The Faint End of the Quasar Luminosity Function at z 4

Details The Faint End of the Quasar Luminosity Function at z 4 The Faint End of the Quasar Luminosity Function at z 4

Jan 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21532302g&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #215, #323.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.419

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We have conducted a spectroscopic survey to find faint quasars -26.0 < M1450 < -22.0 at redshifts z = 3.8 - 5.2 in order to measure the faint end of the quasar luminosity function at these early times. Using publicly available optical imaging data from portions of the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey and the Deep Lens Survey, we have color-selected quasar candidates in a total area of 3.76 deg2. Thirty candidates have R <= 23 mags. We conducted spectroscopic followup for 28 of our candidates and found 23 QSOs, reported here for the first time, in the 3.81 < z < 5.06 redshift range. We estimate our survey completeness through detailed Monte Carlo simulations and derive the first measurement of the density of quasars in this magnitude and redshift interval. The best-fit single powerlaw (Φ Lβ) gives a faint-end slope, -1.7 < β < -2.3, which is significantly steeper than expected based on measurements at z 3. We combine our sample with bright quasars from SDSS to derive parameters for a double-power-law luminosity function. Our best fit finds a bright-end slope, α = β = -2.3, without a well-constrained break luminosity. This is effectively a single power-law. We use these results to place limits on the amount of ultraviolet radiation produced by quasars and find that quasars are able to ionize the intergalactic medium at these redshifts.

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