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(Abridged) Based on numerical simulations of galaxy mergers that incorporate black hole (BH) growth, we predict the faint end slope of the quasar luminosity function (QLF) and its evolution with redshift. Our simulations have yielded a new model for quasar lifetimes where the lifetime depends on both the instantaneous and peak quasar luminosities. This motivates a new interpretation of the QLF in which the bright end consists of quasars radiating at nearly their peak luminosities, but the faint end is mostly made up of quasars in less luminous phases of evolution. The faint-end QLF slope is then determined by the faint-end slope of the quasar lifetime for quasars with peak luminosities near the observed break. We determine this slope from the quasar lifetime as a function of peak luminosity, based on a large set of simulations spanning a wide variety of host galaxy, merger, BH, and ISM gas properties. Brighter peak luminosity (higher BH mass) systems undergo more violent evolution, and expel and heat gas more rapidly in the final stages of quasar evolution, resulting in a flatter faint-end slope (as these objects fall below the observed break in the QLF more rapidly). Therefore, as the QLF break luminosity moves to higher luminosities with increasing redshift, implying a larger typical quasar peak luminosity, the faint-end QLF slope flattens. From the quasar lifetime as a function of peak luminosity and this interpretation of the QLF, we predict the faint-end QLF slope and its evolution with redshift in good agreement with observations. Although BHs grow anti-hierarchically (with lower-mass BHs formed primarily at lower redshifts), the observed change in slope and differential or luminosity dependent density evolution in the QLF is completely determined by the luminosity-dependent quasar lifetime and physics of quasar feedback.
Using new Keck DEIMOS spectroscopy, we examine the origin of the steep number counts of ultra-faint emission-line galaxies recently reported by Dressler et al. (2011). We confirm six Lyman Alpha emitters (LAEs), three of which have significant asymme
We have conducted a spectroscopic survey to find faint quasars (-26.0 < M_{1450} < -22.0) at redshifts z=3.8-5.2 in order to measure the faint end of the quasar luminosity function at these early times. Using available optical imaging data from porti
We present and discuss optical measurements of the faint end of the galaxy luminosity function down to M_R = -10 in five different local environments of varying galaxy density and morphological content. The environments we studied, in order of decrea
I review recent measurements of the faint end of the galaxy luminosity function in galaxy clusters. Evidence is presented that the luminosity function of galaxies in the central parts of clusters is remarkably constant between clusters and that this
We present observations of an optically-faint quasar, RD J114816.2+525339, discovered from deep multi-color observations of the field around the z = 6.42 quasar SDSS J1148+5251. The two quasars have a projected separation of 109 arcsec and both are o