Cosmology with AGN dust time lags -- Simulating the new VEILS survey

Abstract

The time lag between optical and near-infrared continuum emission in active galactic nuclei (AGN) shows a tight correlation with luminosity and has been proposed as a standardisable candle for cosmology. In this paper, we explore the use of these AGN hot-dust time lags for cosmological model fitting under the constraints of the new VISTA Extragalactic Infrared Legacy Survey VEILS. This new survey will target a 9 deg^2 field observed in J- and Ks-band with a 14-day cadence and will run for three years. The same area will be covered simultaneously in the optical griz bands by the Dark Energy Survey, providing complementary time-domain optical data. We perform realistic simulations of the survey setup, showing that we expect to recover dust time lags for about 450 objects out of a total of 1350 optical type 1 AGN, spanning a redshift range of 0.1 < z < 1.2. We use the lags recovered from our simulations to calculate precise distance moduli, establish a Hubble diagram, and fit cosmological models. Assuming realistic scatter in the distribution of the dust around the AGN as well as in the normalisation of the lag-luminosity relation, we are able to constrain Ω_Λ in ΛCDM with similar accuracy as current supernova samples. We discuss the benefits of combining AGN and supernovae for cosmology and connect the present work to future attempts to reach out to redshifts of z > 4.

arXiv comment12 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables. MNRAS in press

References in corpus (40)

• A 2.4% Determination of the Local Value of the Hubble Constant
• Improved cosmological constraints from a joint analysis of the SDSS-II and SNLS supernova samples
• Detailed Decomposition of Galaxy Images. II. Beyond Axisymmetric Models
• The Hubble Space Telescope Cluster Supernova Survey: V. Improving the Dark Energy Constraints Above z>1 and Building an Early-Type-Hosted Supernova Sample
• Are the Variations in Quasar Optical Flux Driven by Thermal Fluctuations?
• On Uncertainties in Cross-Correlation Lags and the Reality of Wavelength-Dependent Continuum Lags in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Nearby Supernova Rates from the Lick Observatory Supernova Search. III. The Rate-Size Relation, and the Rates as a Function of Galaxy Hubble Type and Colour
• Reverberation Measurements of the Inner Radius of the Dust Torus in Nearby Seyfert 1 Galaxies
• An Alternative Approach To Measuring Reverberation Lags in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Kepler Observations of Rapid Optical Variability in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Reverberation Measurements of the Inner Radius of the Dust Torus in 17 Seyfert Galaxies
• The one-dimensional Ly-alpha forest power spectrum from BOSS
• The innermost region of AGN tori: implications from the HST/NICMOS Type 1 point sources and near-IR reverberation
• The dusty heart of nearby active galaxies -- II. From clumpy torus models to physical properties of dust around AGN
• The Galaxy Zoo survey for giant AGN-ionized clouds: past and present black-hole accretion events
• Mapping the radial structure of AGN tori
• A new cosmological distance measure using AGN
• The innermost dusty structure in active galactic nuclei as probed by the Keck interferometer
• OzDES multi-fibre spectroscopy for the Dark Energy Survey: first-year operation and results
• Photometric AGN reverberation mapping - an efficient tool for BLR sizes, black hole masses and host-subtracted AGN luminosities
• The History and Environment of a Faded Quasar: Hubble Space Telescope observations of Hanny's Voorwerp and IC 2497
• Exploring the inner region of Type 1 AGNs with the Keck interferometer
• Spectral variability of quasars from multi-epoch photometric data in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Stripe 82
• A dust-parallax distance of 19 megaparsecs to the supermassive black hole in NGC 4151
• Quasar Black Hole Mass Estimates in the Era of Time Domain Astronomy
• Optical and Near-IR long-term monitoring of NGC3783 and MR2251-178: evidence for variable near-IR emission from thin accretion discs
• A New Method for Measuring Extragalactic Distances
• Quasar Parallax: a Method for Determining Direct Geometrical Distances to Quasars
• Simulations of the OzDES AGN Reverberation Mapping Project
• Evidence for a receding dust sublimation region around a supermassive black hole
• Towards equation of state of dark energy from quasar monitoring: Reverberation strategy
• Photometric Reverberation Mapping of the Broad Emission Line Region in Quasars
• Constraining properties of dusty environments by infrared variability
• High Redshift Standard Candles: Predicted Cosmological Constraints
• Possible evidence for a common radial structure in nearby AGN tori
• The broad-line region and dust torus size of the Seyfert 1 galaxy PGC50427
• Quasar Cartography: from Black Hole to Broad Line Region Scales
• Dust reverberation-mapping of the Seyfert 1 galaxy WPVS48
• Dust reverberation mapping in the era of big optical surveys and its cosmological application
• Quasar Tomography: Unification of Echo Mapping and Photoionisation Models

Cited by in corpus (29)

• Evolution of the AGN UV luminosity function from redshift 7.5
• Concerns regarding the use of black hole shadows as standard rulers
• The Young Supernova Experiment: Survey Goals, Overview, and Operations
• MIGHTEE-HI: The HI emission project of the MeerKAT MIGHTEE survey
• Reverberation Measurements of the Inner Radii of the Dust Tori in Quasars
• The Young Supernova Experiment Data Release 1 (YSE DR1): Light Curves and Photometric Classification of 1975 Supernovae
• Large 21 cm signals from AGN-dominated reionization
• A Spitzer survey of Deep Drilling Fields to be targeted by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time
• Exploring the link between C IV outflow kinematics and sublimation-temperature dust in quasars
• An Application of Multi-band Forced Photometry to One Square Degree of SERVS: Accurate Photometric Redshifts and Implications for Future Science
• Methods of Reverberation Mapping. I. Time-lag Determination by Measures of Randomness
• Lighthouse in the Dust: Infrared Echoes of Periodic Emission from Massive Black Hole Binaries
• Simultaneous H alpha and dust reverberation mapping of 3C120: Testing the bowl-shaped torus geometry
• Determination of the size of the dust torus in H0507+164 through optical and infrared monitoring
• The environment and host haloes of the brightest z~6 Lyman-break galaxies
• Modeling the Infrared Reverberation Response of the Circumnuclear Dusty Torus in AGNs: An Investigation of Torus Response Functions
• Euclid preparation. The Cosmic Dawn Survey (DAWN) of the Euclid Deep and Auxiliary Fields
• Calibration of AGN Reverberation Distance Measurements
• An Extraordinary Response of Iron Emission to the Central Outburst in a Tidal Disruption Event Candidate
• Dust Reverberation Mapping of Z229-15
• Cosmology with powerful radio-loud AGNs
• The Deviation of the Broad-line Region Size Between Reverberation Mapping and Spectroastrometry
• Analyzing temporal variations of AGN emission line profiles in the context of (dusty) cloud structure formation in the broad line region
• Discerning Dark Energy Models with High-Redshift Standard Candles
• An ACA 1mm survey of HzRGs in the ELAIS-S1: survey description and first results
• NASIM: Revealing the low surface brightness Universe from legacy VISTA data
• Infrared lags in the light curves of AGN measured using a deep survey
• Properties of Polarized Radio Sources in the Wide Chandra Deep Field South from 2 to 4GHz
• MIGHTEE: total intensity radio continuum imaging and the COSMOS / XMM-LSS Early Science fields