Eilat Glikman

Signals from the Noise: Image Stacking for Quasars in the FIRST Survey

We present a technique to explore the radio sky into the nanojansky regime by employing image stacking using the FIRST survey. We first discuss the nonintuitive relationship between the mean and median values of a non-Gaussian distribution that is dominated by noise, followed by an analysis of the systematic effects present in FIRSTs 20 cm VLA snapshot images. Image stacking allows us to recover the properties of source populations with flux densities a factor of 30 or more below the rms noise level. Mean estimates of radio flux density, luminosity, etc. are derivable for any source class having arcsecond positional accuracy. We use this technique to compute the mean radio properties for 41,295 quasars from the SDSS DR3 catalog. There is a tight correlation between optical and radio luminosity, with the radio luminosity increasing as the 0.85 power of optical luminosity. This implies declining radio loudness with optical luminosity: the most luminous objects (M_(UV) = -28.5) have average radio-to-optical ratios 3 times lower than the least luminous objects (M_(UV) = -20). There is also a striking correlation between optical color and radio loudness: quasars that are either redder or bluer than the norm are brighter radio sources, with objects 0.8 mag redder than the SDSS composite spectrum having radio loudness ratios that are higher by a factor of 10. We explore the long-standing question of whether a radio-loud/radio-quiet dichotomy exists in quasars, finding that optical selection effects probably dominate the distribution function of radio loudness, which has at most a modest (~20%) inflection between the radio-loud and radio-quiet ends of the distribution. We also find, surprisingly, that broad absorption line quasars have higher mean radio flux densities, with the greatest disparity arising in the rare low-ionization BAL subclass.

A Near-Infrared Spectral Template for Quasars

We present a near-infrared quasar composite spectrum spanning the wavelength range 0.58-3.5 μm. The spectrum has been constructed from observations of 27 quasars obtained at the NASA IRTF telescope and satisfying the criteria Ks < 14.5 and Mi < -23; the redshift range is 0.118 < z < 0.418. The signal-to-noise ratio is moderate, reaching a maximum of 150 between 1.6 and 1.9 μm. While a power-law fit to the continuum of the composite spectrum requires two breaks, a single power-law slope of α = -0.92 plus a 1260 K blackbody provides an excellent description of the spectrum from Hα to 3.5 μm, strongly suggesting the presence of significant quantities of hot dust in this blue-selected quasar sample. We measure intensities and line widths for 10 lines, finding that the Paschen line ratios rule out case B recombination. We compute K-corrections for the J, H, K, and Spitzer 3.6 μm bands, which will be useful in analyzing observations of quasars up to z = 10.

The Reddest Quasars

In a survey of quasar candidates selected by matching the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty cm (FIRST) and Two Micron All-Sky Survey catalogs, we have found two extraordinarily red quasars. FIRST J013435.7-093102 is a 1 Jy source at z = 2.216 and has B-K 10, while FIRST J073820.1+275045 is a 2.5 mJy source at z = 1.985 with B-K ≈ 8.4. FIRST J073820.1+275045 has strong absorption lines of Mg II and C IV in the rest frame of the quasar and is highly polarized in the rest-frame ultraviolet, strongly favoring the interpretation that its red spectral energy distribution is caused by dust reddening local to the quasar. FIRST J073820.1+275045 is thus one of the few low radio luminosity, highly dust-reddened quasars known. The available observational evidence for FIRST J013435.7-093102 leads us to conclude that it too is reddened by dust. We show that FIRST J013435.7-093102 is gravitationally lensed, increasing the number of known lensed, extremely dust-reddened quasars to at least three, including MG 0414-0534 and PKS 1830-211. We discuss the implications of whether these objects are reddened by dust in the host or lensing galaxies. If reddened by their local environment, then we estimate that between 10% and 20% of the radio-loud quasar population is reddened by dust in the host galaxy. The discovery of FIRST J073820.1+275045 and objects now emerging from X-ray surveys suggests the existence of an analogous radio-quiet red quasar population. Such objects would be entirely missed by standard radio or optical quasar surveys. If dust in the lensing galaxies is primarily responsible for the extreme redness of the lensed quasars, then an untold number of gravitationally lensed quasars are being overlooked.

THE FIRST-2MASS RED QUASAR SURVEY. II. AN ANOMALOUSLY HIGH FRACTION OF LoBALs IN SEARCHES FOR DUST-REDDENED QUASARS*

We present results on a survey to find extremely dust-reddened Type 1 quasars. Combining the FIRST radio survey, the 2MASS Infrared Survey and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we have selected a candidate list of 122 potential red quasars. With more than 80% spectroscopically identified objects, well over 50% are classified as dust-reddened Type 1 quasars, whose reddenings (E(B – V)) range from approximately 0.1 to 1.5 mag. They lie well off the color selection windows usually used to detect quasars and many fall within the stellar locus, which would have made it impossible to find these objects with traditional color selection techniques. The reddenings found are much more consistent with obscuration happening in the host galaxy rather than stemming from the dust torus. We find an unusually high fraction of broad absorption line (BAL) quasars at high redshift, all but one of them belonging to the low-ionization BAL (LoBAL) class and many also showing absorption in the metastable Fe II line (FeLoBAL). The discovery of further examples of dust-reddened LoBAL quasars provides more support for the hypothesis that BAL quasars (at least LoBAL quasars) represent an early stage in the lifetime of the quasar. The fact that we see such a high fraction of BALs could indicate that the quasar is in a young phase in which quasar feedback from the BAL winds is suppressing star formation in the host galaxy.

Heavily obscured quasar host galaxies at z ∼ 2 are discs, not major mergers

We explore the nature of heavily obscured quasar host galaxies at z∼2 using deep Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3/infrared imaging of 28 dust-obscured galaxies (DOGs) to investigate the role of major mergers in driving black hole growth. The high levels of obscuration of the quasars selected for this study act as a natural coronagraph, blocking the quasar light and allowing a clear view of the underlying host galaxy. The sample of heavily obscured quasars represents a significant fraction of the cosmic mass accretion on supermassive black holes as the quasars have inferred bolometric luminosities around the break of the quasar luminosity function. We find that only a small fraction (4 per cent, at most 11–25 per cent) of the quasar host galaxies are major mergers. Fits to their surface brightness profiles indicate that 90 per cent of the host galaxies are either disc dominated, or have a significant disc. This disc-like host morphology, and the corresponding weakness of bulges, is evidence against major mergers and suggests that secular processes are the predominant driver of massive black hole growth. Finally, we suggest that the coincidence of mergers and active galactic nucleus activity is luminosity dependent, with only the most luminous quasars being triggered mostly by major mergers.

The Faint End of the Quasar Luminosity Function at z~4: Implications for Ionization of the Intergalactic Medium and Cosmic Downsizing

We present an updated determination of the z ~ 4 QSO luminosity function (QLF), improving the quality of the determination of the faint end of the QLF presented by Glikman et al. (2010). We have observed an additional 43 candidates from our survey sample, yielding one additional QSO at z = 4.23 and increasing the completeness of our spectroscopic follow-up to 48% for candidates brighter than R = 24 over our survey area of 3.76 deg^2. We study the effect of using K-corrections to compute the rest-frame absolute magnitude at 1450 A compared with measuring M_(1450) directly from the object spectra. We find a luminosity-dependent bias: template-based K-corrections overestimate the luminosity of low-luminosity QSOs, likely due to their reliance on templates derived from higher luminosity QSOs. Combining our sample with bright quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and using spectrum-based M 1450 for all the quasars, we fit a double power law to the binned QLF. Our best fit has a bright-end slope, α = 3.3 ± 0.2, and faint-end slope, β = 1.6^(+0.8)_(–0.6). Our new data revise the faint-end slope of the QLF down to flatter values similar to those measured at z ~ 3. The break luminosity, though poorly constrained, is at M* = –24.1^(+0.7)_(–1.9), approximately 1-1.5 mag fainter than at z ~ 3. This QLF implies that QSOs account for about half the radiation needed to ionize the intergalactic medium at these redshifts.

BINARY QUASARS AT HIGH REDSHIFT. I. 24 NEW QUASAR PAIRS AT z ∼ 3-4

The clustering of quasars on small scales yields fundamental constraints on models of quasar evolution and the buildup of supermassive black holes. This paper describes the first systematic survey to discover high-redshift binary quasars. Using color-selection and photometric redshift techniques, we searched 8142 deg^2 of Sloan Digital Sky Survey imaging data for binary quasar candidates, and confirmed them with follow-up spectroscopy. Our sample of 27 high-redshift binaries (24 of them new discoveries) at redshifts 2.9 3.5. The completeness and efficiency of our well-defined selection algorithm are quantified using simulated photometry and we find that our sample is ~50% complete. Our companion paper uses this knowledge to make the first measurement of the small-scale clustering (R < 1 h^(–1) Mpc comoving) of high-redshift quasars. High-redshift binaries constitute exponentially rare coincidences of two extreme (M ≳ 10^9 M_☉) supermassive black holes. At z ~ 4, there is about one close binary per 10 Gpc^3, thus these could be the highest sigma peaks, the analogs of superclusters, in the early universe.

FIRST-2MASS SOURCES BELOW THE APM DETECTION THRESHOLD: A POPULATION OF HIGHLY REDDENED QUASARS

We have constructed a sample of bright near-infrared sources that are detected at radio wavelengths but undetected on the first-generation Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSSI) plates in order to search for a population of dust-obscured quasars. Optical and infrared spectroscopic follow-up of the sample has led to the discovery of 17 heavily reddened quasars (B-K > 6.5), 14 of which are reported here for the first time. This has allowed us to define a region in the R-K, J-K color plane in which 50% of the radio-selected objects are highly reddened quasars. We compare the surface density of this previously overlooked population to that of ultraviolet-excess radio-selected quasars, finding that they make up ~20% of the total quasar population for K 15.5.

A systematic search for close supermassive black hole binaries in the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey

Hierarchical assembly models predict a population of supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries. These are not resolvable by direct imaging but may be detectable via periodic variability (or nanohertz frequency gravitational waves). Following our detection of a 5.2-year periodic signal in the quasar PG 1302−102, we present a novel analysis of the optical variability of 243 500 known spectroscopically confirmed quasars using data from the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey (CRTS) to look for close (<0.1 pc) SMBH systems. Looking for a strong Keplerian periodic signal with at least 1.5 cycles over a baseline of nine years, we find a sample of 111 candidate objects. This is in conservative agreement with theoretical predictions from models of binary SMBH populations. Simulated data sets, assuming stochastic variability, also produce no equivalent candidates implying a low likelihood of spurious detections. The periodicity seen is likely attributable to either jet precession, warped accretion discs or periodic accretion associated with a close SMBH binary system. We also consider how other SMBH binary candidates in the literature appear in CRTS data and show that none of these are equivalent to the identified objects. Finally, the distribution of objects found is consistent with that expected from a gravitational-wave-driven population. This implies that circumbinary gas is present at small orbital radii and is being perturbed by the black holes. None of the sources is expected to merge within at least the next century. This study opens a new unique window to study a population of close SMBH binaries that must exist according to our current understanding of galaxy and SMBH evolution.

The Infrared Light Curve of SN 2011fe in M101 and the Distance to M101

We present near-infrared light curves of supernova (SN) 2011fe in M101, including 34 epochs in H band starting 14 days before maximum brightness in the B band. The light curve data were obtained with the WIYN High-Resolution Infrared Camera. When the data are calibrated using templates of other Type Ia SNe, we derive an apparent H-band magnitude at the epoch of B-band maximum of 10.85 ± 0.04. This implies a distance modulus for M101 that ranges from 28.86 to 29.17 mag, depending on which absolute calibration for Type Ia SNe is used.