2005/03/31 by Kuenley Chiu, Wei Zheng, Donald P. Schneider +9 · 17 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #OVV quasar #Physics #Quasar #Redshift #Sky #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/430525
published in The Astronomical Journal 130(1), 13-22 (Institute of Physics) · 14 pages, 11 Postscript figures, uses emulateapj.sty The Astronomical Journal, accepted, in press
arxiv created 2005/03/31 · openalex publication_date 2005/06/20 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present simulations of quasar colors, magnitudes, and numbers at redshifts 5 < z < 10 based on our discovery of 10 new high-redshift quasars and the cloning of lower redshift Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) quasars. The 10 quasars have redshifts ranging from z = 4.7 to 5.3 and i magnitudes of 20.21–20.94. The natural diversity of spectral features in the cloned sample allows more realistic simulation of the quasar locus width than was previously possible with synthetic template spectra. Colors are generated for the z > 6 epoch, taking advantage of the new UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey near-infrared filter set, and we examine the redshift intervals of maximum productivity, discussing color selection and survey depth issues. On the basis of the SDSS sample, we find that the surface density of z > 4.7 quasars increases by a factor of 3 times by extending 0.7 i magnitudes deeper than the SDSS spectroscopic survey limit of i = 20.2; correspondingly, we predict a total of ∼400 faint quasars in the SDSS main area that have redshift z > 4.7 and magnitudes i < 20.9.