# Clustering of quasars in SDSS-IV eBOSS : study of potential systematics and bias determination

## TL;DR

This study analyzes the first year of eBOSS quasar data to measure quasar clustering, address systematic biases, and derive halo and duty cycle properties, providing the most accurate bias measurement in this redshift range.

## Contribution

It introduces a weighting scheme to mitigate systematics in quasar target selection and provides the most precise quasar bias measurement at $z \\sim 1.55$.

## Key findings

- Quasar bias at $z=1.55$ is $2.45 \\pm 0.05$.
- Halo mass estimates are independent of redshift within errors.
- No luminosity dependence detected in clustering with current sample size.

## Abstract

We study the first year of the eBOSS quasar sample in the redshift range $0.9<z<2.2$ which includes 68,772 homogeneously selected quasars. We show that the main source of systematics in the evaluation of the correlation function arises from inhomogeneities in the quasar target selection, particularly related to the extinction and depth of the imaging data used for targeting. We propose a weighting scheme that mitigates these systematics. We measure the quasar correlation function and provide the most accurate measurement to date of the quasar bias in this redshift range, $b_Q = 2.45 \pm 0.05$ at $\bar z=1.55$, together with its evolution with redshift. We use this information to determine the minimum mass of the halo hosting the quasars and the characteristic halo mass, which we find to be both independent of redshift within statistical error. Using a recently-measured quasar-luminosity-function we also determine the quasar duty cycle. The size of this first year sample is insufficient to detect any luminosity dependence to quasar clustering and this issue should be further studied with the final $\sim$500,000 eBOSS quasar sample.