The SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: The Quasar Luminosity Function from Data Release Nine

TL;DR

This paper presents a new measurement of the optical quasar luminosity function using SDSS-III DR9 data, revealing a clear break and evolution in quasar brightness and density from redshift 2.2 to 3.5, with implications for quasar evolution models.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed quasar luminosity function measurement over a key redshift range using a large, uniform spectroscopic sample, including new completeness and k-correction estimates.

Findings

Detected a break in the QLF at all studied redshifts.

Found a luminosity and density evolution (LEDE) model fits the data from 2.2<z<3.5.

Observed weak signs of AGN downsizing, consistent with recent X-ray studies.

Abstract

We present a new measurement of the optical Quasar Luminosity Function (QLF), using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-III: Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (SDSS-III: BOSS). From the SDSS-III Data Release Nine (DR9), we select a uniform sample of 22,301 i<=21.8 quasars over an area of 2236 sq. deg with confirmed spectroscopic redshifts between 2.2<z<3.5, filling in a key part of the luminosity-redshift plane for optical quasar studies. We derive the completeness of the survey through simulated quasar photometry, and check this completeness estimate using a sample of quasars selected by their photometric variability within the BOSS footprint. We investigate the level of systematics associated with our quasar sample using the simulations, in the process generating color-redshift relations and a new quasar k-correction. We probe the faint end of the QLF to M_i(z=2.2) = -24.5 and see a clear break in the QLF at all redshifts up to z=3.5. We find that a log-linear relation (in log[Phi*] - M*) for a luminosity and density evolution (LEDE) model adequately describes our data within the range 2.2<z<3.5; across this interval the break luminosity increases by a factor of ~2.3 while Phi* declines by a factor of ~6. At z<2.2 our data is reasonably well fit by a pure luminosity evolution (PLE) model. We see only a weak signature of "AGN downsizing", in line with recent studies of the hard X-ray luminosity function. We compare our measured QLF to a number of theoretical models and find that models making a variety of assumptions about quasar triggering and halo occupation can fit our data over a wide range of redshifts and luminosities.