We present initial results from the first systematic survey of luminous z similar to 5.5 quasars. Quasars at z similar to 5.5, the post-reionization epoch, are crucial tools to explore the evolution of intergalactic medium, quasar evolution, and the early super-massive black hole growth. However, it has been very challenging to select quasars at redshifts 5.3 <= z <= 5.7 using conventional color selections, due to their similar optical colors to late-type stars, especially M dwarfs, resulting in a glaring redshift gap in quasar redshift distributions. We develop a new selection technique for z similar to 5.5 quasars based on optical, near-IR, and mid-IR photometric data from Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), UKIRT InfraRed Deep Sky Surveys-Large Area Survey (ULAS), VISTA Hemisphere Survey (VHS), and Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer. From our pilot observations in the SDSS-ULAS/VHS area, we have discovered 15 new quasars at 5.3. z. 5.7 and 6 new lower redshift quasars, with SDSS z band magnitude brighter than 20.5. Including other two z similar to 5.5 quasars already published in our previous work, we now construct a uniform quasar sample at 5.3 <= z <= 5.7, with 17 quasars in a similar to 4800 square degree survey area. For further application in a larger survey area, we apply our selection pipeline to do a test selection by using the new wide field J-band photometric data from a preliminary version of the UKIRT Hemisphere Survey (UHS). We successfully discover the first UHS selected z similar to 5.5 quasar.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/623814 |
| Date | 30 March 2017 |
| Creators | Yang, Jinyi, Fan, Xiaohui, Wu, Xue-Bing, Wang, Feige, Bian, Fuyan, Yang, Qian, McGreer, Ian D., Yi, Weimin, Jiang, Linhua, Green, Richard, Yue, Minghao, Wang, Shu, Li, Zefeng, Ding, Jiani, Dye, Simon, Lawrence, Andy |
| Contributors | Univ Arizona, Steward Observ |
| Publisher | IOP PUBLISHING LTD |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article |
| Rights | © 2017. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. |
| Relation | http://stacks.iop.org/1538-3881/153/i=4/a=184?key=crossref.64cb96f86d6f6cd66905d1ad39594556 |
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