The clustering of intermediate-redshift quasars as measured by the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey

By M. White, A. Myers, N. Ross, David Schlegel, J. Hennawi, Yue Shen, I. McGreer, M. Strauss, A. Bolton, Jo Bovy and 21 more. 2012

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We measure the quasar two-point correlation function over the redshift range 2.2 < z < 2.8 using data from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey. We use a homogeneous subset of the data consisting of 27 129 quasars with spectroscopic redshifts – by far the largest such sample used for clustering measurements at these redshifts to date. The sample covers 3600 deg2, corresponding to a comoving volume of 9.7 (h−1 Gpc)3 assuming a fiducial Λ cold dark matter cosmology, and it has a median absolute i-band magnitude of −26, k-corrected to z= 2. After accounting for redshift errors we find that the redshift-space correlation function is fitted well by a power law of slope −2 and amplitude s0= (9.7 ± 0.5) h−1 Mpc over the range 3 < s < 25 h−1 Mpc. The projected correlation function, which integrates out the effects of peculiar velocities and redshift errors, is fitted well by a power law of slope −1 and r0= (8.4 ± 0.6) h−1 Mpc over the range 4 < R < 16 h−1 Mpc. There is no evidence for strong luminosity or redshift dependence to the clustering amplitude, in part because of the limited dynamic range in our sample. Our results are consistent with, but more precise than, previous measurements at similar redshifts. Our measurement of the quasar clustering amplitude implies a bias factor of b≃ 3.5 for our quasar sample. We compare the data to models to constrain the manner in which quasars occupy dark matter haloes at z∼ 2.4 and infer that such quasars inhabit haloes with a characteristic mass of 〈M〉≃ 1012 h−1 M⊙ with a duty cycle for the quasar activity of 1 per cent.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Global and Planetary Change

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5dd3e79fcdc9ddaebb7f696c9ee40a61a9347504

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Citations in the corpus

THE SDSS-IV EXTENDED BARYON OSCILLATION SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY: QUASAR TARGET SELECTION (2015, background): “1 of White et al. 2012).”
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey quasar catalog: tenth data release (2013, background): “See, e.g., the discussion regarding the creation of a statistical sample for clustering measurements in White et al. (2012).”
Clustering of intermediate redshift quasars using the final SDSS III-BOSS sample (2015, methodology): “Our analysis takes advantage of improvements in SDSS photometric calibration and target selection algorithms as well as much larger numbers that afford greater measurement precision.”
THE BARYON OSCILLATION SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY OF SDSS-III (2012, methodology): “The first such study constrains the two-point correlation function over the redshift range 2.2 < z < 2.8 (White et al. 2012).”
THE SDSS-III BARYON OSCILLATION SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY: THE QUASAR LUMINOSITY FUNCTION FROM DATA RELEASE NINE (2012, methodology): “…BOSS quasar host descendant would be the central galaxy of a small group - though we caution that including e.g. the diversity of growth histories of DM halos and scatter in any of the given relations, can easily lead to an order of magnitude dispersion in the above statements (White et al. 2012).”
The clustering of the SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey DR14 quasar sample: measurement of the growth rate of structure from the anisotropic correlation function between redshift 0.8 and 2.2 (2018, background): “Moreover, previous programs such as the 2dF QSO Redshift Survey (2QZ, Croom et al. 2009), SDSS-I/II (Myers et al. 2007; Ross et al. 2009; Shen et al. 2009), SDSS-III/BOSS (White et al. 2012; Eftekharzadeh et al. 2015; Laurent et al. 2016), and a combination of quasar samples from the 2QZ and the 2dF”
Black holes on FIRE: stellar feedback limits early feeding of galactic nuclei (2017, methodology): “Here, we use high-resolution cosmological hydrodynamic simulations of quasar-mass haloes (Mhalo ≈ 1012.5 M at z = 2; e.g. White et al. 2012) from early times down to z = 1 to study the impact of stellar feedback on massive BH growth.”
THE SDSS-IV EXTENDED BARYON OSCILLATION SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY: OVERVIEW AND EARLY DATA (2015, unknown): “Measurements of clustering in the BOSS quasar sample imply redshift errors as large as ∆z/(1 + z) = 0.003 (White et al. 2012).”
Mock galaxy catalogues using the quick particle mesh method (2013, methodology): “They have also been used in White et al. (2011, 2012) and Reid & White (2011) and more details can be found in those papers.”
The realm of the galaxy protoclusters (2016, background): “At z ∼ 2 − 3, typical optical QSOs live in halos of Mh ∼ 2 × 1012 h−1 M (White et al., 2012; Trainor & Steidel, 2012; Eftekharzadeh et al., 2015), with no measurable dependence on redshift or luminosity.”
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey quasar catalog: ninth data release (2012, methodology): “A sample of quasars withuniform > 0 is a sufficiently statistical sample for, e.g., clustering measurements on some scal s (e.g., White et al. 2012) and luminosity function demographics.”
The completed SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: BAO and RSD measurements from the anisotropic power spectrum of the quasar sample between redshift 0.8 and 2.2 (2020, background): “Due to their high intrinsic luminosity, quasars can be used as tracers of the large scale structure at high redshifts (Croom et al. 2009; Myers et al. 2007; Ross et al. 2009; Shen et al. 2009; White et al. 2012; Karagiannis et al. 2014; Eftekharzadeh et al. 2015; Laurent et al. 2016).”
Dusty Star Forming Galaxies at High Redshift (2014, background): “The inferred halo masses for luminous SMGs and DOGs are not terribly dissimilar from constraints on optically-selected quasars (Croom et al., 2005; White et al., 2012).”
Neutral hydrogen in galaxy haloes at the peak of the cosmic star formation history (2014, background): “These halos bracket the characteristic mass MQSO = 3 × 1012 M of quasar-hosting halos at z ∼ 2 (e.g., Croom et al. 2005; White et al. 2012).”
The DESI Experiment Part I: Science,Targeting, and Survey Design (2016, result): “4 [233], in agreement with previous measurements [234, 235].”
The Giant Gemini GMOS survey of zem > 4.4 quasars – I. Measuring the mean free path across cosmic time (2014, background): “First, quasars reside in massive galaxies (e.g. White et al. 2012) which themselves lie within large dark matter overdensities relative to the cosmic mean.”
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Catalog: Twelfth data release (2016, background): “Conversely there is the desire to perform demographic measurements and quasar physics studies using a uniformly-selected quasar sample (e.g. White et al. 2012; Ross et al. 2013; Eftekharzadeh et al. 2015).”