• 천문학회지
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• 제48권1호
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• pp.75-82
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• 2015

We use a volume-limited sample of quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR7 quasar catalog to identify quasar groups and address their statistical significance. This quasar sample has a uniform selection function on the sky and nearly a maximum possible contiguous volume that can be drawn from the DR7 catalog. Quasar groups are identified by using the Friend-of-Friend algorithm with a set of fixed comoving linking lengths. We find that the richness distribution of the richest 100 quasar groups or the size distribution of the largest 100 groups are statistically equivalent with those of randomly-distributed points with the same number density and sky coverage when groups are identified with the linking length of $70h^{-1}Mpc$. It is shown that the large-scale structures like the huge Large Quasar Group (U1.27) reported by Clowes et al. (2013) can be found with high probability even if quasars have no physical clustering, and does not challenge the initially homogeneous cosmological models. Our results are statistically more reliable than those of Nadathur (2013), where the test was made only for the largest quasar group. It is shown that the linking length should be smaller than $50h^{-1}Mpc$ in order for the quasar groups identified in the DR7 catalog not to be dominated by associations of quasars grouped by chance. We present 20 richest quasar groups identified with the linking length of $70h^{-1}Mpc$ for further analyses.

• 천문학회지
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• 제40권1호
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• pp.1-7
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• 2007

About 10 percent of quasars are known to exhibit deep broad absorption troughs blueward of prominent permitted emission lines, which are usually attributed to the existence of outflows slightly above he accretion disk around the supermassive black hole. Typical widths up to 0.2c of these absorption roughs indicate the velocity scales in which special relativistic effects may not be negligible. Under he assumption of the ubiquity of the broad absorption line region in quasars, the broad emission line flux will exhibit Thomson scattered components from these fast outflows. In this paper, we provide our Monte Carlo calculation of linear polarization of singly Thomson scattered line radiation with the careful considerations of special relativistic effects. The scattering region is approximated by a collection of rings that are moving outward with speeds ${\upsilon}=c{\beta}<0.2c$ near the equatorial plane, and the scattered line photons are collected according to its direction and wavelength in the observer's rest frame. We find that the significantly extended red tail appears in the scattered radiation. We also find that the linear degree of polarization of singly Thomson scattered line radiation is wavelength-dependent and hat there are significant differences in the linear degree of polarization from that computed from classical physics in the far red tail. We propose that the semi-forbidden broad emission line C III]1909 may be significantly contributed from Thomson scattering because this line has small resonance scattering optical depth in the broad absorption line region, which leads to distinct and significant polarized flux in this broad emission line.

• 천문학회보
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• 제36권2호
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• pp.63.2-63.2
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• 2011

We describe the Infrared Medium-deep Survey (IMS), a survey of quasars in the early universe beyond z=5. IMS uses multi-wavelength archival data such as SDSS, CFHT-LS, UKIDSS, and SWIRE, which provide deep images over wide area enough for searching of high redshift bright quasars. In addition, we are carrying out J-band imaging survey with the depth of 23AB at UKIRT for up to 200 $deg^2$, of which 50 $deg^2$ is covered so far. For the quasar candidates at z~5.5, we are making observations with custom-made filters, which are more efficient to make robust quasar candidate samples in this redshift range. Because of the deeper survey depth and the unique methods, our IMS can provide a large number of high redshift quasars comparing with ongoing high redshift bright quasar survey. The high redshift quasars we confirm will give us with clues of the growth of super massive black holes and the metal enrichment history in the early universe.

• 천문학회지
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• 제46권4호
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• pp.161-172
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• 2013

A focal reducer is developed for CQUEAN (Camera for QUasars in EArly uNiverse), which is a CCD imaging system on the 2.1 m Otto Struve telescope at the McDonald observatory. It allows CQUEAN to secure a wider field of view by reducing the effective focal length by a factor of three. The optical point spread function without seeing effects is designed to be within one pixel ($0.283^{\prime\prime}$) over the field of view of $4.82^{\prime}{\times}4.82^{\prime}$ in optimum wavelength ranges of 0.8-1.1 ${\mu}m$. In this paper, we describe and discuss the characteristics of optical design, the lens and barrel fabrications and the alignment processes. The observation results show that the image quality of the focal reducer confirms the expectations from the design.

• 천문학논총
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• 제32권1호
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• pp.305-307
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• 2017

We have identified 22 quasars in the AKARI far-infrared all-sky Bright Source Catalogue, using a matching radius of < 10", and excluding matches which are close to foreground extended sources or cirrus. We have confirmed a relation between quasar optical luminosity and far-infrared luminosity which was found in an earlier study. In addition, we have found that the 11 sources which are at redshift z > 1 are magnified with respect to the predicted far-infrared luminosity, and consider this may be due to gravitational lensing. If confirmed, this would provide a new way to identify lenses; if not, we may have identified an interesting new population of extreme starbursting quasars.

• 천문학회보
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• 제42권1호
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• pp.34.3-35
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• 2017

Spectral energy distribution camera for QUasars in EArly uNiverse (SQUEAN) is a successor of Camera for Quasars in EArly uNiverse (CQUEAN) which was developed by Center for the Exploration of the Origin of the Universe and operated at the 2.1 m Otto Struve Telescope in the McDonald Observatory, USA, since 2010. The software of SQUEAN controls a science camera, a guiding camera, and a filter wheel, and communicates with the telescope control system (TCS). It has been constantly revised and modularized according to the upgrades of the TCS and the hardware changes. Recently we have implemented the stable network communication and the semi-automatic focusing modules to enhance observational convenience. In this presentation we describe the current status of the SQUEAN control software and introduce a software architecture which is optimized on efficient astronomical observations.

• 천문학회지
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• 제45권1호
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• pp.7-17
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• 2012

Y-band is a broad passband that is centered at ~1 ${\mu}m$. It is becoming a new, popular window for extragalactic study especially for observations of red objects thanks to recent CCD technology developments. In order to better understand the general characteristics of objects in Y-band, and to investigate the promise of Y-band observations with small telescopes, we carried out imaging observations of several extragalactic fields, brown dwarfs, and high redshift quasars with Y-band filter at the Mt. Lemmon Optical Astronomy Observatory and the Maidanak observatory. From our observations, we constrain the bright end of the galaxy and the stellar number counts in Y-band. We also test the usefulness of high redshift quasar (z >6) selection via i - z - Y color-color diagram, to demonstrate that the i - z - Y color-color diagram is effective for the selection of high redshift quasars even with a conventional optical CCD camera installed at a 1-m class telescope.

• 천문학회보
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• 제37권2호
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• pp.91-91
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• 2012

We present high-resolution near-infrared host galaxy spectra of low-z quasars, PG0844+349 (z=0.064), PG1226+023 (z=0.158), and PG1426+015 (z=0.086). The observation was done by using the near-IR high resolution echelle spectrometer, IRCS, at the SUBARU 8.2 m telescope. The full width at half maximum of the point spread function was about 0.3 arcsec by using an Adaptive Optics system, which can effectively resolve the quasar spectra from the host galaxy spectra. The signal-to-noise ratios are increased by the total exposure time up to several hours per targets and the development of data reduction method. We compare our results to the stellar spectra library and sample spectra from Dasyra et al. (2007) and Watson et al. (2008). The identified spectral lines will be used to study the physical mechanism of quasars, and the velocity dispersions of the stars in the bulge of the host galaxy.

• 천문학회지
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• 제53권6호
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• pp.149-159
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• 2020

Gravitational lensing of point sources located inside the lens caustic is known to produce four images in a configuration closely related to the source position. We study this relation in the particular case of a sample of quadruply-imaged quasars observed by the Hubble Space Telescope. Strong correlations between the parameters defining the image configuration are revealed. The relation between the image configuration and the source position is studied. Some simple features of the selected data sample are exposed and commented upon. In particular, evidence is found for the selected sample to be biased in favor of large magnification systems. While having no direct impact on practical analyses of specific systems, our results have pedagogical value and deepen our understanding of the mechanism of gravitational lensing.

• 천문학회보
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• 제45권1호
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• pp.34.3-34.3
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• 2020

Faint z ~ 5 quasars with M1450 ~ -23 mag are known to be the potentially important contributors to the ultraviolet ionizing background in the post-reionization era. However, their number density has not been well determined, making it difficult to assess their role in the early ionization of the intergalactic medium (IGM). In this work, we present the updated results of our z ~ 5 quasar survey using the Infrared Medium-deep Survey (IMS), a near-infrared imaging survey covering an area of 85 square degrees. From our spectroscopic observations with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on the Gemini-South 8 m Telescope, we discovered eight new quasars at z ~ 5 with -26.1 ≤ M1450 ≤ -23.3. Combining our IMS faint quasars with the brighter Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) quasars, we derive, for the first time, the z ~ 5 quasar luminosity function (QLF) without any fixed parameters down to the magnitude limit of M1450 = -23 mag. We find that the faint-end slope of the QLF is very flat (-1.2) with a characteristic luminosity of -25.7 mag. The number density of z ~ 5 quasars from the QLF gives lower ionizing emissivity and ionizing photon density than those in previous works. These results imply that quasars are responsible for only 10-20% of the photons required to completely ionize the IGM at z ~ 5, disfavoring the idea that quasars alone could have ionized the IGM at z ~ 5.