Quasar clustering at intermediate redshift - Analysis of systematics and of luminosity effects

Eftekharzadeh, S.; Myers, Adam D.; Kourkchi, Ehsan; DiPompeo, Michael A.; White, Martin; Weinberg, David, H.; Font-Ribera, Andreu; Ge, Jian; Paris, Isabelle; Ross, Nicholas P.; Schneider, Donald P.; Shen, Yue; Streblyanska, A.
Bibliographical reference

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #227, id.#443.01

Advertised on:
1
2016
Number of authors
13
IAC number of authors
1
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
We measure the clustering of over 55,000 quasars at redshifts 2.2 < z < 3.4 drawn from the final sample of the Baryonic Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). This is by far the largest sample ever used to study quasar clustering at "intermediate" redshifts. We ameliorate the effect of observational systematics on our clustering analyses by weighting our control catalogues of random points by maps of how observational systematics correlate with the BOSS quasar target density. We find that there is no significant evolution in the quasar correlation length and bias over our studied redshift range, implying that the masses of the dark matter halos that host quasars decreases slightly from z~2.2 to z~3.4. Our result also contradicts a monotonic relation between the optical luminosity of quasars near redshift 2.5 and their host halo masses. To begin to study whether this contradiction holds for quasars' bolometric luminosity, we use data from the Wide-field Infra red Survey Explorer (WISE) to study whether the luminosity or detection of BOSS quasars in the mid-IR is correlated with the masses of quasars' host halos. This work was partially supported by NSF award 1211112.