A Survey of z > 5.7 Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. IV. Discovery of Seven Additional Quasars* **

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© 2006. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A.
, , Citation Xiaohui Fan et al 2006 AJ 131 1203 DOI 10.1086/500296

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Author affiliations

1 Steward Observatory, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721

2 Visiting Astronomer, Kitt Peak National Observatory, National Optical Astronomy Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation

3 Princeton University Observatory, Princeton, NJ 08544

4 Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218

5 Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720; Hubble Fellow

6 Physics Department, University of California, Davis, CA 95616

7 Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550

8 Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD 21218

9 Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802

10 Apache Point Observatory, P.O. Box 59, Sunspot, NM 88349-0059

11 Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, Midori, Tanashi, Tokyo 188-8502, Japan

12 Mt. Suhora Observatory, Cracow Pedagogical University, ulica Podchorazych 2, 30-084 Cracow, Poland

13 Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, P.O. Box 500, Batavia, IL 60510

14 Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Postfach 1603, 85750 Garching, Germany

Dates

  1. Received 2005 September 24
  2. Accepted 2005 November 28
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1538-3881/131/3/1203

Abstract

We present the discovery of seven quasars at z > 5.7, selected from ∼2000 deg2 of multicolor imaging data of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The new quasars have redshifts z from 5.79 to 6.13. Five are selected as part of a complete flux-limited sample in the SDSS northern Galactic cap; two have larger photometric errors and are not part of the complete sample. One of the new quasars, SDSS J1335+3533 (z = 5.93), exhibits no emission lines; the 3 σ limit on the rest-frame equivalent width of the Lyα+N V line is 5 Å. It is the highest redshift lineless quasar known and could be a gravitational lensed galaxy, a BL Lac object, or a new type of quasar. Two new z > 6 quasars, SDSS 1250+3130 (z = 6.13) and SDSS J1137+3549 (z = 6.01), show deep Gunn-Peterson absorption gaps in Lyα. These gaps are narrower than the complete Gunn-Peterson absorption troughs observed among quasars at z > 6.2 and do not have complete Lyβ absorption.

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Footnotes

  • * 

    Based on observations obtained with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey; the Apache Point Observatory's 3.5 m telescope, which is owned and operated by the Astrophysical Research Consortium; the MMT Observatory, a joint facility of the University of Arizona and the Smithsonian Institution; the University of Arizona's 2.3 m Bok Telescope; the Kitt Peak National Observatory's 4 m Mayall Telescope; the 6.5 m Walter Baade Telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory, a collaboration between the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the University of Arizona, Harvard University, the University of Michigan, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation.

  • ** 

    This paper is dedicated to the memory of John N. Bahcall.

10.1086/500296