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arXiv 1107.0646astro-ph.CO
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通过结合光学变率和光学/近红外颜色发现缺失的2.2<z<3类星体

Discovering the missing 2.2<z<3 quasars by combining optical variability and optical/near-IR colors

Xue-Bing Wu, Ran Wang, Kasper B. Schmidt, Fuyan Bian, Linhua Jiang, Xiaohui Fan

摘要:

在红移范围2.2<z<3的类星体的识别是非常低效的,因为它们的光学颜色与恒星的光学颜色无法区分。最近的研究建议使用光学变化或近红外颜色,以提高在这个红移范围内的失踪类星体的识别。在这里,我们提出了一个案例研究结合这两个因素。我们从SDSS Stripe 82中的变量中选择了70个类星体候选样本,这些类星体是非紫外过量源,并且拥有UKIDSS近红外公共数据。它们在Y-K/g-z色图上被清晰地分成两部分,其中59个满足或接近新近提出的z<4类星体的Y-K/g-z选择判据。在这59个源中,有44个在SDSS DR 7中被确认为类星体,其中35个是2.2<z<3的类星体。我们目前的光谱观测的14个剩余的15个类星体候选人使用博克2.3米望远镜和MMT 6.5米望远镜,并成功地确定它们都是新的类星体在z=2.36至2.88。我们还将该方法应用于643个具有SDSS-UKIDSS九波段光度数据的候选类星体样本,发现其中188个可能是光度红移为2.2<z<3的新类星体。我们的结果表明,光学变率和光学/近红外色的结合可能是寻找2.2<z<3类星体的最有效的方法,对构造完整的类星体样品非常有帮助。我们讨论了它的影响,正在进行的和即将到来的大型光学和近红外天空调查。

英文摘要:

The identifications of quasars in the redshift range 2.2<z<3 are known to be very inefficient as their optical colors are indistinguishable from those of stars. Recent studies have proposed to use optical variability or near-IR colors to improve the identifications of the missing quasars in this redshift range. Here we present a case study by combining both factors. We select a sample of 70 quasar candidates from variables in SDSS Stripe 82, which are non-UV excess sources and have UKIDSS near-IR public data. They are clearly separated into two parts on the Y-K/g-z color-color diagram, and 59 of them meet or lie close to a newly proposed Y-K/g-z selection criterion for z<4 quasars. 44 of these 59 sources have been previously identified as quasars in SDSS DR7, and 35 among them are quasars at 2.2<z<3. We present spectroscopic observations of 14 of 15 remaining quasar candidates using the Bok 2.3m telescope and the MMT 6.5m telescope, and successfully identify all of them as new quasars at z=2.36 to 2.88. We also apply this method to a sample of 643 variable quasar candidates with SDSS-UKIDSS nine-band photometric data selected from 1875 new quasar candidates in SDSS Stripe 82 given by Butler & Bloom based on the time-series selections, and find that 188 of them are probably new quasars with photometric redshifts at 2.2<z<3. Our results indicate that the combination of optical variability and optical/near-IR colors is probably the most efficient way in finding 2.2<z<3 quasars and very helpful for constructing a complete quasar sample. We discuss its implications to the ongoing and upcoming large optical and near-IR sky surveys.

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