2014/07/31 by Scott M. Adams, Paul Martini, Kevin V. Croxall +2 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph.CO #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/stv065
Accepted for publication in MNRAS (12 pages, 7 figures, 4 tables). For a brief video explaining this paper, see http://youtu.be/rRgsIV1q674
arxiv created 2015/03/26 · arxiv updated 2015/06/22
Measurements of QSO clustering in the SDSS show that z>4 QSOs are some of the most highly biased objects in the universe. Their large correlation lengths of r0 ∼ 20h-1Mpc are comparable to the most massive clusters of galaxies in the universe today and suggest that these QSOs may mark the locations of massive cluster progenitors at high redshift. We report the discovery of an overdensity of LBGs around QSO SDSSJ114514.18+394715.9 as part of our survey to identify Lyman-Break galaxies (LBGs) around luminous z∼4 QSOs. In this field three of the eight LBGs with secure redshifts are consistent with the redshift of the QSO. We find that the likelihood that this is merely an apparent overdensity due to the chance selection of field galaxies is only 0.02%, based on comparisons to simulations and our modeled selection efficiency. Overall, our survey finds four of the 15 LBGs with secure redshifts are consistent with the redshifts of their respective QSOs, which is consistent with luminous QSOs residing in larger haloes.