Quasar Luminosity Function at z = 7

Yoshiki Matsuoka, Masafusa Onoue, Kazushi Iwasawa, Michael A. Strauss, Nobunari Kashikawa, Takuma Izumi, Tohru Nagao, Masatoshi Imanishi, Masayuki Akiyama, John D. Silverman, Naoko Asami, James Bosch, Hisanori Furusawa, Tomotsugu Goto, James E. Gunn, Yuichi Harikane, Hiroyuki Ikeda, Kohei Inayoshi, Rikako Ishimoto, Toshihiro KawaguchiSatoshi Kikuta, Kotaro Kohno, Yutaka Komiyama, Chien Hsiu Lee, Robert H. Lupton, Takeo Minezaki, Satoshi Miyazaki, Hitoshi Murayama, Atsushi J. Nishizawa, Masamune Oguri, Yoshiaki Ono, Taira Oogi, Masami Ouchi, Paul A. Price, Hiroaki Sameshima, Naoshi Sugiyama, Philip J. Tait, Masahiro Takada, Ayumi Takahashi, Tadafumi Takata, Masayuki Tanaka, Yoshiki Toba, Shiang Yu Wang, Takuji Yamashita

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25 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present the quasar luminosity function (LF) at z = 7, measured with 35 spectroscopically confirmed quasars at 6.55 < z < 7.15. The sample of 22 quasars from the Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs) project, combined with 13 brighter quasars in the literature, covers an unprecedentedly wide range of rest-frame ultraviolet magnitudes over -28 < M 1450 < -23. We found that the binned LF flattens significantly toward the faint end populated by the SHELLQs quasars. A maximum likelihood fit to a double power-law model has a break magnitude M1450∗=-25.60-0.30+0.40, a characteristic density φ∗=1.35-0.30+0.47 Gpc-3 mag-1, and a bright-end slope β=-3.34-0.57+0.49, when the faint-end slope is fixed to α = -1.2 as observed at z ≤ 6. The overall LF shape remains remarkably similar from z = 4 to 7, while the amplitude decreases substantially toward higher redshifts, with a clear indication of an accelerating decline at z ≥ 6. The estimated ionizing photon density, 1048.2±0.1 s-1 Mpc-3, is less than 1% of the critical rate to keep the intergalactic medium ionized at z = 7, and thus indicates that quasars are not a major contributor to cosmic reionization.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numberL42
JournalAstrophysical Journal Letters
Volume949
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 1 2023

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

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