The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Survey: Quasar Luminosity Function from Data Release 3

By Gordon Richards, M. Strauss, Xiaohui Fan, P. Hall, S. Jester, D. Schneider, D. V. vanden Berk, C. Stoughton, S. Anderson, Robert J. Brunner and 27 more. 2006

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We determine the number counts and z = 0-5 luminosity function for a well-defined, homogeneous sample of quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We conservatively define the most uniform statistical sample possible, consisting of 15,343 quasars within an effective area of 1622 deg2 that was derived from a parent sample of 46,420 spectroscopically confirmed broad-line quasars in the 5282 deg2 of imaging data from SDSS Data Release 3. The sample extends from i = 15 to 19.1 at z ≲ 3 and to i = 20.2 for z ≳ 3. The number counts and luminosity function agree well with the results of the Two Degree Field QSO Redshift Survey (2QZ) at redshifts and luminosities at which the SDSS and 2QZ quasar samples overlap, but the SDSS data probe to much higher redshifts than does the 2QZ sample. The number density of luminous quasars peaks between redshifts 2 and 3, although uncertainties in the selection function in this range do not allow us to determine the peak redshift more precisely. Our best-fit model has a flatter bright-end slope at high redshift than at low redshift. For z < 2.4 the data are best fit by a redshift-independent slope of β = -3.1 [Φ(L) ∝ Lβ]. Above z = 2.4 the slope flattens with redshift to β ≳ -2.37 at z = 5. This slope change, which is significant at the ≳5 σ level, must be accounted for in models of the evolution of accretion onto supermassive black holes.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/bbebe15d478875ef27066c1d5855340d38f8d0f9

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SELF-CONSISTENT MODELS OF THE AGN AND BLACK HOLE POPULATIONS: DUTY CYCLES, ACCRETION RATES, AND THE MEAN RADIATIVE EFFICIENCY (2007, methodology): “…collection of data from optical surveys (Pei 1995; Wisotzki 1999; Fan et al. 2001, 2004; Kennefick et al. 1994; Hunt et al. 2004; Wolf et al. 2003; Richards et al. 2005, 2006; Jiang et al. 2006; Cool et al. 2006; Bongiorno et al. 2007; Fontanot et al. 2007; Shankar & Mathur 2007) and X-ray…”
GeV gamma-ray attenuation and the high-redshift UV background (2009, methodology): “…measured by large-scale surveys such as the Twodegree Field (2dF) (Boyle et al. 2000) and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) (Jiang et al. 2006; Richards et al. 2006; Croom et al. 2004), and data are also available at a variety of frequencies from experiments such as XMM, Chandra, and Spitzer…”
The bolometric quasar luminosity function at z = 0–7 (2020, methodology): “We extend the template in the long wavelength end to 100µm using the Richards et al. (2006b) SED which behaves almost the same as the Krawczyk et al. (2013) SED at λ > 10µm.”
A SURVEY OF z ∼ 6 QUASARS IN THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY DEEP STRIPE. I. A FLUX-LIMITED SAMPLE AT zAB < 21 (2007, background): “From the SDSS Data Release Three, Richards et al. (2006) showed strong evidence that the bright-end slope of the QLF significantly flattens from z ∼ 2 to 4.”
THE BARYON OSCILLATION SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY OF SDSS-III (2012, methodology): “Further details of these flags are found in Stoughton et al. (2002), Richards et al. (2006), and the SDSS-III website.”
The Herschel* PEP/HerMES luminosity function - I. Probing the evolution of PACS selected Galaxies to z ≃ 4 (2013, background): “…to that observed in our data, is also observed in the space density of X-ray (see Brusa et al. 2009; Civano et al. 2011) and optically selected AGN (Richards et al. 2006), and of sub-mm galaxies (Wall et al. 2008), as well as in the HerMES total IR LF – though less evident – (from 250-µm data;…”
A SIMPLE LIKELIHOOD METHOD FOR QUASAR TARGET SELECTION (2011, methodology): “Ultimately it was decided that Jiang et al. (2006) was the best luminosity function for our purposes because it was more efficient at recovering z > 2.2 QSOs than Richards et al. (2006) and Hopkins et al. (2007).”
The Blast Wave Model for AGN Feedback: Effects on AGN Obscuration (2008, background): “These are the X-ray counterparts of the luminous MB P 27:2 optical QSOs observed up to z 6:5 (see Fan et al. 2004; Richards et al. 2006).”
A CATALOG OF QUASAR PROPERTIES FROM SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY DATA RELEASE 7 (2010, methodology): “Some authors suggest to remove the IR bump in the SED in estimating the bolometric corrections (e.g., Marconi et al. 2004), where the IR radiation is assumed to come from the reprocessed UV radiation.”
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Catalog. IV. Fifth Data Release (2007, methodology): “Repeating the analysis of Richards et al. (2006) for the DR5 sample reveals no structure in the redshift distribution after selection effects have been included (see lower histogram in Fig.”
A DEEP HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE SEARCH FOR ESCAPING LYMAN CONTINUUM FLUX AT z ∼ 1.3: EVIDENCE FOR AN EVOLVING IONIZING EMISSIVITY (2010, background): “…for high redshift (z > 3) QSOs show that their space densities fall precipitously toward higher redshift and are too rare at the highest redshifts to contribute significantly to the HI–ionizing background (Richards et al. 2006; Hopkins et al. 2007; Siana et al. 2008; Jiang et al. 2008, 2009).”
Active galactic nuclei: what’s in a name? (2017, background): “The redshifts affected span a large range around z ∼ 2.6 with very low completeness, and a smaller range around z ∼ 3.5 (Richards et al. 2002, 2006b; Worseck and Prochaska 2011).”
Biases in Virial Black Hole Masses: An SDSS Perspective (2007, methodology): “2 shows the relation betweenLbol and thez= 2 i−band absolute magnitude calculated using theK-correction in Richards et al. (2006a), while the right panel showsLbol versus redshift for our sample (the darker points are the uniformly selected subsample).”
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Catalog: Fourteenth data release (2017, methodology): “The K-correction is computed using Table 4 from Richards et al. (2006).”
CLUSTERING OF LOW-REDSHIFT (z ⩽ 2.2) QUASARS FROM THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY (2008, methodology): “Since quasars are selected by their optical colors, we shall perform checks on both our PRIMARY and UNIFORM samples in Appendix C to see what effect regions with poor photometry (as defined by Richards et al. 2006; Shen et al. 2007) has on our clustering measurements.”
Nebular Emission Line Ratios in z ≃ 2–3 Star-forming Galaxies with KBSS-MOSFIRE: Exploring the Impact of Ionization, Excitation, and Nitrogen-to-Oxygen Ratio (2016, background): “…Madau et al. 1996; Hopkins & Beacom 2006; Reddy et al. 2008; Madau & Dickinson 2014) and supermassive black hole accretion reached their peak values (Richards et al. 2006)—have been slower to arrive, due in large part to limitations in the sensitivity and multiplexing capabilities of…”
CONSTRAINTS ON BLACK HOLE GROWTH, QUASAR LIFETIMES, AND EDDINGTON RATIO DISTRIBUTIONS FROM THE SDSS BROAD-LINE QUASAR BLACK HOLE MASS FUNCTION (2010, methodology): “(8) Here, Ω = 1622 deg2 is the effective sky area of the SDSS DR3 sample (Richards et al. 2006), s(Lλ, z) is the SDSS selection function, N (x|μ, σ 2) denotes a normal distribution with mean μ and variance σ 2, as a function of x, μm,k and μz,k are the mean values of log MBH and log z for the kth…”
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: Sample Characterization (2018, methodology): “Following Richards et al. (2006b), we use the emission line corrected, absolute i band magnitude normalized at z = 2 (equivalent to the rest-frame 2500 Å luminosity) as the continuum luminosity indicator.”