Optical selection effects that bias quasar evolution studies

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

86

Astronomical Photometry, Bias, Error Analysis, Quasars, Stellar Evolution, Cosmology, Mathematical Models, Red Shift, Stellar Spectrophotometry

Scientific paper

A study of systematic biases in optical observations of quasars is described. A numerical model of the optical biases was constructed to study the effect of systematic biases on quasar discoveries and on evolution laws derived from quasar counts in 'complete' surveys. It is shown that the excess of quasars found at redshifts of about 2.5 is largely a result of photometric errors and the unrecognized contribution of strong UV emission lines to the blue magnitude of high-redshift quasars. Reexamination of the quasars brighter than blue magnitude = -24 in the Palomar Bright Quasar Survey (BQS) showed that for the brightest quasars in the survey, the data are consistent with no evolution. A comparison of BQS quasars with the brightest quasars of the CTIO Schmidt Telescope Survey (Osmer and Smith, 1980) indicated that the brighter CTIO survey quasars have much stronger C IV lines (lambda = 1548) than the brightest BQS quasars. The strong emission lines in the CTIO survey quasars are understood as a consequence of the general correlation between absolute quasar luminosity and C IV (lambda = 1548) equivalent width.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Optical selection effects that bias quasar evolution studies does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Optical selection effects that bias quasar evolution studies, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Optical selection effects that bias quasar evolution studies will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-977913

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.