1,721,030 research outputs found
QSOGEN: model quasar SEDs
No full textThe QSOGEN collection of Python code models quasar colors, magnitudes and SEDs. It implements an empirically-motivated parametric model to efficiently account for the observed emission-line properties, host-galaxy contribution, dust reddening, hot dust emission, and IGM suppression in the rest-frame 900-30000A wavelength range for quasars with a wide range of redshift and luminosity. The code is packaged with a set of empirically-derived emission-line templates and an empirically-derived quasar dust extinction curve which are publicly released
C iv emission-line properties and systematic trends in quasar black hole mass estimates
Full text linkBlack hole masses are crucial to understanding the physics of the connection between quasars and their host galaxies and measuring cosmic black hole-growth. At high redshift, z ≳ 2.1, black hole masses are normally derived using the velocity width of the C iv1548, 1550 broad emission line, based on the assumption that the observed velocity widths arise from virial-induced motions. In many quasars, the C iv emission line exhibits significant blue asymmetries (‘blueshifts’) with the line centroid displaced by up to thousands of km s−1 to the blue. These blueshifts almost certainly signal the presence of strong outflows, most likely originating in a disc wind. We have obtained near-infrared spectra, including the Hα 6565 emission line, for 19 luminous (LBol = 46.5–47.5 erg s−1) Sloan Digital Sky Survey quasars, at redshifts 2 2000 km s−1, the velocity widths appear to be dominated by non-virial motions. Black hole masses, based on the full width at half-maximum of the C iv emission line, can be overestimated by a factor of 5 at large blueshifts. A larger sample of quasar spectra with both C iv and H β, or Hα, emission lines will allow quantitative corrections to C iv-based black hole masses as a function of blueshift to be derived. We find that quasars with large C iv blueshifts possess high Eddington luminosity ratios and that the fraction of high-blueshift quasars in a flux-limited sample is enhanced by a factor of approximately 4 relative to a sample limited by black hole mass
Modelling type 1 quasar colours in the era of Rubin and Euclid
No full textWe construct a parametric SED model which is able to reproduce the average observed SDSS–UKIDSS–WISE quasar colours to within one-tenth of a magnitude across a wide range of redshift (0 < z < 5) and luminosity (−22 > Mi > −29). This model is shown to provide accurate predictions for the colours of known quasars which are less luminous than those used to calibrate the model parameters, and also those at higher redshifts z > 5. Using a single parameter, the model encapsulates an up-to-date understanding of the intra-population variance in the rest-frame ultraviolet and optical emission lines of luminous quasars. At fixed redshift, there are systematic changes in the average quasar colours with apparent i-band magnitude, which we find to be well explained by the contribution from the host galaxy and our parametrization of the emission-line properties. By including redshift as an additional free parameter, the model could be used to provide photometric redshifts for individual objects. For the population as a whole we find that the average emission line and host-galaxy contributions can be well described by simple functions of luminosity which account for the observed changes in the average quasar colours across 18.1 < iAB < 21.5. We use these trends to provide predictions for quasar colours at the luminosities and redshifts which will be probed by the Rubin Observatory LSST and ESA-Euclid wide survey. The model code is applicable to a wide range of upcoming photometric and spectroscopic surveys, and is made publicly available
Exploring the link between C IV outflow kinematics and sublimation-temperature dust in quasars
No full textUsing data from SDSS, UKIDSS, and WISE, we investigate the properties of the high-frequency cutoff to the infrared emission in ≈5000 carefully selected luminous (Lbol ~1047) type 1 quasars. The strength of ≈2 μm emission, corresponding to emission from the hottest (T > 1200K) dust in the sublimation zone surrounding the central continuum source, is observed to correlate with the blueshift of the C iv λ1550 emission line. We therefore find that objects with stronger signatures of nuclear outflows tend to have a larger covering fraction of sublimation-temperature dust. When controlling for the observed outflow strength, the hot dust covering fraction does not vary significantly across our sample as a function of luminosity, black hole mass, or Eddington fraction. The correlation between the hot dust and the C iv line blueshifts, together with the lack of correlation between the hot dust and other parameters, therefore provides evidence of a link between the properties of the broad emission line region and the infrared-emitting dusty regions in quasars.</p
BAL and non-BAL quasars: continuum, emission, and absorption properties establish a common parent sample
No full textUsing a sample of ≃144 000 quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 14, we investigate the outflow properties, evident in both absorption and emission, of high-ionization broad absorption line (BAL) and non-BAL quasars with redshifts 1.6 ≲ z ≤ 3.5 and luminosities 45.3 erg s−1 < log10(Lbol) < 48.2 erg s−1. Key to the investigation is a continuum and emission-line reconstruction scheme, based on mean-field independent component analysis, that allows the kinematic properties of the C IV λ1550 emission line to be compared directly for both non-BAL and BAL quasars. C IV emission blueshift and equivalent width (EW) measurements are thus available for both populations. Comparisons of the emission-line and BAL trough properties reveal strong systematic correlations between the emission and absorption properties. The dependence of quantitative outflow indicators on physical properties such as quasar luminosity and luminosity relative to Eddington luminosity is also shown to be essentially identical for the BAL and non-BAL populations. There is an absence of BALs in quasars with the hardest spectral energy distributions (SEDs), revealed by the presence of strong He II λ1640 emission, large C IV λ1550 emission EW, and no measurable blueshift. In the remainder of the C IV emission blueshift versus EW space, BAL and non-BAL quasars are present at all locations; for every BAL quasar, it is possible to identify non-BAL quasars with the same emission-line outflow properties and SED hardness. The co-location of BAL and non-BAL quasars as a function of emission-line outflow and physical properties is the key result of our investigation, demonstrating that (high-ionization) BALs and non-BALs represent different views of the same underlying quasar population
Heavily reddened z ∼ 2 Type 1 quasars – II. H α star formation constraints from SINFONI IFU observations
Full text linkWe use near infrared integral field unit (IFU) spectroscopy to search for H emission associated with star formation in a sample of 28 heavily reddened (0.5-1.9), hyperluminous (47-48) broad-line quasars at 1.4-2.7. Sixteen of the 28 quasars show evidence for star formation with an average extinction-corrected star formation rate (SFR) of 32070Myr. A stacked spectrum of the detections shows weak [NII], consistent with star formation as the origin of the narrow H emission. The star-forming regions are spatially unresolved in 11 of the 16 detections and constrained to lie within 6kpc of the quasar emission. In the five resolved detections we find the star-forming regions are extended on scales of 8kpc around the quasar emission. The prevalence of high SFRs is consistent with the identification of the heavily reddened quasar population as representing a transitional phase from apparent `starburst galaxies' to optically-luminous quasars. Upper limits are determined for 10 quasars in which star formation is undetected. In two of the quasars the SFR is constrained to be relatively modest, 50Myr, but significantly higher levels of star formation could be present in the other eight quasars. The combination of the 16 strong star formation detections and the eight high SFR limits means that high levels of star formation may be present in the majority of the sample. Higher spatial resolution data, of multiple emission lines, will allow us to better understand the interplay between star formation and Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) activity in these transitioning quasars
A fresh look at AGN spectral energy distribution fitting with the XMM-SERVS AGN sample
Full text linkABSTRACT We perform spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting to 711 luminous X-ray AGN at 0.7 < z < 4.5 using 10-bands of optical and infra-red photometric data for objects within XMM-SERVS. This fitting provided 510 reliable (reduced χ2 < 3) inferences on AGN and host galaxy properties. The AGN optical (3000 Å) luminosity inferred from SED-fitting is found to correlate with the measured X-ray (2–10 keV) luminosity, in good agreement with previous work. Using X-ray hardness as a proxy for AGN obscuration, we also study the differences in the host galaxy properties of obscured and unobscured AGNs. Both populations have consistent stellar masses (log10(M*/M⊙) = 10.88 and log10(M*/M⊙) = 10.8 for unobscured and obscured AGNs, respectively). We also find evidence for varying AGN emission line properties from a standard AGN template in 18.8 per cent of the sample with a reduced χ2 < 3 where the inclusion of an additional emission line strength free parameter was found to improve the quality of the fit. Comparison of these fits to SDSS spectra showed that emission line properties inferred from broad-band photometry were consistent with the results from spectroscopy for 91 per cent of objects. We find that the presence of weaker, more blueshifted emission lines as inferred from the SED fits are associated with more negative values of αox. While the correlation between the hardness of the ionizing SED and the emission line properties has been known for some time, we are able to derive this correlation purely from broad-band photometry
Correcting CIV-based virial black hole masses
No full textThe CIV broad emission line is visible in optical spectra to redshifts exceeding z~5. CIV has long been known to exhibit significant displacements to the blue and these `blueshifts' almost certainly signal the presence of strong outflows. As a consequence, single-epoch virial black hole (BH) mass estimates derived from CIV velocity-widths are known to be systematically biased compared to masses from the hydrogen Balmer lines. Using a large sample of 230 high-luminosity (log = 45.5-48 erg/s), redshift 1.55000 km/s. Using the monotonically increasing relationship between the CIV blueshift and the mass ratio BH(CIV)/BH(H) we derive an empirical correction to all CIV BH-masses. The scatter between the corrected CIV masses and the Balmer masses is 0.24 dex at low CIV blueshifts (~0 km/s) and just 0.10 dex at high blueshifts (~3000 km/s), compared to 0.40 dex before the correction. The correction depends only on the CIV line properties - i.e. full-width at half maximum and blueshift - and can therefore be applied to all quasars where CIV emission line properties have been measured, enabling the derivation of un-biased virial BH mass estimates for the majority of high-luminosity, high-redshift, spectroscopically confirmed quasars in the literature
Heavily reddened type 1 quasars at z > 2 – I. Evidence for significant obscured black hole growth at the highest quasar luminosities
No full textWe present a new population of z > 2 dust-reddened, type 1 quasars with 0.5 ≲ E(B − V) ≲ 1.5, selected using near-infrared (NIR) imaging data from the UKIDSS-LAS (Large Area Survey), ESO-VHS (European Southern Observatory-VISTA Hemisphere Survey) and WISE surveys. NIR spectra obtained using the Very Large Telescope for 24 new objects bring our total sample of spectroscopically confirmed hyperluminous (>1013 L⊙), high-redshift dusty quasars to 38. There is no evidence for reddened quasars having significantly different Hα equivalent widths relative to unobscured quasars. The average black hole masses (∼109–1010 M⊙) and bolometric luminosities (∼1047 erg s−1) are comparable to the most luminous unobscured quasars at the same redshift, but with a tail extending to very high luminosities of ∼1048 erg s−1. 66 per cent of the reddened quasars are detected at >3σ at 22 μm by WISE. The average 6-μm rest-frame luminosity is log10(L6 μm/ erg s−1) = 47.1 ± 0.4, making the objects among the mid-infrared brightest active galactic nuclei (AGN) currently known. The extinction-corrected space density estimate now extends over three magnitudes (−30 < Mi < −27) and demonstrates that the reddened quasar luminosity function is significantly flatter than that of the unobscured quasar population at z = 2–3. At the brightest magnitudes, Mi ≲ −29, the space density of our dust-reddened population exceeds that of unobscured quasars. A model where the probability that a quasar becomes dust reddened increases at high luminosity is consistent with the observations and such a dependence could be explained by an increase in luminosity and extinction during AGN-fuelling phases. The properties of our obscured type 1 quasars are distinct from the heavily obscured, Compton-thick AGN that have been identified at much fainter luminosities and we conclude that they likely correspond to a brief evolutionary phase in massive galaxy formation
A SCUBA-2 850 μm survey of heavily reddened quasars at z ∼ 2
No full textWe present new 850 μm SCUBA-2 observations for a sample of 19 heavily reddened Type-I quasars at redshifts z ∼ 2 with dust extinctions of AV ≃ 2–6 mag. Three of the 19 quasars are detected at >3σ significance corresponding to an 850 μm flux-limit of ≳4.8 mJy. Assuming the 850 μm flux is dominated by dust heating due to star formation, very high star formation rates (SFR) of ∼2500–4500 M⊙ yr−1 in the quasar host galaxies are inferred. Even when considering a large contribution to the 850 μm flux from dust heated by the quasar itself, significant SFRs of ∼600–1500 M⊙ yr−1 are nevertheless inferred for two of the three detected quasars. We stack the remaining 16 heavily reddened quasars and derive an average 3σ upper limit on the SFRs in these quasar host galaxies of <880 M⊙ yr−1. The number counts of sub-mm galaxies in the total survey area (134.3 arcmin2) are consistent with predictions from blank-field surveys. There are, however, individual quasars where we find evidence for an excess of associated sub-mm galaxies. For two quasars, higher spatial resolution and spectroscopic ALMA observations confirm the presence of an excess of sub-mm sources. We compare the 850 μm detection rate of our quasars to both unobscured, ultraviolet luminous quasars as well as the much more obscured population of mid-infrared luminous Hot Dust Obscured Galaxies (HotDOGs). When matched by luminosity and redshift, we find no significant differences in the 850 μm flux densities of these various quasar populations given the current small sample sizes
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