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No redshift evolution in the rest-frame ultraviolet emission line properties of quasars from z = 1.5 to z = 4.0

Journal Article · · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6]
  1. University of Southampton (United Kingdom)
  2. Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom)
  3. Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago (Chile)
  4. Univ. of Edinburgh, Scotland (United Kingdom). The Royal Observatory
  5. Univ. of Oxford (United Kingdom)
  6. Drexel Univ., Philadelphia, PA (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
We analyse the rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) spectra of 2531 high-redshift (3.5 < z < 4.0) quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR16Q catalogue. In combination with previous work, we study the redshift evolution of the rest-frame UV line properties across the entire redshift range, 1.5 < z < 4.0. We improve the systemic redshift estimates at z > 3.5 using a cross-correlation algorithm that employs high signal-to-noise template spectra spanning the full range in UV emission line properties. We then quantify the evolution of C iv and He ii emission line properties with redshift. The increase in C iv blueshifts with cosmological redshift can be fully explained by the higher luminosities of quasars observed at high redshifts. We recover broadly similar trends between the He ii equivalent width and C iv blueshift at both 1.5 < z < 2.65 and 3.5 < z < 4.0 suggesting that the blueshift depends systematically on the spectral energy density (SED) of the quasar and there is no evolution in the SED over the redshift range 1.5 < z < 4.0. C iv blueshifts are highest when L/LEdd ≥ 0.2 and MBH ≥ 109 M⊙ for the entire 1.5 < z < 4.0 sample. We find that luminosity matching samples as a means to explore the evolution of their rest-frame UV emission line properties is only viable if the samples are also matched in the MBH–L/LEdd plane. Quasars at z ≥ 6 are on average less massive and have higher Eddington-scaled accretion rates than their luminosity-matched counterparts at 1.5 < z < 4.0, which could explain the observed evolution in their UV line properties.
Research Organization:
US Department of Energy (USDOE), Washington, DC (United States). Office of Science, Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI ID:
2425241
Journal Information:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Journal Name: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 524; ISSN 0035-8711
Publisher:
Oxford University PressCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
line: profiles
quasars: emission lines
quasars: general