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 su...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.展开更多
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 observation...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.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.10525313)the National Key Basic Research Science Foundation of China(2007CB815405)+1 种基金the Open Project Program of the Key Laboratory of Optical Astronomy,NAOC,CASThe Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST,now called the Guoshoujing Telescope) is a National Major Scientific Project built by the Chinese Academy of Sciences
文摘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.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.10525313)the National Key Basic Research Science Foundation of China (2007CB815405)The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST,now called the Guoshoujing Telescope) is a National Major Scientific Project built by the Chinese Academy of Sciences
文摘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.
