First Measurement of the Clustering Evolution of Photometrically-Classified Quasars

Abstract

We present new measurements of the quasar autocorrelation from a sample of \~80,000 photometrically-classified quasars taken from SDSS DR1. We find a best-fit model of $\omega (\theta )=(0.066{\pm }_{0.024}^{0.026}){\theta }^{-(0.98\pm 0.15)}$ for the angular autocorrelation, consistent with estimates from spectroscopic quasar surveys. We show that only models with little or no evolution in the clustering of quasars in comoving coordinates since z~1.4 can recover a scale-length consistent with local galaxies and Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs). A model with little evolution of quasar clustering in comoving coordinates is best explained in the current cosmological paradigm by rapid evolution in quasar bias. We show that quasar biasing must have changed from b_Q~3 at a (photometric) redshift of z=2.2 to b_Q~1.2-1.3 by z=0.75. Such a rapid increase with redshift in biasing implies that quasars at z~2 cannot be the progenitors of modern L* objects, rather they must now reside in dense environments, such as clusters. Similarly, the duration of the UVX quasar phase must be short enough to explain why local UVX quasars reside in essentially unbiased structures. Our estimates of b_Q are in good agreement with recent spectroscopic results, which demonstrate the implied evolution in b_Q is consistent with quasars inhabiting halos of similar mass at every redshift. Treating quasar clustering as a function of both redshift and luminosity, we find no evidence for luminosity dependence in quasar clustering, and that redshift evolution thus affects quasar clustering more than changes in quasars' luminosity. We provide a new method for quantifying stellar contamination in photometrically-classified quasar catalogs via the correlation function.

arXiv comment34 pages, 10 figures, 1 table, Accepted to ApJ after: (i) Minor textual changes; (ii) extra points added to Fig. 5

References in corpus (51)

• Maps of Dust IR Emission for Use in Estimation of Reddening and CMBR Foregrounds
• First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Determination of Cosmological Parameters
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Technical Summary
• Detection of the Baryon Acoustic Peak in the Large-Scale Correlation Function of SDSS Luminous Red Galaxies
• A Fundamental Relation Between Supermassive Black Holes and Their Host Galaxies
• A Relationship Between Nuclear Black Hole Mass and Galaxy Velocity Dispersion
• Energy input from quasars regulates the growth and activity of black holes and their host galaxies
• The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: Spectra and redshifts
• The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: Power-spectrum analysis of the final dataset and cosmological implications
• Ellipsoidal collapse and an improved model for the number and spatial distribution of dark matter haloes
• The 3D power spectrum of galaxies from the SDSS
• Gasdynamics and Starbursts in Major Mergers
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Photometric Camera
• The u'g'r'i'z' Standard Star Network
• The Second Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The First Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Astrometric Calibration of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Nonlinear evolution of cosmological power spectra
• A Survey of z>5.7 Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey II: Discovery of Three Additional Quasars at z>6
• A photometricity and extinction monitor at the Apache Point Observatory
• The obscured growth of massive black holes
• The 2dF QSO Redshift Survey - XII. The spectroscopic catalogue and luminosity function
• Galaxy Clustering in Early SDSS Redshift Data
• Evolution of structure in cold dark matter universes
• Hubble Space Telescope Images of a Sample of Twenty Nearby Luminous Quasars
• Science Objectives and Early Results of the DEEP2 Redshift Survey
• SDSS Data Management and Photometric Quality Assessment
• A Modified Magnitude System that Produces Well-Behaved Magnitudes, Colors, and Errors Even for Low Signal-to-Noise Ratio Measurements
• A Physical Model for the Origin of Quasar Lifetimes
• On Departures From a Power Law in the Galaxy Correlation Function
• Analysis of Systematic Effects and Statistical Uncertainties in Angular Clustering of Galaxies from Early SDSS Data
• The Gemini Deep Deep Survey: I. Introduction to the Survey, Catalogs and Composite Spectra
• Radiative feedback from quasars and the growth of massive black holes in stellar spheroids
• Cosmic Evolution of Quasar Clustering: Implications for the Host Haloes
• Efficient Photometric Selection of Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: 100,000 z<3 Quasars from Data Release One
• The 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO Survey: The z<2.1 Quasar Luminosity Function from 5645 Quasars to g=21.85
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Catalog II. First Data Release
• Cluster Alignments and Ellipticities in LCDM Cosmology
• Luminosity-Dependent Quasar Lifetimes: A New Interpretation of the Quasar Luminosity Function
• The Angular Correlation Function of Galaxies from Early SDSS Data
• An Empirical Algorithm for Broad-band Photometric Redshifts of Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The Real Space Power Spectrum of the PSCz Survey from 0.01 to 300 h/Mpc
• The Real Space Correlation Function Measured from the APM Galaxy Survey
• The Clustering of AGN in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• On Statistical Lensing and the Anti-Correlation Between 2dF QSOs and Foreground Galaxies
• The Asiago-ESO/RASS QSO Survey. III. Clustering analysis and its theoretical interpretation
• The 2dF QSO Redshift Survey - X. Lensing of Background QSOs by Galaxy Groups
• Galaxy Clustering Evolution in the CNOC2 High-Luminosity Sample
• The 2dF QSO Redshift Survey - XI. The QSO Power Spectrum
• Evolution in the Clustering of Galaxies for Z < 1
• The cosmological evolution of metal enrichment in quasar host galaxies

Cited by in corpus (144)

• A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies: I. Galaxy Mergers & Quasar Activity
• The SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Overview and Early Data
• Dusty Star-Forming Galaxies at High Redshift
• What Drives the Growth of Black Holes?
• Clustering of High Redshift ($z\ge 2.9$) Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Efficient Photometric Selection of Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: II. ~1,000,000 Quasars from Data Release Six
• Correlation of CMB with large-scale structure: I. ISW Tomography and Cosmological Implications
• The SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Quasar Target Selection for Data Release Nine
• Combined analysis of the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect and cosmological implications
• Clustering of Low-Redshift (z <= 2.2) Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Quasar Clustering from SDSS DR5: Dependences on Physical Properties
• The 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO Survey: QSO clustering and the L-z degeneracy
• The clustering of intermediate redshift quasars as measured by the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey
• Efficient Photometric Selection of Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: 100,000 z<3 Quasars from Data Release One
• Think Outside the Color Box: Probabilistic Target Selection and the SDSS-XDQSO Quasar Targeting Catalog
• Ameliorating Systematic Uncertainties in the Angular Clustering of Galaxies: A Study using SDSS-III
• The LABOCA Survey of the Extended Chandra Deep Field South: Clustering of submillimetre galaxies
• The DEEP3 Galaxy Redshift Survey: The Impact of Environment on the Size Evolution of Massive Early-type Galaxies at Intermediate Redshift
• Clustering Analyses of 300,000 Photometrically Classified Quasars--I. Luminosity and Redshift Evolution in Quasar Bias
• Quasars Are Not Light-Bulbs: Testing Models of Quasar Lifetimes with the Observed Eddington Ratio Distribution
• A high redshift detection of the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect
• Clustering of intermediate redshift quasars using the final SDSS III-BOSS sample
• AEGIS: The Clustering of X-ray AGN Relative to Galaxies at z~1
• Binary Quasars at High Redshift I: 24 New Quasar Pairs at z ~ 3-4
• Photometric redshifts and quasar probabilities from a single, data-driven generative model
• Luminosity and redshift dependent quasar clustering
• Clustering of quasars in SDSS-IV eBOSS : study of potential systematics and bias determination
• Constraints on primordial non-Gaussianity from 800,000 photometric quasars
• Observational Evidence for the Co-evolution of Galaxy Mergers, Quasars, and the Blue/Red Galaxy Transition
• Clustering Analyses of 300,000 Photometrically Classified Quasars--II. The Excess on Very Small Scales
• Clustering of obscured and unobscured quasars in the Bootes field: Placing rapidly growing black holes in the cosmic web
• Quasar Clustering at $25\kpch$ from a Complete Sample of Binaries
• The large-scale Quasar-Lyman α Forest Cross-Correlation from BOSS
• Cross-Correlation of SDSS DR7 Quasars and DR10 BOSS Galaxies: The Weak Luminosity Dependence of Quasar Clustering at z~0.5
• Dark matter annihilation or unresolved astrophysical sources? Anisotropy probe of the origin of cosmic gamma-ray background
• The Co-Formation of Spheroids and Quasars Traced in their Clustering
• Robust Machine Learning Applied to Astronomical Datasets I: Star-Galaxy Classification of the SDSS DR3 Using Decision Trees
• The clustering of H-alpha emitters at z=2.23 from HiZELS
• The Luminosity Dependence of Quasar Clustering
• No galaxy left behind: accurate measurements with the faintest objects in the Dark Energy Survey
• Supermassive Black Holes in the Hierarchical Universe: A General Framework and Observational Tests
• Galaxy clustering, photometric redshifts and diagnosis of systematics in the DES Science Verification data
• Angular Baryon Acoustic Oscillation measure at z=2.225 from the SDSS quasar survey
• Estimating the large-scale angular power spectrum in the presence of systematics: a case study of Sloan Digital Sky Survey quasars
• Photometric redshifts for Quasars in multi band Surveys
• A Full Year's Chandra Exposure on SDSS Quasars from the Chandra Multiwavelength Project
• The Angular Clustering of WISE-Selected AGN: Different Haloes for Obscured and Unobscured AGN
• The Halo Occupation Distribution of SDSS Quasars
• Dark Energy Survey Year 3 Results: Galaxy clustering and systematics treatment for lens galaxy samples
• The Angular Clustering of Infrared-Selected Obscured and Unobscured Quasars
• Do We Expect Most AGN to Live in Disks?
• A 14 $h^{-3}$ Gpc${}^3$ study of cosmic homogeneity using BOSS DR12 quasar sample
• Clustering, Bias and the Accretion Mode of X-ray selected AGN
• Are Most Low-Luminosity AGN Really Obscured?
• Constraining Primordial Non-Gaussianity with High-Redshift Probes
• Constraints on Primordial Non-Gaussianity from Large Scale Structure Probes
• A catalogue of photometric redshifts for the SDSS-DR9 galaxies
• Bayesian High-Redshift Quasar Classification from Optical and Mid-IR Photometry
• Very small-scale clustering of quasars from a complete quasar lens survey
• Tomography of the Fermi-LAT gamma-ray diffuse extragalactic signal via cross-correlations with galaxy catalogs
• Sloan Digital Sky Survey III Photometric Quasar Clustering: Probing the Initial Conditions of the Universe using the Largest Volume
• Quasar Probabilities and Redshifts from WISE mid-IR through GALEX UV Photometry
• Binary Quasars at High Redshift II: Sub-Mpc Clustering at z ~ 3-4
• Exploiting the full potential of photometric quasar surveys: Optimal power spectra through blind mitigation of systematics
• The Clustering of High-Redshift (2.9 $\le$ z $\le$ 5.1) Quasars in SDSS Stripe 82
• The High Redshift Integrated Sachs-Wolfe Effect
• Halo-model Analysis of the Clustering of Photometrically Selected Galaxies from SDSS
• Robust Machine Learning Applied to Astronomical Datasets II: Quantifying Photometric Redshifts for Quasars Using Instance-Based Learning
• A cross-correlation study of the Fermi-LAT $\gamma$-ray diffuse extragalactic signal
• Clustering of quasars in a wide luminosity range at redshift 4 with Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam wide field imaging
• Incorporating Photometric Redshift Probability Density Information into Real-Space Clustering Measurements
• Machine Learning based photometric redshifts for the KiDS ESO DR2 galaxies
• QSO-LRG 2-Point Cross-Correlation Function and Redshift-Space Distorions
• Weighing obscured and unobscured quasar hosts with the CMB
• A Preferential Growth Channel for Supermassive Black Holes in Elliptical Galaxies at z<2
• Clustering on very small scales from a large sample of confirmed quasar pairs: Does quasar clustering track from Mpc to kpc scales?
• Faint Submillimeter Galaxies identified through their optical/near-infrared colours I: spatial clustering and halo masses
• The Halo Occupation Distribution of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Angular power spectrum of gamma-ray sources for GLAST: blazars and clusters of galaxies
• Clustering of photometric luminous red galaxies I : Growth of Structure and Baryon Acoustic Feature
• Galaxy Cluster Correlation Function to z ~ 1.5 in the IRAC Shallow Cluster Survey
• Pan-STARRS1: Galaxy Clustering in the Small Area Survey 2
• Updated measurements of the dark matter halo masses of obscured quasars with improved WISE and Planck data
• The Halo Occupation Distribution of X-ray-Bright Active Galactic Nuclei: A Comparison with Luminous Quasars
• Imaging Systematics and Clustering of DESI Main Targets
• Angular clustering properties of the DESI QSO target selection using DR9 Legacy Imaging Surveys
• Supermassive Black Holes and Their Environments
• Probing the Radio Loud/Quiet AGN dichotomy with quasar clustering
• Clustering of infrared-bright dust-obscured galaxies revealed by the Hyper Suprime-Cam and WISE
• Cross-Correlation of Planck CMB Lensing with DESI-Like LRGs
• Detection of Quasar Feedback from the Thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect in Planck
• Constraining primordial non-Gaussianity from DESI quasar targets and Planck CMB lensing
• Near Infrared Photometric properties of 130,000 Quasars: An SDSS-UKIDSS matched catalog
• Quasar Photometric Redshifts and Candidate Selection: A New Algorithm Based on Optical and Mid-Infrared Photometric Data
• The Massive and Distant Clusters of WISE Survey IV: The Distribution of Active Galactic Nuclei in Galaxy Clusters at $z\sim 1$
• Black hole clustering and duty cycles in the Illustris simulation
• A Constraint on Quasar Clustering at z=5 from a Binary Quasar
• The Extremely Luminous Quasar Survey in the Pan-STARRS 1 Footprint (PS-ELQS)
• The SDSS-IV eBOSS: emission line galaxy catalogues at z=0.8 and study of systematic errors in the angular clustering
• Clustering of Lyman-alpha Emitters Around Quasars at $z\sim 4$
• Search for primordial non-Gaussianity in the quasars of SDSS-III BOSS DR9
• An ALMA survey of the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy SurveyUKIDSS/UDS Field: Halo Masses for Submillimetre Galaxies
• "Little red dots" cannot reside in the same dark matter halos as comparably luminous unobscured quasars
• Higher-Order Angular Galaxy Correlations in the SDSS: Redshift and Color Dependence of non-Linear Bias
• Precision Measurements of Higher-Order Angular Galaxy Correlations Using 11 Million SDSS Galaxies
• ALMA reveals large overdensity and strong clustering of galaxies in quasar environments at $z\sim 4$
• Removing Imaging Systematics from Galaxy Clustering Measurements with Obiwan : Application to the SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Emission Line Galaxy Sample
• Constraining AGN triggering mechanisms through the clustering analysis of active black holes
• Quasar-Galaxy Clustering through Projected Galaxy Counts at z=0.6-1.2
• Clustering of Intermediate Luminosity X-ray selected AGN at z~3
• A Multiwavelength Study of Binary Quasars and Their Environments
• Host Dark Matter Halos of WISE-selected Obscured & Unobscured Quasars: Evidence for Evolution
• A Direct Measurement of the Mean Occupation Function of Quasars: Breaking Degeneracies between Halo Occupation Distribution Models
• A Multiwavelength Study of ELAN Environments (AMUSE${}^2$): Detection of a dusty star-forming galaxy within the enormous Lyman $\alpha$ nebula at $z=2.3$ sheds light on its origin
• Using angular two-point correlations to self-calibrate the photometric redshift distributions of DECaLS DR9
• The Time-Domain Spectroscopic Survey: Understanding the Optically Variable Sky with SEQUELS in SDSS-III
• SCUBA-2 Ultra Deep Imaging EAO Survey (STUDIES) IV: Spatial clustering and halo masses of 450-$\mu$m-selected sub-millimeter galaxies
• The Halo Occupation Distribution of Obscured Quasars: Revisiting the Unification Model
• DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys Data Release 9: Cosmological Constraints from Galaxy Clustering and Weak Lensing using the Minimal Bias Model
• Normalization of the Matter Power Spectrum via Higher-Order Angular Correlations of Luminous Red Galaxies
• Predictions of Quasar Clustering: Redshift, Luminosity and Selection Dependence
• Clustering of gamma-ray selected 2LAC Fermi Blazars
• The Quasar-LBG Two-point Angular Cross-correlation Function at z ~ 4 in the COSMOS Field
• A Halo Occupation Interpretation Of Quasars At $z\sim 1.5$ Using Very Small Scale Clustering Information
• Early Science Result from the Japanese Virtual Observatory: AGN and Galaxy Clustering at z = 0.3 to 3.0
• On the small scale clustering of quasars: constraints from the MassiveBlack II simulation
• Downsizing of Star Formation Measured from the Clustered Infrared Background Correlated with Quasars
• Cold Mode Gas Accretion on Two Galaxy Groups at z$\sim$2
• ISW-LSS cross-correlation in coupled Dark Energy models with massive neutrinos
• A Wide and Deep Exploration of Radio Galaxies with Subaru HSC (WERGS). VI. Distant Filamentary Structures Pointed by High-z Radio Galaxies at z~4
• Developing and Deploying Advanced Algorithms to Novel Supercomputing Hardware
• Astrophysics in 2006
• Correlation function of quasars in real and redshift space from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7
• Probing the Mpc-scale environment of hyperluminous infrared galaxies at 2<z<4
• Color dependence of clustering of massive galaxies at 0.5$\le z\le$2.5: similar spatial distributions between green valley galaxies and AGNs
• A QSO plus host system lensed into a 6" Einstein ring by a low redshift galaxy
• Dynamic load-balancing on multi-FPGA systems: a case study
• Environments around quasars at $z\sim$3 revealed by wide-field imaging with Subaru HSC and CFHT
• Mean Occupation Function of High Redshift Quasars from the Planck Cluster Catalog
• Discovering bright quasars at intermediate redshifts based on the optical/near-IR colors
• Counting quasar--radio source pairs to derive the millijansky radio luminosity function and clustering strength to z=3.5
• Wide Field Multiband Imaging of Low Redshift Quasar Environments
• Photometric Objects Around Cosmic Webs (PAC). VI. High Satellite Fraction of Quasars
• Mitrion-C Application Development on SGI Altix 350/RC100