high-redshift quasars. These observations reach below the break in the luminosity function (). The bright-end slope is steep (β ≲ −4), with a constraint of β < −3.1 at 95% confidence. The break luminosity appears to evolve strongly at high redshift, providing an explanation for the flattening of the bright-end slope reported previously. We find a factor of ∼2 greater decrease in the number density of luminous quasars (M1450 < −26) from z = 5 to z = 6 than from z = 4 to z = 5, suggesting a more rapid decline in quasar activity at high redshift than found in previous surveys. Our model for the quasar luminosity function predicts that quasars generate ∼30% of the ionizing photons required to keep hydrogen in the universe ionized at z = 5.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4673d126e8f685574214fab909011fee6956a7b4

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Citations in the corpus

REIONIZATION AFTER PLANCK: THE DERIVED GROWTH OF THE COSMIC IONIZING EMISSIVITY NOW MATCHES THE GROWTH OF THE GALAXY UV LUMINOSITY DENSITY (2015, methodology): “Given that the faint-end slope α McGreer et al. (2013) find at z ∼ 5 is 2.03 0.14 0.15- - + , the luminosity density will be only logarithmically divergent, which for an integration to ∼−22 and ∼−16 mag (if such fainter quasars/ AGN exist in large numbers) would only increase the overall luminosity…”
THE SDSS-IV EXTENDED BARYON OSCILLATION SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY: QUASAR TARGET SELECTION (2015, background): “(e.g Filiz Ak et al. 2012, 2013, 2014; White et al. 2012; Alexandroff et al. 2013; Finley et al. 2013; McGreer et al. 2013; Ross et al. 2013; Vikas et al. 2013; Greene et al. 2014; Eftekharzadeh et al. 2015). eBOSS will seek to augment many of these measurements.”
The MassiveBlack-II simulation: The evolution of haloes and galaxies to z ~ 0 (2014, methodology): “We note that z > 5 predictions from MBII (and MB) are presented in DeGraf et al. (2012) and McGreer et al. (2013), and predictions for z = 2.0, 2.4, 3.2 compared to the most up-to-date BOSS QLF in Ross et al. (2013).”
THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY COADD: 275 deg2 OF DEEP SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY IMAGING ON STRIPE 82 (2011, methodology): “Jiang et al. (2008) used the coadd to discover five quasars at redshift ∼six and to compute the high redshift quasar luminosity function (see also McGreer et al. 2013).”
The bright end of the galaxy luminosity function at z≃7: before the onset of mass quenching? (2013, methodology): “…quasars, we compare the number densities of bright LBGs at c© 2013 RAS, MNRAS 000, 1–26 The bright end of the galaxy luminosity function at z ' 7 23 z = 7 to the predicted QLF at z = 7 by evolving the z = 5 QLF determined by McGreer et al. (2013) using the evolution model presented in their paper.”
THE PAN-STARRS1 DISTANT z > 5.6 QUASAR SURVEY: MORE THAN 100 QUASARS WITHIN THE FIRST GYR OF THE UNIVERSE (2016, unknown): “…(27) Mortlock et al. (2011), (28) Wang et al. (2011), (29) Zeimann et al. (2011), (30) Morganson et al. (2012), (31) Venemans et al. (2012), (32) McGreer et al. (2013), (33) Venemans et al. (2013), (34) Wang et al. (2013), (35) Willott et al. (2013), (36) Bañados et al. (2014), (37) Calura et…”
The bolometric quasar luminosity function at z = 0–7 (2020, methodology): “…compilation from Kulkarni et al. (2018) includes: Bongiorno et al. (2007); Siana et al. (2008); Jiang et al. (2009); Willott et al. (2010); Glikman et al. (2011); Masters et al. (2012); Palanque-Delabrouille et al. (2013); Ross et al. (2013); McGreer et al. (2013); Kashikawa et al. (2015).”
Evolution of the AGN UV luminosity function from redshift 7.5 (2018, methodology): “…bandpass corrections show a <∼ 0.2 mag variation over ∼ 4 orders of absolute magnitude depending on redshift and the filter, and with a ∼ 0.2 mag intrinsic scatter due to individual quasarto-quasar variations (Ross et al. 2013; McGreer et al. 2013; Palanque-Delabrouille et al. 2013).”
The galaxy luminosity function at z ≃ 6 and evidence for rapid evolution in the bright end from z ≃ 7 to 5 (2014, background): “A broken power-law or double power-law has been shown to provide a better description of the LF of galaxies in groups (e.g. Tempel et al. 2014, 2009), the far-infrared galaxy luminosity functions (e.g. Soifer et al. 1987) and the LFs of quasars (e.g. McGreer et al. 2013).”
Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs). V. Quasar Luminosity Function and Contribution to Cosmic Reionization at z = 6 (2018, methodology): “The selection completeness was estimated with model quasars, which were created using spectral simulations presented in McGreer et al. (2013).”
The Completed SDSS-IV Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations with Lyα Forests (2020, methodology): “We then use the publicly available software package simqso38 to generate an unabsorbed continuum for each quasar. simqso is based on the simulations used in McGreer et al. (2013), and we refer the reader to that publication for a detailed description.”
The z ∼ 6 Luminosity Function Fainter than −15 mag from the Hubble Frontier Fields: The Impact of Magnification Uncertainties (2016, background): “The important issues appear to be whether large numbers of faint quasars exist at high redshift (e.g., Willott et al. 2010; McGreer et al. 2013), whether faint galaxies show an appreciable (>5”
Great Optically Luminous Dropout Research Using Subaru HSC (GOLDRUSH). I. UV Luminosity Functions at $z \sim 4-7$ Derived with the Half-Million Dropouts on the 100 deg$^2$ Sky (2017, result): “In Figure 7, we also compare our bright-end LF results with those of AGNs at z∼5 obtained by Ikeda et al. (2012), McGreer et al. (2013), and Niida et al. (2016).”
THE FINAL SDSS HIGH-REDSHIFT QUASAR SAMPLE OF 52 QUASARS AT z > 5.7 (2016, methodology): “We generate a grid of model quasars using the simulations by McGreer et al. (2013), which is an updated version of the simulations by Fan (1999).”
THE SDSS-IV EXTENDED BARYON OSCILLATION SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY: OVERVIEW AND EARLY DATA (2015, methodology): “The sample can be used to enhance BOSS constraints on the luminosity function (e.g. Ross et al. 2013b; McGreer et al. 2013), provide halo occupation statistics that can be used to constrain eBOSS 37 the duty cycle of quasars as a function of halo mass and quasar luminosity, and to explore the…”
DISCOVERY OF THREE z > 6.5 QUASARS IN THE VISTA KILO-DEGREE INFRARED GALAXY (VIKING) SURVEY (2013, methodology): “The best-fit value obtained by McGreer et al. (2013), k = −0.71, is nonetheless well within the range of k that fit our results.”