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A Survey of z ~ 6 Quasars in the SDSS Deep Stripe. II. Discovery of Six Quasars at zAB>21

Journal Article · · The Astronomical Journal
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [3];  [6];  [7];  [6];  [8];  [8];  [9]
  1. Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States); Kitt Peak National Observatory, Tucson, AZ (United States)
  2. Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States); Max Planck Inst. fuer Astronomie, Heidelberg (Germany)
  3. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
  4. California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
  5. Max Planck Inst. fuer Astronomie, Heidelberg (Germany)
  6. Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
  7. Drexel Univ., Philadelphia, PA (United States)
  8. Apache Point Observatory and New Mexico State Univ., Sunspot, NM (United States)
  9. Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
Here, we present the discovery of six new quasars at z ∼ 6 selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) southern survey, a deep imaging survey obtained by repeatedly scanning a stripe along the celestial equator. The six quasars are about 2 mag fainter than the luminous z ∼ 6 quasars found in the SDSS main survey and 1 mag fainter than the quasars reported in Paper I. Four of them comprise a complete flux-limited sample at 21 < zAB < 21.8 over an effective area of 195 deg2. The other two quasars are fainter than zAB = 22 and are not part of the complete sample. The quasar luminosity function at z ∼ 6 is well described as a single power law Φ(L1450) ∝ Lβ1450 over the luminosity range −28 < M1450 < −25. The best-fitting slope β varies from −2.6 to −3.1, depending on the quasar samples used, with a statistical error of 0.3–0.4. About 40% of the quasars discovered in the SDSS southern survey have very narrow Lyα emission lines, which may indicate small black hole masses and high Eddington luminosity ratios, and therefore short black hole growth timescales for these faint quasars at early epochs.
Research Organization:
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
Grant/Contract Number:
89243024CSC000002; AC02-07CH11359
Other Award/Contract Number:
AST-0307384
AST-0806861
AST-0707266
OSTI ID:
3019872
Report Number(s):
FERMILAB-PUB--09-878-A; oai:inspirehep.net:821305; arXiv:0905.4126
Journal Information:
The Astronomical Journal, Journal Name: The Astronomical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 138; ISSN 0004-6256; ISSN 1538-3881
Publisher:
IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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