scholarly journals Quasi-stellar objects acting as potential strong gravitational lenses in the SDSS-III BOSS survey

2019 ◽  
Vol 625 ◽  
pp. A56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romain A. Meyer ◽  
Timothée Delubac ◽  
Jean-Paul Kneib ◽  
Frédéric Courbin

We present a sample of 12 quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) that potentially act as strong gravitational lenses on background emission line galaxies (ELG) or Lyman-α emitters (LAEs) selected through a systematic search of the 297 301 QSOs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)-III Data Release 12. Candidates were identified by looking for compound spectra, where emission lines at a redshift larger than that of the quasar can be identified in the residuals after a QSO spectral template is subtracted from the observed spectra. The narrow diameter of BOSS fibers (2″) then ensures that the object responsible for the additional emission lines must lie close to the line of sight of the QSO and hence provides a high probability of lensing. Among the 12 candidates identified, nine have definite evidence for the presence of a background ELG identified by at least four higher-redshift nebular emission lines. The remaining three probable candidates present a strong asymmetrical emission line attributed to a background Lyman-α emitter (LAE). The QSO-ELG (QSO-LAE) lens candidates have QSO lens redshifts in the range 0.24 ≲ zQSO ≲ 0.66 (0.75 ≲ zQSO ≲ 1.23 ) and background galaxy redshifts in the range 0.48 ≲ zS, ELG ≲ 0.94 (2.17 ≲ zS, LAE ≲ 4.48). We show that the algorithmic search is complete at > 90% for QSO-ELG systems, whereas it falls at 40−60% for QSO-LAE, depending on the redshift of the source. Upon confirmation of the lensing nature of the systems, this sample may quadruple the number of known QSOs acting as strong lenses. We have determined the completeness of our search, which allows future studies to compute lensing probabilities of galaxies by QSOs and differentiate between different QSO models. Future imaging of the full sample and lens modelling offers a unique approach to study and constrain key properties of QSOs.

2020 ◽  
Vol 494 (3) ◽  
pp. 3061-3079 ◽  
Author(s):  
D J Rosario ◽  
V A Fawcett ◽  
L Klindt ◽  
D M Alexander ◽  
L K Morabito ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Red quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) are a subset of the luminous end of the cosmic population of active galactic nuclei (AGNs), most of which are reddened by intervening dust along the line of sight towards their central engines. In recent work from our team, we developed a systematic technique to select red QSOs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and demonstrated that they have distinctive radio properties using the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty centimetres radio survey. Here we expand our study using low-frequency radio data from the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS). With the improvement in depth that LoTSS offers, we confirm key results: Compared to a control sample of normal ‘blue’ QSOs matched in redshift and accretion power, red QSOs have a higher radio detection rate and a higher incidence of compact radio morphologies. For the first time, we also demonstrate that these differences arise primarily in sources of intermediate radio loudness: Radio-intermediate red QSOs are × 3 more common than typical QSOs, but the excess diminishes among the most radio-loud systems and the most radio-quiet systems in our study. We develop Monte Carlo simulations to explore whether differences in star formation could explain these results, and conclude that, while star formation is an important source of low-frequency emission among radio-quiet QSOs, a population of AGN-driven compact radio sources is the most likely cause for the distinct low-frequency radio properties of red QSOs. Our study substantiates the conclusion that fundamental differences must exist between the red and normal blue QSO populations.


1975 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 365-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.A. Peterson ◽  
J.D. Murray ◽  
A.E. Wright

The ratio of the mass density in visible galaxies to the upper limit for the HI mass density determined from the lack of continuous Ly-α absorption in QSO spectra is 3 × 104. Thus, if galaxies form by condensation from an intergalactic medium, the process must be extremely efficient. Although no absorption due to a continuous distribution of intergalactic HI has been detected, many QSOs have been discovered that have absorption lines in their spectra, which have redshifts very different from the emission lines, and may be produced in clouds of integalactic HI. As would be expected if this were the case, the proportion of QSOs with absorption lines in their spectra is greatest for those which have large emission line redshifts. Another possibility, especially for those absorption lines in redshift systems with Zabs nearly equal to Zem , is that the absorption lines are produced in clouds surrounding the QSO.


2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (S267) ◽  
pp. 144-144
Author(s):  
N. Vale Asari ◽  
G. Stasińska ◽  
R. Cid Fernandes ◽  
J. M. Gomes ◽  
M. Schlickmann ◽  
...  

Various studies have shown that there is an empirical relation between the nebular metallicity of a galaxy and its stellar mass. Until now, most studies of the mass-metallicity relation (M–Z) have focused on the abundances of the interstellar medium as measured by emission-line features. This technique thus excludes galaxies with AGN from the working samples, due to the difficulty to measure the nebular abundances when emission-lines are powered both by stars and AGN. With our synthesis code starlight, we are able to recover the stellar metallicities of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Therefore, although we still cannot measure the nebular metallicity in AGN hosts, we know their present-day stellar metallicities. Moreover, because we measure the metallicity of stellar populations of different ages in a galaxy, we are also able also recover the history of its chemical enrichment.


2006 ◽  
Vol 448 (3) ◽  
pp. 955-970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. I. Izotov ◽  
G. Stasińska ◽  
G. Meynet ◽  
N. G. Guseva ◽  
T. X. Thuan

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