The Clustering of Quasars at Redshift 2.5 from the Final SDSS-III/BOSS Sample

Eftekharzadeh, S.; Myers, Adam D.; White, Martin; Bovy, Jo; Fan, Xiaohui; Le Goff, Jean-Marc; Laurent, Pierre; McBride, Cameron; Miralda-Escude, Jordi; Palanque-Delabrouille, Nathalie; Petitjean, Patrick; Ross, Nicholas P.; Schneider, Donald P.; Shen, Yue; Strauss, Michael A.; Streblyanska, A.; Weinberg, David H.; Wood-Vasey, W. Michael; Viel, Matteo; Yeche, Christophe; York, Don; Zehavi, Idit
Referencia bibliográfica

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #224, #221.01

Fecha de publicación:
6
2014
Número de autores
22
Número de autores del IAC
1
Número de citas
0
Número de citas referidas
0
Descripción
Measuring the mass of the dark matter halos that host quasars is a critical question in the field of galaxy evolution. Estimates of how the mean mass of the dark matter halos in which quasars are triggered evolves with time can potentially constrain scenarios in which the quasar phase is triggered in different dark-matter environments as the Universe progresses. Quasar clustering measurements on linear scales across a range of redshifts is a powerful tool with which to estimate the masses of the dark matter halos that are inhabited by the galaxies that host quasars. Although there are many measurements of quasar clustering at redshift z &lt 2.2, and a few at z &gt 3, there are very few precise measurements around 2.5, where the quasar phase appears to peak before declining at z &lt 2. The SDSS-III/BOSS survey targets redshifts of 2.2 &lt z &lt 3.5, and should therefore offer the most precise estimates of quasar clustering near the epoch of peak quasar activity. We use data from SDSS-III/BOSS to measure the clustering of quasars over the redshift range 2.2 &lt z &lt 2.8 via the real and redshift space two point correlation functions. The data consists of a homogeneously selected sample of 62960 BOSS CORE quasars drawn from SDSS DR11. Our homogeneous sample covers ~4460 (deg)^2 corresponding to a comoving volume of ~12 (Gpc/h)^3. We obtain the correlation length of quasars near 2.5 and derive the bias of the dark matter halos that host quasars. We study the mass of the dark matter environments of quasars using the formalism of the Halo Occupation Distribution (HOD). We will discuss our results at 2.5, and also results obtained by dividing the BOSS quasar sample into three redshift ranges to study how the correlation length, bias, and dark matter halo mass of quasars evolve over this key redshift range.