An Empirical Calibration of the Completeness of the SDSS Quasar Survey

Details An Empirical Calibration of the Completeness of the SDSS Quasar Survey An Empirical Calibration of the Completeness of the SDSS Quasar Survey

2005-01-07

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0501113v1

Astron.J.129:2047-2061,2005

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

37 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in AJ

Scientific paper

10.1086/427856

Spectra of nearly 20000 point-like objects to a Galactic reddening corrected magnitude of i=19.1 have been obtained to test the completeness of the SDSS quasar survey. The spatially-unresolved objects were selected from all regions of color space, sparsely sampled from within a 278 sq. deg. area of sky covered by this study. Only ten quasars were identified that were not targeted as candidates by the SDSS quasar survey (including both color and radio source selection). The inferred density of unresolved quasars on the sky that are missed by the SDSS algorithm is 0.44 per sq. deg, compared to 8.28 per sq. deg. for the selected quasar density, giving a completeness of 94.9(+2.6,-3.8) to the limiting magnitude. Omitting radio selection reduces the color-only selection completeness by about 1%. Of the ten newly identified quasars, three have detected broad absorption line systems, six are significantly redder than other quasars at the same redshift, and four have redshifts between 2.7 and 3.0 (the redshift range where the SDSS colors of quasars intersect the stellar locus). The fraction of quasars missed due to image defects and blends is approximately 4%, but this number varies by a few percent with magnitude. Quasars with extended images comprise about 6% of the SDSS sample, and the completeness of the selection algorithm for extended quasars is approximately 81%, based on the SDSS galaxy survey. The combined end-to-end completeness for the SDSS quasar survey is approximately 89%. The total corrected density of quasars on the sky to i=19.1 is estimated to be 10.2 per sq. deg.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

An Empirical Calibration of the Completeness of the SDSS Quasar Survey 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 An Empirical Calibration of the Completeness of the SDSS Quasar Survey, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and An Empirical Calibration of the Completeness of the SDSS Quasar Survey will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-342606