The Discovery of Three New z>5 Quasars in the AGN and Galaxy Evolution Survey

Simple item page
dc.creatorCool, Richard J.
dc.creatorKochanek, Christopher S.
dc.creatorEisenstein, Daniel J.
dc.creatorStern, Daniel
dc.creatorBrand, Kate
dc.creatorBrown, Michael J. I.
dc.creatorDey, Arjun
dc.creatorEisenhardt, Peter R.
dc.creatorFan, Xiaohui
dc.creatorGonzalez, Anthony H.
dc.creatorGreen, Richard F.
dc.creatorJannuzi, Buell T.
dc.creatorMcKenzie, Eric H.
dc.creatorRieke, George H.
dc.creatorRieke, Marcia
dc.creatorSoifer, Baruch T.
dc.creatorSpinrad, Hyron
dc.creatorElston, Richard J.
dc.date2006-05-01
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T11:25:33Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T11:25:33Z
dc.descriptionWe present the discovery of three z>5 quasars in the AGN and Galaxy Evolution Survey (AGES) spectroscopic observations of the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey (NDWFS) Bootes Field. These quasars were selected as part of a larger Spitzer mid-infrared quasar sample with no selection based on optical colors. The highest redshift object, NDWFS J142516.3+325409, z=5.85, is the lowest-luminosity z>5.8 quasar currently known. We compare mid-infrared techniques for identifying z>5 quasars to more traditional optical techniques and show that mid-infrared colors allow for selection of high-redshift quasars even at redshifts where quasars lie near the optical stellar locus and at z>7 where optical selection is impossible. Using the superb multi-wavelength coverage available in the NDWFS Bootes field, we construct the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of high-redshift quasars from observed Bw-band to 24 microns (rest-frame 600 Angstroms - 3.7 microns). We show that the three high-redshift quasars have quite similar SEDs, and the rest-frame composite SED of low-redshift quasars from the literature shows little evolution compared to our high-redshift objects. We compare the number of z>5 quasars we have discovered to the expected number from published quasar luminosity functions. While analyses of the quasar luminosity function are tenuous based on only three objects, we find that a relatively steep luminosity function with Psi L^(-3.2) provides the best agreement with the number of high-redshift quasars discovered in our survey.
dc.description9 page, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in AJ
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0605030
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0605030
dc.identifierAstron.J.132:823-830,2006
dc.identifierdoi:10.1086/505535
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/195542
dc.subjectAstrophysics
dc.titleThe Discovery of Three New z>5 Quasars in the AGN and Galaxy Evolution Survey
dc.typetext

Files

Collections

arXiv