ترغب بنشر مسار تعليمي؟ اضغط هنا

An Optical/Near-Infrared Study of Radio-Loud Quasar Environments I. Methods and z=1-2 Observations

58   0   0.0 ( 0 )
 نشر من قبل Patrick B. Hall
 تاريخ النشر 1998
  مجال البحث فيزياء
والبحث باللغة English




اسأل ChatGPT حول البحث

We have conducted an optical/near-infrared study of the environments of radio-loud quasars (RLQs) at redshifts z=0.6-2. In this paper we discuss the sample selection and observations for the z=1-2 subsample and the reduction and cataloguing techniques used. We discuss technical issues at some length, since few detailed descriptions of near-IR data reduction and multicolor object cataloguing are currently available in single literature references. Our sample of 33 RLQs contains comparable numbers of flat- and steep- radio spectrum sources and sources of various radio morphologies, and spans a similar range of absolute magnitude and radio power, allowing us to disentangle dependence of environment on such properties from redshift evolution. We use the standard ``shift-and-stare method of creating deep mosaiced images where the exposure time (and thus the RMS noise) at each pixel is not constant across the mosaic. An unusual feature of our reduction procedure is the creation of images with constant RMS noise from such mosaics. We adopted this procedure to enable use of the FOCAS detection package over almost the entire mosaic instead of only in the area of deepest observation where the RMS noise is constant, thereby roughly doubling our areal coverage. We correct the object counts in our fields for stellar contamination using the SKY model of Cohen (1995) and compare the galaxy counts to those in random fields. Even after accounting for possible systematic magnitude offsets we find a significant excess of K>=19 galaxies. Analysis and discussion of this excess population is presented by Hall & Green (1998).



قيم البحث

اقرأ أيضاً

205 - L. Armus , G. Neugebauer 1997
Near-infrared images of the luminous, high redshift (z=2.1108) radio loud quasar 4C+09.17 reveal a complex structure. The quasar (K=15.76 mag) is surrounded by three companion objects having 17.9< K < 20.2 mag at radii of 1.7 < r < 2.9, as well as br ight, diffuse emission. The brightest companion has a redshift of z=0.8384 (Lehnert & Becker 1997) and its optical-infrared colors (Lehnert et al. 1997) are consistent with a late-type spiral galaxy at this redshift with a luminosity of about 2L*. This object is likely the galaxy responsible for the strongest MgII absorption line system seen in the spectrum of 4C+09.17 by Barthel et al. (1990). Redshifts are not available for the remaining two companions. The red colors of the second brightest companion appear most consistent with a high redshift star-forming galaxy at z > 1.5. If this object is at the redshift of 4C +09.17 it has a luminosity of about 7L*. The faintest companion has colors which are unlike those expected from either a spiral or an E/S0 galaxy at any redshift associated with the 4C+09.17 system. Since this object lies along the same direction as the radio jet/lobe of 4C+09.17, as well as the extended Ly-alpha emission mapped by Heckman et al. (1991) we suggest that this component can be explained as a combination of strong line emission and scattered QSO light. The resolved, diffuse emission surrounding 4C+09.17 is bright, K~17.0 mag, and about one magnitude redder in J-K than the quasar. If this emission is starlight, a very luminous elliptical host galaxy is implied for 4C+09.17. Scattered and reddened AGN light, emission line gas, and flux from absorbing galaxies along the line of sight may all contribute to this emission.
A five square arcminute region around the luminous radio-loud quasar SDSS J0836+0054 (z=5.8) hosts a wealth of associated galaxies, characterized by very red (1.3 < i_775 - z_{850} < 2.0) color. The surface density of these z~5.8 candidates is approx imately six times higher than the number expected from deep ACS fields. This is one of the highest galaxy overdensities at high redshifts, which may develop into a group or cluster. We also find evidence for a substructure associated with one of the candidates. It has two very faint companion objects within two arcseconds, which are likely to merge. The finding supports the results of a recent simulation that luminous quasars at high redshifts lie on the most prominent dark-matter filaments and are surrounded by many fainter galaxies. The quasar activity from these regions may signal the buildup of a massive system.
We have scanned the fields of six radio-loud quasars using the Taurus Tunable Filter to detect redshifted [OII] 3727 line-emitting galaxies at redshifts 0.8 < z < 1.3. Forty-seven new emission-line galaxy (ELG) candidates are found. This number corre sponds to an average space density about 100 times that found locally and, at L([OII]) < 10^{42} erg s^{-1} cm^{-2}, is 2 - 5 times greater than the field ELG density at similar redshifts, implying that radio-loud quasars inhabit sites of above-average star formation activity. The implied star-formation rates are consistent with surveys of field galaxies at z ~ 1. However, the variation in candidate density between fields is large and indicative of a range of environments, from the field to rich clusters. The ELG candidates also cluster -- both spatially and in terms of velocity -- about the radio sources. In fields known to contain rich galaxy clusters, the ELGs lie at the edges and outside the concentrated cores of red, evolved galaxies, consistent with the morphology-density relation seen in low-redshift clusters. This work, combined with other studies, suggests that the ELG environments of powerful AGN look very much the same from moderate to high redshifts, i.e. 0.8 < z < 4.
We carry out a series of deep Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) S-band observations of a sample of 21 quasars at $zsim6$. The new observations expand the searches of radio continuum emission to the optically faint quasar population at the highest redshift with rest-frame $4400 rm AA$ luminosities down to $3 times10^{11} L_{odot}$. We report the detections of two new radio-loud quasars: CFHQS J2242+0334 (hereafter J2242+0334) at $z=5.88$ and CFHQS J0227$-$0605 (hereafter J0227$-$0605) at $z=6.20$, detected with 3 GHz flux densities of $87.0 pm 6.3 mu rm Jy$ and $55.4 pm 6.7 mu rm Jy$, respectively. Their radio replaced{loudness}{loudnesses} are estimated to be $54.9 pm 4.7$ and $16.5 pm 3.2$, respectively. To better constrain the radio-loud fraction (RLF), we combine the new measurements with the archival VLA L-band data as well as available data from the literature, considering the upper limits for non-detections and deleted{and} possible selection effects. The final derived RLF is $9.4 pm 5.7%$ for the optically selected quasars at $zsim6$. We also compare the RLF to that of the quasar samples at low redshift and check the RLF in different quasar luminosity bins. The RLF for the optically faint objects is still poorly constrained due to the limited sample size. Our replaced{result}{results} show no evidence of significant quasar RLF evolution with redshift. There is also no clear trend of RLF evolution with quasar UV/optical luminosity due to the limited sample size of optically faint objects with deep radio observations.
We present monitoring campaign observations at optical and near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths for a radio-loud active galactic nucleus (AGN) at z=0.840, SDSS~J110006.07+442144.3 (hereafter, J1100+4421), which was identified during a flare phase in late February, 2014. The campaigns consist of three intensive observing runs from the discovery to March, 2015, mostly within the scheme of the OISTER collaboration. Optical-NIR light curves and simultaneous spectral energy distributions (SEDs) are obtained. Our measurements show the strongest brightening in March, 2015. We found that the optical-NIR SEDs of J1100+4421 show an almost steady shape despite the large and rapid intranight variability. This constant SED shape is confirmed to extend to $sim5~mu$m in the observed frame using the archival WISE data. Given the lack of absorption lines and the steep power-law spectrum of $alpha_{ u}sim-1.4$, where $f_{ u}propto u^{alpha_{ u}}$, synchrotron radiation by a relativistic jet with no or small contributions from the host galaxy and the accretion disk seems most plausible as an optical-NIR emission mechanism. The steep optical-NIR spectral shape and the large amplitude of variability are consistent with this object being a low $ u_{rm{peak}}$ jet-dominated AGN. In addition, sub-arcsec resolution optical imaging data taken with Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam does not show a clear extended component and the spatial scales are significantly smaller than the large extensions detected at radio wavelengths. The optical spectrum of a possible faint companion galaxy does not show any emission lines at the same redshift and hence a merging hypothesis for this AGN-related activity is not supported by our observations.
التعليقات
جاري جلب التعليقات جاري جلب التعليقات
سجل دخول لتتمكن من متابعة معايير البحث التي قمت باختيارها
mircosoft-partner

هل ترغب بارسال اشعارات عن اخر التحديثات في شمرا-اكاديميا