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Register a new userSix more quasars at redshift 6 discovered by the Canada-France High-z Quasar Survey
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We present imaging and spectroscopic observations for six quasars at z>5.9 discovered by the Canada-France High-z Quasar Survey (CFHQS). The CFHQS contains sub-surveys with a range of flux and area combinations to sample a wide range of quasar luminosities at z~6. The new quasars have luminosities 10 to 75 times lower than the most luminous SDSS quasars at this redshift. The least luminous quasar, CFHQS J0216-0455 at z=6.01, has absolute magnitude M_1450=-22.21, well below the likely break in the luminosity function. This quasar is not detected in a deep XMM-Newton survey showing that optical selection is still a very efficient tool for finding high redshift quasars.
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The Canada-France High-z Quasar Survey (CFHQS) is an optical survey designed to locate quasars during the epoch of reionization. In this paper we present the discovery of the first four CFHQS quasars at redshift greater than 6, including the most distant known quasar, CFHQS J2329-0301 at z=6.43. We describe the observational method used to identify the quasars and present optical, infrared, and millimeter photometry and optical and near-infrared spectroscopy. We investigate the dust properties of these quasars finding an unusual dust extinction curve for one quasar and a high far-infrared luminosity due to dust emission for another. The mean millimeter continuum flux for CFHQS quasars is substantially lower than that for SDSS quasars at the same redshift, likely due to a correlation with quasar UV luminosity. For two quasars with sufficiently high signal-to-noise optical spectra, we use the spectra to investigate the ionization state of hydrogen at z>5. For CFHQS J1509-1749 at z=6.12, we find significant evolution (beyond a simple extrapolation of lower redshift data) in the Gunn-Peterson optical depth at z>5.4. The line-of-sight to this quasar has one of the highest known optical depths at z~5.8. An analysis of the sizes of the highly-ionized near-zones in the spectra of two quasars at z=6.12 and z=6.43 suggest the IGM surrounding these quasars was substantially ionized before these quasars turned on. Together, these observations point towards an extended reionization process, but we caution that cosmic variance is still a major limitation in z>6 quasar observations.
We present discovery imaging and spectroscopy for nine new z ~ 6 quasars found in the Canada-France High-z Quasar Survey (CFHQS) bringing the total number of CFHQS quasars to 19. By combining the CFHQS with the more luminous SDSS sample we are able to derive the quasar luminosity function from a sample of 40 quasars at redshifts 5.74 < z < 6.42. Our binned luminosity function shows a slightly lower normalisation and flatter slope than found in previous work. The binned data also suggest a break in the luminosity function at M_1450 approx -25. A double power law maximum likelihood fit to the data is consistent with the binned results. The luminosity function is strongly constrained (1 sigma uncertainty < 0.1 dex) over the range -27.5 < M_1450 < -24.7. The best-fit parameters are Phi(M_1450^*) = 1.14 x 10^-8 Mpc^-3 mag^-1, break magnitude M_1450^* = -25.13 and bright end slope beta = -2.81. However the covariance between beta and M_1450^* prevents strong constraints being placed on either parameter. For a break magnitude in the range -26 < M_1450^* < -24 we find -3.8 < beta < -2.3 at 95% confidence. We calculate the z = 6 quasar intergalactic ionizing flux and show it is between 20 and 100 times lower than that necessary for reionization. Finally, we use the luminosity function to predict how many higher redshift quasars may be discovered in future near-IR imaging surveys.
We report 250 GHz (1.2 mm) observations of a sample of 20 QSOs at redshifts 5.8<z<6.5 from the the Canada-France High-z Quasar Survey (CFHQS), using the Max-Planck Millimeter Bolometer (MAMBO) array at the IRAM 30-metre telescope. A rms sensitivity <~ 0.6 mJy was achieved for 65% of the sample, and <~ 1.0 mJy for 90%. Only one QSO, CFHQS J142952+544717, was robustly detected with S_250GHz = 3.46 +/-0.52 mJy. This indicates that one of the most powerful known starbursts at z~6 is associated with this radio loud QSO. On average, the other CFHQS QSOs, which have a mean optical magnitude fainter than previously studied SDSS samples of z~6 QSOs, have a mean 1.2 mm flux density <S_250GHz> = 0.41 +/-0.14 mJy; such a 2.9-sigma average detection is hardly meaningful. It would correspond to <L_FIR> ~ 0.94+/-0.32 10^12 Lo, and an average star formation rate of a few 100s Mo/yr, depending on the IMF and a possible AGN contribution to <L_FIR>. This is consistent with previous findings of Wang et al. (2011) on the far-infrared emission of z~6 QSOs and extends them toward optically fainter sources.
We present the discovery of one or two extremely faint z~6 quasars in 6.5 deg^2 utilizing a unique capability of the wide-field imaging of the Subaru/Suprime-Cam. The quasar selection was made in (i-z_B) and (z_B-z_R) colors, where z_B and z_R are bandpasses with central wavelengths of 8842A and 9841A, respectively. The color selection can effectively isolate quasars at z~6 from M/L/T dwarfs without the J-band photometry down to z_R<24.0, which is 3.5 mag. deeper than SDSS. We have selected 17 promising quasar candidates. The follow-up spectroscopy for seven targets identified one apparent quasar at z=6.156 with M_1450=-23.10. We also identified one possible quasar at z=6.041 with a faint continuum of M_1450=-22.58 and a narrow Lyman-alpha emission with HWHM=427 km/s, which cannot be distinguished from Lyman-alpha emitters. We derive the quasar luminosity function at z~6 by combining our faint quasar sample with the bright quasar samples by SDSS and CFHQS. Including our data points invokes a higher number density in the faintest bin of the quasar luminosity function than the previous estimate employed. This suggests a steeper faint-end slope than lower-z, though it is yet uncertain based on a small number of spectroscopically identified faint quasars and several quasar candidates are still remain to be diagnosed. The steepening of the quasar luminosity function at the faint-end does increase the expected emission rate of the ionizing photon, however, it only changes by a factor of ~2-6. This was found to be still insufficient for the required photon budget of reionization at z~6.
Large-scale surveys over the last years have revealed about 300 QSOs at redshift above 6. Follow-up observations identified surprising properties, such as the very high black hole (BH) masses, spatial correlations with surrounding cold gas of the host galaxy, or high CIV-MgII velocity shifts. In particular, the discovery of luminous high-redshift quasars suggests that at least some black holes likely have large masses at birth and grow efficiently. We aim at quantifying quasar pairs at high redshift for a large sample of objects. This provides a new key constraint on a combination of parameters related to the origin and assembly for the most massive black holes: BH formation efficiency and clustering, growth efficiency and relative contribution of BH mergers. We observed 116 spectroscopically confirmed QSOs around redshift 6 with the simultaneous 7-channel imager GROND in order to search for companions. Applying identical colour-colour cuts as for those which led to the spectroscopically confirmed QSO, we perform LePHARE fits to the 26 best QSO pair candidates, and obtained spectroscopic observations for 11 of those. e do not find any QSO pair with a companion brighter than M1450(AB) < -26 mag within our 0.1-3.3 h^-1 cMpc search radius, in contrast to the serendipitous findings in the redshift range 4--5. However, a low fraction of such pairs at this luminosity and redshift is consistent with indications from present-day cosmological-scale galaxy evolution models. In turn, the incidence of L- and T-type brown dwarfs which occupy a similar colour space as z ~ 6 QSOs, is higher than expected, by a factor of 5 and 20, respectively.
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