Bibcode
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
Bibliographical reference
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #224, #221.01
Advertised on:
6
2014
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
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 < 2.2, and a few at z > 3, there
are very few precise measurements around 2.5, where the quasar phase
appears to peak before declining at z < 2. The SDSS-III/BOSS
survey targets redshifts of 2.2 < z < 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 < z <
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.