Artículo de revista
THE SDSS-III BARYON OSCILLATION SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY: THE QUASAR LUMINOSITY FUNCTION FROM DATA RELEASE NINE
Fecha
2013Registro en:
The Astrophysical Journal, 773:14 (27pp), 2013 August 10
doi:10.1088/0004-637X/773/1/14
Autor
Ross, Nicholas P.
McGreer, I.
White, Martin
Richards, Gordon
Myers, Adam D.
Palanque-Delabrouille, Nathalie
Strauss, Michael
Anderson, Scott
Shen, Yue
Brandt, W. N.
Yèche, Ch.
Swanson, Molly E.
Aubourg, É.
Bailey, S.
Bizyaev, Dmitry
Bovy, Jo
Brewington, Howard
Brinkmann, J.
DeGraf, Colin
Di Matteo, Tiziana
Ebelke, Garrett
Fan, Xiaohui
Ge, Jian
Malanushenko, Elena
Malanushenko, Viktor
Mandelbaum, Rachel
Maraston, Claudia
Muna, Demitri
Oravetz, Daniel
Pan, Kaike
Pâris, Isabelle
Petitjean, Patrick
Schawinsk, Kevin
Schlegel, David J.
Schneider, Donald P.
Silverman, John D.
Simmons, Audrey
Snedden, Stephanie
Streblyanska, Alina
Suzuki, Nao
Weinberg, D. H.
York, Donald
Institución
Resumen
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-IIIData ReleaseNine,
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 toMi (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 logΦ∗−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 modelsmaking a variety of assumptions about quasar triggering
and halo occupation can fit our data over a wide range of redshifts and luminosities.