THE SDSS-III BARYON OSCILLATION SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY: THE QUASAR LUMINOSITY FUNCTION FROM DATA RELEASE NINE

By N. Ross, I. McGreer, M. White, Gordon Richards, Adam D. Myers, N. Palanque-Delabrouille, M. Strauss, S. Anderson, Yue Shen, W. N. Brandt and 32 more. 2012

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We present a new measurement of the optical quasar luminosity function (QLF), using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-III: Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (SDSS-III: BOSS). From the SDSS-III Data Release Nine, a uniform sample of 22,301 i ≲ 21.8 quasars are selected over an area of 2236 deg2, with confirmed spectroscopic redshifts between 2.2 < z < 3.5, filling in a key part of the luminosity–redshift plane for optical quasar studies. The completeness of the survey is derived through simulated quasar photometry, and this completeness estimate is checked using a sample of quasars selected by their photometric variability within the BOSS footprint. We investigate the level of systematics associated with our quasar sample using the simulations, in the process generating color–redshift relations and a new quasar K-correction. We probe the faint end of the QLF to Mi(z = 2.2) ≈ −24.5 and see a clear break in the QLF at all redshifts up to z = 3.5. A log-linear relation (in log Φ* − M*) for a luminosity evolution and density evolution model is found to adequately describe our data within the range 2.2 < z < 3.5; across this interval the break luminosity increases by a factor of ∼2.6 while Φ* declines by a factor of ∼8. At z ≲ 2.2 our data are reasonably well fit by a pure luminosity evolution model, and only a weak signature of “AGN downsizing” is seen, in line with recent studies of the hard X-ray luminosity function. We compare our measured QLF to a number of theoretical models and find that models making a variety of assumptions about quasar triggering and halo occupation can fit our data over a wide range of redshifts and luminosities.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c16fcb93244d60f9be4a8326d96c45e294b436ff

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Citations in the corpus

Universal bolometric corrections for active galactic nuclei over seven luminosity decades (2020, methodology): “(8) of Ross et al. (2013), then we converted them into 2500 Å fluxes using the standard method outlined in Richards et al. (2006), and finally converted into 4500 Å fluxes assuming a power-law SED Lν ∝ ν−α with α = 0.5 (Vanden Berk et al. 2001, check footnote 5).”
The Completed SDSS-IV Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations with Lyα Forests (2020, methodology): “The quasar target selection algorithms for BOSS are summarized in Ross et al. (2012), and those for eBOSS are summarized in Myers et al. (2015).”
The bolometric quasar luminosity function at z = 0–7 (2020, background): “…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).”
THE FINAL SDSS HIGH-REDSHIFT QUASAR SAMPLE OF 52 QUASARS AT z > 5.7 (2016, background): “2 3.5 from the SDSS BOSS survey (Ross et al. 2012).”
Project Overview of the Beijing–Arizona Sky Survey (2017, background): “The SDSS has provided the most comprehensive optical census of AGN evolution so far (Ross et al. 2013), and opened a window for studying high-redshift quasar close to the end of cosmic reionization (Fan et al. 2006; Jiang et al. 2016).”
Clustering of intermediate redshift quasars using the final SDSS III-BOSS sample (2015, methodology): “(see Table 4 of Ross et al. 2013a).”
Evolution of the AGN UV luminosity function from redshift 7.5 (2018, background): “The lower cut z > 3.7 in SDSS limits the impact of systematic uncertainties in the Richards et al. (2006) selection function (Prochaska et al. 2009; Worseck & Prochaska 2011).”
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Catalog: Fourteenth data release (2017, methodology): “This sample was also used to study the luminosity function of quasars (Ross et al. 2013; Palanque-Delabrouille et al. 2013), moderate-scale clustering of z ∼ 2.5 quasars (e.g. Eftekharzadeh et al. 2015).”
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).”
THE SDSS-IV EXTENDED BARYON OSCILLATION SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY: OVERVIEW AND EARLY DATA (2015, methodology): “A thorough examination of potential systematics in the clustering of the BOSS CMASS galaxies revealed a 10% decrease in the detected number density of galaxies when comparing areas with high stellar density to those with low stellar density (Ross et al. 2012a).”
UBIQUITOUS GIANT Lyα NEBULAE AROUND THE BRIGHTEST QUASARS AT z ∼ 3.5 REVEALED WITH MUSE (2016, methodology): “…corrected for blueshift according to the quasar luminosity as in Shen et al. (2016), iii) the luminosity at 1700 Å rest-frame, iv) the i-magnitude and corresponding absolute magnitude normalized to z = 2 as in Ross et al. (2013), and v) the radio class, seeing and sky conditions during each night.”
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.”