Quasar UV luminosity function evolution up to z=8

Abstract

We study the redshift evolution of the quasar UV Luminosity Function (LF) for 0.5 < z < 6.5, by collecting the most up to date observational data and, in particular, the recently discovered population of faint AGNs. We fit the QSO LF using either a double power-law or a Schechter function, finding that both forms provide good fits to the data. We derive empirical relations for the LF parameters as a function of redshift and, based on these results, predict the quasar UV LF at z=8. From the inferred LF evolution, we compute the redshift evolution of the QSO/AGN comoving ionizing emissivity and hydrogen photoionization rate. If faint AGNs are included, the contribution of quasars to reionization increases substantially. However, their level of contribution critically depends on the detailed shape of the QSO LF, which can be constrained by efficient searches of high-z quasars. To this aim, we predict the expected (i) number of z>6 quasars detectable by ongoing and future NIR surveys (as EUCLID and WFIRST), and (ii) number counts for a single radio-recombination line observation with SKA-MID (FoV = 0.49 deg^2) as a function of the Hnalpha flux density, at 0<z<8. These surveys (even at z<6) will be fundamental to better constrain the role of quasars as reionization sources.

11 pages, 6 figures, 1 table; MNRAS accepted

References in corpus (81)

• The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS)
• Radiative Transfer in a Clumpy Universe: II. The Utraviolet Extragalactic Background
• A luminous quasar at a redshift of z = 7.085
• Constraining the Evolution of the Ionizing Background and the Epoch of Reionization with z ~ 6 Quasars II: A Sample of 19 Quasars
• Radiative transfer in a clumpy universe: IV. New synthesis models of the cosmic UV/X-ray background
• An Observational Determination of the Bolometric Quasar Luminosity Function
• Cosmological Evolution of the Hard X-ray AGN Luminosity Function and the Origin of the Hard X-ray Background
• Wide-Field InfrarRed Survey Telescope-Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets WFIRST-AFTA 2015 Report
• Observational constraints on growth of massive black holes
• The SDSS Quasar Survey: Quasar Luminosity Function from Data Release Three
• Present-Day Growth of Black Holes and Bulges: the SDSS Perspective
• The Chandra Deep Field-North Survey. XIII. 2 Ms Point-Source Catalogs
• Formation of Supermassive Black Holes
• A Survey of z>5.7 Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey II: Discovery of Three Additional Quasars at z>6
• An ultra-luminous quasar with a twelve-billion-solar-mass black hole at redshift 6.30
• The 2dF QSO Redshift Survey - XII. The spectroscopic catalogue and luminosity function
• Luminosity-dependent evolution of soft X-ray selected AGN: New Chandra and XMM-Newton surveys
• The Chandra Deep Field South: the 1 Million Second
• The 2dF QSO Redshift Survey - I. The Optical QSO Luminosity Function
• The Canada-France High-z Quasar Survey: nine new quasars and the luminosity function at redshift 6
• The Cosmic Evolution of Hard X-ray Selected Active Galactic Nuclei
• High-Redshift Quasars Found in Sloan Digital Sky Survey Commissioning Data IV: Luminosity Function from the Fall Equatorial Stripe Sampl
• A Survey of z>5.7 Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III: Discovery of Five Additional Quasars
• XMM-Newton observation of the Lockman Hole; I. The X-ray Data
• Cosmic Reionization after Planck: Could Quasars Do It All?
• Eddington-limited accretion and the black hole mass function at redshift 6
• Efficient Photometric Selection of Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: II. ~1,000,000 Quasars from Data Release Six
• The Final SDSS High-Redshift Quasar Sample of 52 Quasars at z>5.7
• Faint AGNs at z>4 in the CANDELS GOODS-S field: looking for contributors to the reionization of the Universe
• New Measurements of the Ionizing Ultraviolet Background over 2 < z < 5 and Implications for Hydrogen Reionization
• Formation of z ~ 6 quasars from hierarchical galaxy mergers
• Discovery of three z>6.5 quasars in the VISTA Kilo-degree Infrared Galaxy (VIKING) survey
• The XMM-Newton Wide-Field Survey in the COSMOS field (XMM-COSMOS): demography and multiwavelength properties of obscured and unobscured luminous AGN
• The Assembly of Supermassive Black Holes at High Redshifts
• A 3x10^9 solar mass black hole in the quasar SDSS J1148+5251 at z=6.41
• The first ultraviolet quasar stacked spectrum at z=2.4 from WFC3
• Molecular Gas in Redshift 6 Quasar Host Galaxies
• Lower-Luminosity Galaxies could reionize the Universe: Very Steep Faint-End Slopes to the UV Luminosity Functions at z>=5-8 from the HUDF09 WFC3/IR Observations
• The 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO Survey: the QSO luminosity function at 0.4<z<2.6
• Gemini Near-infrared Spectroscopy of Luminous z~6 Quasars: Chemical Abundances, Black Hole Masses, and MgII Absorption
• The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey Early Data Release
• A Survey of z~6 Quasars in the SDSS Deep Stripe: I. a Flux-Limited Sample at z_{AB}<21
• Measurements of the UV background at 4.6 < z < 6.4 using the quasar proximity effect
• The anti-hierarchical growth of supermassive black holes
• The Redshift Evolution of the 2-8 keV X-ray Luminosity Function
• A Survey of z~6 Quasars in the SDSS Deep Stripe. II. Discovery of Six Quasars at z_{AB}>21
• Initial mass function of intermediate mass black hole seeds
• Faint high-redshift AGN in the Chandra Deep Field South: the evolution of the AGN luminosity function and black hole demography
• Iron Emission in the z=6.4 Quasar SDSS J114816.64+525150.3
• The VVDS type-1 AGN sample: The faint end of the luminosity function
• Constraining the high redshift formation of black hole seeds in nuclear star clusters with gas inflows
• Luminosity-Dependent Quasar Lifetimes: A New Interpretation of the Quasar Luminosity Function
• The Faint End of the Quasar Luminosity Function at z~4: Implications for Ionization of the Intergalactic Medium and Cosmic Downsizing
• Discovery of eight z ~ 6 quasars from Pan-STARRS1
• Evolution of the Quasar Luminosity Function Over 3 < z < 5 in the COSMOS Survey Field
• Six more quasars at redshift 6 discovered by the Canada-France High-z Quasar Survey
• The Subaru high-z quasar survey: discovery of faint z~6 quasars
• Quasars as probes of the submillimetre cosmos at z>5: I. Preliminary SCUBA photometry
• Luminosity Function from dedicated SDSS-III and MMT data of quasars in 0.7<z<4.0 selected with a new approach
• The Luminosity Function of high-redshift QSOs - A combined analysis of GOODS and SDSS
• The X-ray luminosity function of Active Galactic Nuclei in the redshift interval z=3-5
• The faint end of the QSO luminosity function at z=3
• Imaging of SDSS z>6 quasar fields: gravitational lensing, companion galaxies and the host dark matter halos
• The Population of High Redshift AGNs in the Chandra COSMOS survey
• The (un)resolved X-ray background in the Lockman Hole
• The discovery of the first luminous z~6 quasar in the UKIDSS Large Area Survey
• High-Redshift QSOs in the SWIRE Survey and the z~3 QSO Luminosity Function
• Rest-frame Optical Spectra and Black Hole Masses of 3<z<6 Quasars
• Probabilistic selection of high-redshift quasars
• New observational Constraints on the Growth of the First Supermassive Black Holes
• The First High Redshift Quasar from Pan-STARRS
• A Snapshot Survey for Gravitational Lenses Among z>=4.0 Quasars: I. The z>5.7 Sample
• On the faint end of the high redshift AGN luminosity function
• Discovery of A Faint Quasar at z~6 and Implications for Cosmic Reionization
• The UVX quasar optical luminosity function and its evolution
• Low redshift AGN in the Hamburg/ESO Survey: I. The local AGN luminosity function
• The Stellar UV Background at z<1.5 and the Baryon Density of Photoionized Gas
• AGNs as main contributors to the UV ionizing emissivity at high redshifts: predictions from a Lambda-CDM model with linked AGN/galaxy evolution
• Driving the Growth of the Earliest Supermassive Black Holes with Major Mergers of Host Galaxies
• On the Evolution of High-Redshift Active Galactic Nuclei
• Radio recombination lines from obscured quasars with the SKA

Cited by in corpus (46)

• The Universe is Reionizing at z~7: Bayesian Inference of the IGM Neutral Fraction Using Ly$\alpha$ Emission from Galaxies
• The Bolometric Quasar Luminosity Function at z = 0-7
• Inferences on the Timeline of Reionization at z~8 From the KMOS Lens-Amplified Spectroscopic Survey
• Evolution of the AGN UV luminosity function from redshift 7.5
• Titans of the Early Universe: The Prato Statement on the Origin of the First Supermassive Black Holes
• Ionized outflows from active galactic nuclei as the essential elements of feedback
• No evidence for a significant AGN contribution to cosmic hydrogen reionization
• The ASTRID simulation: the evolution of Supermassive Black Holes
• Reionization and galaxy inference from the high-redshift Lyα forest
• Very high redshift quasars and the rapid emergence of super-massive black holes
• A tale of two sites -- I: Inferring the properties of minihalo-hosted galaxies from current observations
• Semi-analytic forecasts for JWST -- IV. Implications for cosmic reionization and LyC escape fraction
• Euclid preparation: V. Predicted yield of redshift 7<z<9 quasars from the wide survey
• Model-independent constraints on the hydrogen-ionizing emissivity at z>6
• Reionization in Technicolor
• Dark-ages Reionization and Galaxy Formation Simulation - X. The small contribution of quasars to reionization
• Quasar Accretion Disk Sizes from Continuum Reverberation Mapping in the DES Standard Star Fields
• Heavy Element Absorption Systems at $5.0<z<6.8$: Metal-Poor Neutral Gas and a Diminishing Signature of Highly Ionized Circumgalactic Matter
• Lyman-alpha spectroscopy of extreme [OIII] emitting galaxies at $z\simeq 2-3$: Implications for Ly$\alpha$ visibility and LyC leakage at $z>6$
• Separating Accretion and Mergers in the Cosmic Growth of Black Holes with X-ray and Gravitational Wave Observations
• Semi-analytic forecasts for JWST -- V. AGN luminosity functions and helium reionization at z = 2-7
• Physical properties of the first quasars
• First constraints on the AGN X-ray luminosity function at $z\sim 6$ from an eROSITA-detected quasar
• Constraints on high-J CO emission lines in $z\sim 6$ quasars
• SuperBoRG: Exploration of point sources at $z\sim 8$ in HST parallel fields
• The effect of dust bias on the census of neutral gas and metals in the high-redshift Universe due to SDSS-II quasar colour selection
• Most Lensed Quasars at $z>6$ are Missed by Current Surveys
• Imprints of quasar duty cycle on the 21cm signal from the Epoch of Reionization
• Strong lensing selection effects
• Aligned metal absorbers and the ultraviolet background at the end of reionization
• A 4% measurement of $H_0$ using the cumulative distribution of strong-lensing time delays in doubly-imaged quasars
• The Black Hole Mass Function Across Cosmic Times II. Heavy Seeds and (Super)Massive Black Holes
• Pure Density Evolution of the Ultraviolet Quasar Luminosity Function at $2\lesssim z\lesssim 6$
• Evolution of cold gas at 2<z<5: a blind search for HI and OH absorption lines towards mid-infrared color selected radio-loud AGNs
• The role of gravitational recoil in the assembly of massive black hole seeds
• Modelling the luminosity function of long Gamma Ray Bursts using SWIFT and FERMI
• The effects of binary stars on galaxies and metal-enriched gas during reionization
• H-, He-like recombination spectra III: $n$-changing collisions in highly-excited Rydberg states and their impact on the radio, IR and optical recombination lines
• Testing Galaxy Formation Simulations with Damped Lyman-$\alpha$ Abundance and Metallicity Evolution
• Quasar UV Luminosity Function at $3.5<z<5.0$ from SDSS Deep Imaging Data
• MAMBO -- An empirical galaxy and AGN mock catalogue for the exploitation of future surveys
• Properties of AGN selected by their mid-IR colours: evidence for a physically distinct mode of black hole growth
• Massive black holes in high-redshift Lyman Break Galaxies
• Revealing new high redshift quasar populations through Gaussian mixture model selection
• Radio signals from early direct collapse black holes
• The impact of black hole feedback on the UV luminosity and stellar mass assembly of high-redshift galaxies