First discoveries of z > 6 quasars with the DECam Legacy Survey and UKIRT hemisphere survey

Wang, Feige and Fan, Xiaohui and Yang, Jinyi and Wu, Xue-Bing and Yang, Qian and Bian, Fuyan and McGreer, Ian D. and Li, Jiang-Tao and Li, Zefeng and Ding, Jiani and Dey, Arjun and Dye, S. and Findlay, Joseph R. and Green, Richard and James, David and Jiang, Linhua and Lang, Dustin and Lawrence, Andy and Myers, Adam D. and Ross, Nicholas P. and Schlegel, David J. and Shanks, Tom (2017) First discoveries of z > 6 quasars with the DECam Legacy Survey and UKIRT hemisphere survey. Astrophysical Journal, 839 (1). 27/1-27/8. ISSN 1538-4357

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Abstract

We present the first discoveries from a survey of z 6 quasars using imaging data from the DECam Legacy Survey (DECaLS) in the optical, the UKIRT Deep Infrared Sky Survey (UKIDSS) and a preliminary version of the UKIRT Hemisphere Survey (UHS) in the near-IR, and ALLWISE in the mid-IR. DECaLS will image 9000 deg2 of sky down to z AB ~ 23.0, and UKIDSS and UHS will map the northern sky at 0 < decl. < +60°, reaching J VEGA ~ 19.6 (5-σ). The combination of these data sets allows us to discover quasars at redshift z 7 and to conduct a complete census of the faint quasar population at z 6. In this paper, we report on the selection method of our search, and on the initial discoveries of two new, faint z 6 quasars and one new z = 6.63 quasar in our pilot spectroscopic observations. The two new z ~ 6 quasars are at z = 6.07 and z = 6.17 with absolute magnitudes at rest-frame wavelength 1450 Å being M 1450 = −25.83 and M 1450 = −25.76, respectively. These discoveries suggest that we can find quasars close to or fainter than the break magnitude of the Quasar Luminosity Function (QLF) at z 6. The new z = 6.63 quasar has an absolute magnitude of M 1450 = −25.95. This demonstrates the potential of using the combined DECaLS and UKIDSS/UHS data sets to find z 7 quasars. Extrapolating from previous QLF measurements, we predict that these combined data sets will yield ~200 z ~ 6 quasars to z AB < 21.5, ~1000 z ~ 6 quasars to z AB < 23, and ~30 quasars at z > 6.5 to J VEGA < 19.5.

Item Type: Article
RIS ID: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/855844
Keywords: galaxies: active, galaxies: high-redshift, quasars: emission lines, quasars: general
Schools/Departments: University of Nottingham, UK > Faculty of Science > School of Physics and Astronomy
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa689f
Depositing User: Eprints, Support
Date Deposited: 27 Apr 2017 08:02
Last Modified: 04 May 2020 18:41
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/42338

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