English

Red Type-1 Quasars after Cosmic Noon and Impact on $L_{\rm UV}$-related Quasar Statistics

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2024-08-09 v3

Abstract

Over the past decades, nearly a million quasars have been explored to shed light on the evolution of supermassive black holes and galaxies. The ultraviolet-to-optical spectra of type-1 quasars particularly offer insights into their black hole activities. Recent findings, however, raise questions about the prevalence of red type-1 quasars of which colors might be due to dust-obscuration and their potential influence on luminosity-related properties of quasars. We examine the fraction of red type-1 quasars within the redshift range of 0.68z<2.200.68\leq z < 2.20, applying spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting using optical-to-MIR photometric data of Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 14 quasars. Approximately 10\,\% of the type-1 quasars exhibit red colors suggestive of dust obscuration. There is an association between the brightness of the MIR luminosity and a higher fraction of red type-1 quasars, albeit with negligible redshift evolution. By employing E(BV)E(B-V) values from the SED fitting, we obtained dereddened luminosity of the red type-1 quasars and reassess the quasar luminosity function (QLF) and black hole mass (MBHM_{\rm BH}) estimates. Result shows a modest increase in the number density of bright quasars, linking to more flatten bright-end slope of QLFs, while MBHM_{\rm BH} adjustments are minimal. Current SDSS selections in optical could miss a significant population of heavily dust-obscured quasars. As future MIR surveys like SPHEREx expand, they may reveal enough obscured quasars to prompt a more profound revision of fundamental quasar properties.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2408.03228,
  title  = {Red Type-1 Quasars after Cosmic Noon and Impact on $L_{\rm UV}$-related Quasar Statistics},
  author = {Yongjung Kim and Dohyeong Kim and Myungshin Im and Minjin Kim},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2408.03228},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

19 pages, 12 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in ApJ