The first data release(DR1) of the LAMOST regular survey

The Large sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope（LAMOST） general survey is a spectroscopic survey that will eventually cover approximately half of the celestial sphere and collect 10 million spectra of stars, galaxies and QSOs. Objects in both the pilot survey and the first year regular survey are included in the LAMOST DR1. The pilot survey started in October 2011 and ended in June 2012, and the data have been released to the public as the LAMOST Pilot Data Release in August 2012. The regular survey started in September 2012, and completed its first year of operation in June 2013. The LAMOST DR1 includes a total of 1202 plates containing 2 955 336 spectra, of which 1 790 879 spectra have observed signalto-noise ratio（SNR） ≥ 10. All data with SNR ≥ 2 are formally released as LAMOST DR1 under the LAMOST data policy. This data release contains a total of 2 204 696 spectra, of which 1 944 329 are stellar spectra, 12 082 are galaxy spectra and 5017 are quasars. The DR1 not only includes spectra, but also three stellar catalogs with measured parameters： late A,FGK-type stars with high quality spectra（1 061 918 entries）, A-type stars（100 073 entries）, and M-type stars（121 522 entries）. This paper introduces the survey design, the observational and instrumental limitations, data reduction and analysis, and some caveats. A description of the FITS structure of spectral files and parameter catalogs is also provided.

A very bright (i=16.44) quasar in the ‘redshift desert’ discovered by the Guoshoujing Telescope (LAMOST)

The redshift range from 2.2 to 3 is known as the ＇redshift desert＇ of quasars because quasars with redshifts in this range have similar optical colors as normal stars and are thus difficult to find in optical sky surveys. A quasar candidate, SDSS J085543.40-001517.7, which was selected by a recently proposed criterion involving near-IR Y - K and optical g - z colors, was identified spectroscopically as a new quasar with a redshift of 2.427 by the Guoshoujing Telescope （LAMOST） commissioning observation in 2009 December and confirmed by the observation made with the NAOC/Xinglong 2.16 m telescope in 2010 March. This quasar was not identified in the SDSS spectroscopic survey. Comparing with other SDSS quasars, we found that this new quasar, with an i magnitude of 16.44, is apparently the brightest one in the redshift range from 2.3 to 2.7. From its spectral properties, we derived its central black hole mass to be （1.4 - 3.9） × 10^110 M⊙ and its bolometric luminosity to be 3.7 × 10^48 erg s^-1, which indicates that this new quasar is intrinsically very bright and belongs to the class of the most luminous quasars in the universe. Our identification supports the notion that quasars in the redshift desert can be found by the quasar selection criterion involving the near-IR colors. More missing quasars are expected to be uncovered by future LAMOST spectroscopic surveys, which is important to the study of the cosmological evolution of quasars at redshifts higher than 2.2.

Eight new quasars discovered by the Guoshoujing Telescope (LAMOST) in one extragalactic field

We report the discovery of eight new quasars in one extragalactic field （a five-degree field centered at RA=08^h58^m08.2^s, Dec=01°32′29.7″） with the Guoshoujing Telescope （LAMOST） commissioning observations made on 2009 December 18. These quasars, with i magnitudes from 16.44 to 19.34 and redshifts from 0.898 to 2.773, were not identified in the SDSS spectroscopic survey, though six of them with redshifts less than 2.5 were selected as quasar targets in SDSS. Except for one source without near-IR Y-band data, seven of these eight new quasars satisfy a newly proposed quasar selection criterion involving both near-IR and optical colors. Two of them were found in the ＇redshift desert＇ for quasars （z from 2.2 to 3）, indicating that the new criterion is efficient for uncovering missing quasars with similar optical colors to stars. Although LAMOST encountered some problems during the commissioning observations, we were still able to identify 38 other known SDSS quasars in this field, with i magnitudes from 16.24 to 19.10 and redshifts from 0.297 to 4.512. Our identifications imply that a substantial fraction of quasars may be miss- ing in previous quasar surveys. The implication of our results to the future LAMOST quasar survey is discussed.

A sample of galaxy pairs identified from the LAMOST spectral survey and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

A small fraction （〈 10%） of the SDSS main galaxy （MG） sample has not been targeted with spectroscopy due to the effect of fiber collisions. These galaxies have been compiled into the input catalog of the LAMOST ExtraGAlactic Surveys and named the complementary galaxy sample. In this paper, we introduce this project and status of the spectroscopies associated with the complementary galaxies in the first two years of the LAMOST spectral survey （till Sep. of 2014）. Moreover, we present a sample of 1102 galaxy pairs identified from the LAMOST complementary galaxies and SDSS MGs, which are defined as two members that have a projected distance smaller than 100 h^-01kpc and a recessional velocity difference smaller than 500 km s-1. Compared with galaxy pairs that are only selected from SDSS, the LAMOST- SDSS pairs have the advantages of not being biased toward large separations and therefore act as a useful supplement in statistical studies of galaxy interaction and galaxy merging.

Discovery of six high-redshift quasars with the Lijiang 2.4 m telescope and the Multiple Mirror Telescope

Quasars with redshifts greater than 4 are rare, and can be used to probe the structure and evolution of the early universe. Here we report the discovery of six new quasars with i-band magnitudes brighter than 19.5 and redshifts between 2.4 and 4.6 from spectroscopy with the Yunnan Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (YFOSC) at the Lijiang 2.4 m telescope in February, 2012. These quasars are in the list of z > 3.6 quasar candidates selected by using our proposed J K/i Y criterion and the photometric redshift estimations from the SDSS optical and UKIDSS near-IR photometric data. Nine candidates were observed by YFOSC, and five among six new quasars were identified as z > 3.6 quasars. One of the other three objects was identified as a star and the other two were unidentified due to the lower signal-to-noise ratio of their spectra. This is the first time that z > 4 quasars have been discovered using a telescope in China. Thanks to the Chinese Telescope Access Program (TAP), the redshift of 4.6 for one of these quasars was confirmed by the Multiple Mirror Telescope (MMT) Red Channel spectroscopy. The continuum and emission line properties of these six quasars, as well as their central black hole masses and Eddington ratios, were obtained.

Estimating Black Hole Masses of AGNs using Ultraviolet Emission Line Properties

Based on measured broad line region sizes in the reverberation-mapping AGN sample, two new empirical relations are introduced to estimate the central black hole masses of radio-loud high-redshift （z 〉 0.5） AGNs. First, using the archival IUE/HST spectroscopy data at UV band for the reverberation-mapping objects, we obtained two new empirical relations between the BLR size and Mg Ⅱ/C Ⅳ emission line luminosity. Secondly, using the newly determined black hole masses of the reverberation-mapping sample as calibration, we found two new relationships for determining the black hole mass with the full width at half maximum and the luminosity of Mg Ⅱ/C Ⅳ line. We then apply the relations to estimate the black hole masses of the AGNs in the Large Bright Quasar Survey and a sample of radio-loud quasars. For the objects with small radio-loudness, the black hole mass estimated using the RBLR-LMg Ⅱ/C Ⅳ relation is consistent with that from the RBLR-L3000 A/1350 A relation. For radio-loud AGNs, however, the mass estimated from the RBLR-LMg Ⅱ/C Ⅳ relation is systematically lower than that from the continuum luminosity L3000 A/13S0 A Because jets could have significant contributions to the UV/optical continuum luminosity of radio-loud AGNs, we emphasize once again that for radio-loud AGNs, the emission line luminosity may be a better tracer of the ionizing luminosity than the continuum luminosity, so that the relations between the BLR size and UV emission line luminosities should be used to estimate the black hole masses of high redshift radio-loud AGNs.

The galaxy luminosity function in the LAMOST Complete Spectroscopic Survey of Pointing Area at the Southern Galactic Cap

We present optical luminosity functions(LFs) of galaxies in the0.1 g,0.1 r,0.1 i bands, calculated using data in40 deg2 sky area of the LAMOST Complete Spectroscopic Survey of Pointing Area(LaCoSSPAr) in the Southern Galactic Cap. Redshifts for galaxies brighter than r = 18.1 were obtained mainly with LAMOST. In each band, LFs derived using both parametric and non-parametric maximum likelihood methods agree well with each other. In the0.1 r band, our fitting parameters of the Schechter function are φ*=(1.65 ± 0.36) × 10-2 h3 Mpc-3, M*=-20.69 ± 0.06 mag and α =-1.12 ± 0.08,which agree with previous studies. Separate LFs are also derived for emission line galaxies and absorption line galaxies. The LFs of absorption line galaxies show a dip at0.1 r 18.5 and can be fitted well by a double-Gaussian function, suggesting a bimodality in passive galaxies.

A search for double-peaked narrow emission line galaxies and AGNs in the LAMOST DR1

The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope （LAMOST） has released more than two million spectra, which provide the opportunity to search for double-peaked narrow emission line （NEL） galaxies and active galactic nuclei （AGNs）. The double-peaked narrow-line profiles can be well modeled by two velocity components, respectively blueshifted and redshifted with respect to the sys- temic recession velocity. This paper presents 20 double-peaked NEL galaxies and AGNs found from LAMOST DR1 using a search method based on a multi-Gaussian fit of the narrow emission lines. Among them, ten have already been published by other authors, either listed as genuine double-peaked NEL objects or as asymmetric NEL objects, and the remaining ten are original discoveries. We discuss some pos- sible origins for the double-peaked narrow-line features, such as interaction between jet and narrow line regions, interaction with companion galaxies, and black hole bina- ries. Spatially resolved optical imaging and/or follow-up observations in other spectral bands are needed to further discuss the physical mechanisms at work.

Radio Identifications of Markarian Galaxies and the Correlation between Radio and Far-Infrared Properties

By checking DSS optical images and NVSS radio images, 782 Markarian galaxies were identified to be NVSS radio sources. A comparison of the radio luminosity at 1.4GHz and the far-infrared （FIR） luminosity for 468 “normal” galaxies shows a tight correlation. Most of the Seyfert galaxies and quasars follow the radio-FIR relation deduced from the “normal” galaxy sample, but with a somewhat larger scatter. A total 167 Markarian galaxies, comprising 100 “normal” galaxies, 66 Seyfert galaxies and one quasar, have either excess radio emission or much lower FIR spectral index α（25 μm, 60 μm）. These galaxies may be classified as “AGN-powered”. For “normal” galaxies, the average q value （defined as the log ratio between FIR and radio luminosities） is 2.3. There seems a trend for q to slightly decrease with increasing radio luminosity. This may imply that the ongoing active star formation in galaxies with higher radio luminosities is more efficient in heating the cosmic-ray electrons.