Langdon L. Miller

The 2dF QSO Redshift survey - V. : the 10k catalogue.

We present a catalogue comprising over 10 000 QSOs covering an effective area of 289.6 deg2, based on spectroscopic observations with the 2-degree Field (2dF) instrument at the Anglo-Australian Telescope. This catalogue forms the first release of the 2dF QSO Redshift Survey. QSO candidates with 18.25<bJ<20.85 were obtained from a single homogeneous colour-selected catalogue based on APM measurements of UK Schmidt photographic material. The final catalogue will contain approximately 25 000 QSOs and will be released to the public at the end of 2002, one year after the observational phase is concluded.

QSO CLUSTERING AND THE AAT 2DF QSO REDSHIFT SURVEY

We review the latest results on large–scale structure based on observations of QSO clustering. We also present initial results from the 2dF QSO redshift survey. This survey currently contains over 1200 QSOs and, when complete, will comprise almost 30,000 QSOs. The 2dF QSO redshift survey will be used to provide new information on the nature and evolution of LSS over scales of 10 to 1000 Mpc.We review previous results on the clustering and environments of QSOs. We show that the correlation length for QSOs derived from existing surveys is r~5/h Mpc, similar to the observed correlation length for field galaxies at the present epoch. The galaxy environment for z<1 radio-quiet QSOs is also consistent with field galaxies. The evolution of the QSO correlation length with redshift is currently uncertain, largely due to the small numbers of QSOs (~2000) in surveys suitable for clustering analysis. We report on intial progress with the AAT 2dF QSO redshift survey, which, once completed will comprise almost 30000 QSOs. With over 1000 QSOs already observed, it is already the largest single homogeneous QSO survey. We discuss prospects for deriving limits on cosmological parameters from this survey, and on the evolution of large-scale structure in the Universe.