BINARY QUASARS AT HIGH REDSHIFT. I. 24 NEW QUASAR PAIRS AT z {approx} 3-4
- Department of Astronomy, University of California at Berkeley, 601 Campbell Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801 (United States)
- Princeton University Observatory, Peyton Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544 (United States)
- Astronomy Department, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)
- Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 (United States)
- Department of Physics, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University, 525 Davey Laboratory, University Park, PA 16802 (United States)
- Max-Planck-Institut fuer Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, D- 85748, Garching (Germany)
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{sup 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 < z < 4.3 with proper transverse separations 10 kpc < R{sub perpendicular} < 650 kpc increases the number of such objects known by an order of magnitude. Eight members of this sample are very close pairs with R{sub perpendicular} < 100 kpc, and of these close systems four are at z>3.5. The completeness and efficiency of our well-defined selection algorithm are quantified using simulated photometry and we find that our sample is {approx}50% complete. Our companion paper uses this knowledge to make the first measurement of the small-scale clustering (R < 1 h {sup -1} Mpc comoving) of high-redshift quasars. High-redshift binaries constitute exponentially rare coincidences of two extreme (M {approx}> 10{sup 9} M {sub sun}) supermassive black holes. At z {approx} 4, there is about one close binary per 10 Gpc{sup 3}, thus these could be the highest sigma peaks, the analogs of superclusters, in the early universe.
- OSTI ID:
- 21457052
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 719; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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