SUBARU HIGH-z EXPLORATION OF LOW-LUMINOSITY QUASARS (SHELLQs). I. DISCOVERY OF 15 QUASARS AND BRIGHT GALAXIES AT 5.7 < z < 6.9

We report the discovery of 15 quasars and bright galaxies at 5.7 < z< 6.9. This is the initial result from the Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars project, which exploits the exquisite multiband imaging data produced by the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Strategic Program surve...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2016-09, Vol.828 (1), p.26-26
Main Authors: Matsuoka, Yoshiki, Onoue, Masafusa, Kashikawa, Nobunari, Iwasawa, Kazushi, Strauss, Michael A, Nagao, Tohru, Imanishi, Masatoshi, Niida, Mana, Toba, Yoshiki, Akiyama, Masayuki
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ABSORPTION
ALGORITHMS
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
BLACK HOLES
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
EMISSION
EXPLORATION
GALAXIES
LUMINOSITY
LYMAN LINES
Photometry
PROBABILISTIC ESTIMATION
QUASARS
RED SHIFT
STARS
TELESCOPES
Ultraviolet
ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION
VISIBLE RADIATION
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Summary:We report the discovery of 15 quasars and bright galaxies at 5.7 < z< 6.9. This is the initial result from the Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars project, which exploits the exquisite multiband imaging data produced by the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Strategic Program survey. The candidate selection is performed by combining several photometric approaches including a Bayesian probabilistic algorithm to reject stars and dwarfs. The spectroscopic identification was carried out with the Gran Telescopio Canarias and the Subaru Telescope for the first 80 deg super(2) of the survey footprint. The success rate of our photometric selection is quite high, approaching 100% at the brighter magnitudes (z sub(AB)< 23.5 mag). Our selection also recovered all the known high-z quasars on the HSC images. Among the 15 discovered objects, six are likely quasars, while the other six with interstellar absorption lines and in some cases narrow emission lines are likely bright Lyman-break galaxies. The remaining three objects have weak continua and very strong and narrow Ly[alpha] lines, which may be excited by ultraviolet light from both young stars and quasars. These results indicate that we are starting to see the steep rise of the luminosity function of z> or = 6 galaxies, compared with that of quasars, at magnitudes fainter than M sub(1450)~ -22 mag or z sub(AB)~ 24 mag. Follow-up studies of the discovered objects as well as further survey observations are ongoing.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.3847/0004-637X/828/1/26