A very bright (i=16.44) quasar in the ‘redshift desert' discovered by the Guoshoujing Telescope (LAMOST)

The redshift range from 2.2 to 3 is known as the ‘redshift desert' of quasars because quasars with redshifts in this range have similar optical colors as normal stars and are thus difficult to find in optical sky surveys.A quasar candidate, SDSS J085543.40001517.7, which was selected by a recently proposed criterion involving near-IR Y-K and optical g-z colors, was identified spectroscopically as a new quasar with a redshift of 2.427 by the Guoshoujing Telescope (LAMOST) commissioning observation in 2009 De...     

Color-Redshift Relations and Photometric Redshift Estimations of Quasars in Large Sky Surveys

With a recently constructed composite quasar spectrum and the X2 minimization technique, we describe a general method for estimating the photometric redshifts of a large sample of quasars by deriving theoretical color-redshift relations and comparing the theoretical colors with the observed ones. We estimated the photometric redshifts from the 5-band SDSS photometric data of 18678 quasars in the first major data release of SDSS and compared them with their spectroscopic redshifts. The difference is less than 0.1 for 47% of the quasars and less than 0.2 for 68%. Based on the calculation of the theoretical color-color diagrams of stars, galaxies and quasars both on the SDSS system and on the BATC system, we expect that we would be able to select candidates of high redshift quasars more efficaciously with the latter than with the former, provided the BATC survey can detect objects with magnitudes fainter than 21.     

Discovery of six high-redshift quasars with the Lijiang 2.4 m telescope and the Multiple Mirror Telescope

Quasars with redshifts greater than 4 are rare, and can be used to probe the structure and evolution of the early universe. Here we report the discovery of six new quasars with i-band magnitudes brighter than 19.5 and redshifts between 2.4 and 4.6 from spectroscopy with the Yunnan Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (YFOSC) at the Lijiang 2.4 m telescope in February, 2012. These quasars are in the list of z > 3.6 quasar candidates selected by using our proposed J K/i Y criterion and the photometric redshift estimations from the SDSS optical and UKIDSS near-IR photometric data. Nine candidates were observed by YFOSC, and five among six new quasars were identified as z > 3.6 quasars. One of the other three objects was identified as a star and the other two were unidentified due to the lower signal-to-noise ratio of their spectra. This is the first time that z > 4 quasars have been discovered using a telescope in China. Thanks to the Chinese Telescope Access Program (TAP), the redshift of 4.6 for one of these quasars was confirmed by the Multiple Mirror Telescope (MMT) Red Channel spectroscopy. The continuum and emission line properties of these six quasars, as well as their central black hole masses and Eddington ratios, were obtained.     

The Multi-Wavelength Quasar Survey IV. Quasars in the Leo Cluster

We aim to providea quasar sample that is more complete than any previous surveys by using a combined selection technique to reduce the selection effects. Here we present the observational results for the X-ray candidates in the field of the Leo Cluster. We found 33 X-ray AGNs in this field of which 10 are new discoveries. The X-ray data and optical spectra of these AGNs are given. We also study the near-IR properties of the X-ray-selected AGNs by using the data from 2MASS. Most of the AGNs in our sample span the color range 0.0 < B-J < 2.5, 1.0 < J-Ks < 2.0 and 0.5 < H-Ks < 1.2.     

The Multi-Wavelength Quasar Survey Ⅳ. Quasars in the Leo Cluster

We aim to provide a quasar sample that is more complete than any previous surveys by using a combined selection technique to reduce the selection effects. Here we present the observational results for the X-ray candidates in the field of the Leo Cluster. We found 33 X-ray AGNs in this field of which 10 are new discoveries. The X-ray data and optical spectra of these AGNs are given. We also study the near-IR properties of the X-ray-selected AGNs by using the data from 2MASS. Most of the AGNs in our sample span the color range 0.0〈B-J〈2.5,1.0〈 J-Ks 〈2.0 and 0.5〈H-Ks〈1.2.     

The Mg Ⅱ absorption line systems in quasar spectra from the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope

Making use of quasar spectra from LAMOST,in the spectral data around the Mg Ⅱ emission lines,research described in this paper has detected 217 Mg Ⅱ narrow absorption lines(NALs) with W_r ~(λ2796)≥3σ_w and W_r~(λ2803)≥ 2σ_w in a redshift range of 0.4554≤z_(abs)≤2.1110.For quasars observed by both LAMOST and SDSS,we find that 135 Mg Ⅱ NALs were obviously observed in the LAMOST spectra,347 Mg Ⅱ NALs were were apparent in the SDSS spectra,and 132 Mg Ⅱ NALs were clearly present in both the SDSS and LAMOST spectra.The missed Mg Ⅱ NALs are likely ascribed to low signal-to-noise ratios of corresponding spectra.Among the Mg 11 NALs obviously observed in SDSS or LAMOST spectra,eight Mg 11 NALs were significantly changed with |ΔW_r ~(λ2796)|≥3σ_w in time intervals of ΔMJD/(1+z_(em))=359-2819 d.     

Photometric redshift estimation for quasars by integration of KNN and SVM

The massive photometric data collected from multiple large-scale sky surveys offer significant opportunities for measuring distances of celestial objects by photometric redshifts. However, catastrophic failure is an unsolved problem with a long history and it still exists in the current photometric redshift estimation approaches(such as the k-nearest neighbor(KNN) algorithm). In this paper, we propose a novel two-stage approach by integration of KNN and support vector machine(SVM) methods together. In the first stage, we apply the KNN algorithm to photometric data and estimate their corresponding z_(phot). Our analysis has found two dense regions with catastrophic failure, one in the range of z_(phot) ∈[0.3, 1.2] and the other in the range of z_(phot) ∈[1.2, 2.1]. In the second stage, we map the photometric input pattern of points falling into the two ranges from their original attribute space into a high dimensional feature space by using a Gaussian kernel function from an SVM. In the high dimensional feature space, many outliers resulting from catastrophic failure by simple Euclidean distance computation in KNN can be identified by a classification hyperplane of SVM and can be further corrected. Experimental results based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey(SDSS) quasar data show that the two-stage fusion approach can significantly mitigate catastrophic failure and improve the estimation accuracy of photometric redshifts of quasars. The percents in different |?z| ranges and root mean square(rms) error by the integrated method are 83.47%, 89.83%,90.90% and 0.192, respectively, compared to the results by KNN(71.96%, 83.78%, 89.73% and 0.204).     

Quasars in the Galactic Anti-Center Area from LAMOST DR3

We present a sample of quasars discovered in an area near the Galactic Anti-Center covering150?≤ l ≤ 210?and |b| ≤ 30?,based on LAMOST Data Release 3(DR3).This sample contains 151 spectroscopically confirmed quasars.Among them 80 are newly discovered with LAMOST.All these quasars are very bright,with i magnitudes peaking around 17.5 mag.All the new quasars were discovered serendipitously from objects that were originally targeted with LAMOST as stars having bluer colors,except for a few candidates targeted as variable,young stellar objects.This bright quasar sample at low Galactic latitudes will help fill the gap in the spatial distribution of known quasars near the Galactic disk that are used to construct an astrometric reference frame for the purpose of accurate proper motion measurements that can be applied to,for example,Gaia.They are also excellent tracers to probe the kinematics and chemistry of the interstellar medium in the Milky Way disk and halo via absorption line spectroscopy.     

Isolated Main Galaxy Pairs from the SDSS Data Release 4

From the Main galaxy data of the SDSS Data Release 4 (SDSS4), we have identified close galaxy pairs at neighbourhood radius R = 100 kpc by three-dimensional cluster analysis. Using the criterion that an "isolated galaxy pair" must be separated from its "nearest neighbor" by more than 500 kpc, we constructed an isolated galaxy pair sample of 1158 pairs. We also constructed a random pair sample by randomly selecting 1158 galaxy pairs from the Main galaxy sample, which has the same redshift distribution as the isolated galaxy pair sample, and in which the two components of any pair have the same redshifts. Comparative studies of luminosity and size between the members of the galaxy pairs are performed. We find and further confirm there is no tendency for paired galaxies to have similar luminosities or sizes. From the isolated pair sample we also selected a subsample with the magnitude limit of the primary raised by 2 magnitudes, so as to include pairs in which the secondary is 2 magnitudes fainter than the primary. This subsample contains 82 pairs. A random pair sample is similarly constructed.     

The composite X-ray spectra of radio-loud and radio-quiet SDSS quasars

We present a study of the X-ray emission for a sample of radio-detected quasars constructed from the cross-matches between SDSS,FIRST catalogs and XMM-Newton archives.A sample of radio-quiet SDSS quasars without FIRST radio detection is also assembled for comparison.We construct the optical and X-ray composite spectra normalized at rest frame 4215 A(or 2200 A)for both radio-loud quasars(RLQs)and radio-quiet quasars(RQQs)at z≤3.2,with matched X-ray completeness of 19%,redshift and optical luminosity.While the optical composite spectrum of RLQs is similar to that of RQQs,we find that RLQs have a higher X-ray composite spectrum than RQQs,consistent with previous studies in the literature.By dividing the radio-detected quasars into radio loudness bins,we find the X-ray composite spectra are generally higher with increasing radio loudness.Moreover,a significant correlation is found between the optical-to-X-ray spectral index and radio loudness,and there is a unified multi-correlation between the radio and X-ray luminosities and radio loudness in radio-detected quasars.These results could be possibly explained with the corona-jet model,in which the corona and jet are directly related.     

The Feasibility of Constraining Dark Energy Using LAMOST Redshift Survey

We consider using future redshift surveys with the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) to constrain the equation of state of dark energy ω. We analyze the Alcock & Paczyriski (AP) effect imprinted on the two-point correlation function of galaxies in redshift space. The Fisher matrix analysis is applied to estimate the expected error bounds of ω0 and ωa from galaxy redshift surveys, ω0 and ωa being the two parameters in the equation of state parametrization ω(z) = ω0 + ωaz/(1 + z). Strong degeneracies between ω0 and ωa are found. The direction of the degeneracy in ω0 - ωa plane, however, rotates counter-clockwise as the redshift increases. LAMOST can potentially contribute in the redshift range up to 0.5. In combination with other high redshift surveys, such as the proposed Kilo-Aperture Optical Spectrograph project (KAOS), the joint constraint derived from galaxy surveys at different redshift ranges is likely to efficiently break the degeneracy of ω0 and ωa. We do not anticipate that the nature of dark energy can be well constrained with LAMOST alone, but it may help to reduce the error bounds expected from other observations, such as the Supernova/Acceleration Probe (SNAP).     

GeneticKNN:a weighted KNN approach supported by genetic algorithm for photometric redshift estimation of quasars

We combine K-nearest neighbors(KNN)with a genetic algorithm(GA)for photometric redshift estimation of quasars,short for GeneticKNN,which is a weighted KNN approach supported by a GA.This approach has two improvements compared to KNN:one is the feature weighted by GA;the other is that the predicted redshift is not the redshift average of K neighbors but the weighted average of median and mean of redshifts for K neighbors,i.e.p×zmedian+(1-p)×zmean.Based on the SDSS and SDSS-WISE quasar samples,we explore the performance of GeneticKNN for photometric redshift estimation,comparing with the other six traditional machine learning methods,i.e.the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator(LASSO),support vector regression(SVR),multi-layer perceptrons(MLP),XGBoost,KNN and random forest.KNN and random forest show their superiority.Considering the easy implementation of KNN,we make improvement on KNN as GeneticKNN and apply GeneticKNN on photometric redshift estimation of quasars.Finally the performance of GeneticKNN is better than that of LASSO,SVR,MLP,XGBoost,KNN and random forest for all cases.Moreover the accuracy is better with the additional WISE magnitudes for the same method.     

Automated Separation of Stars and Normal Galaxies Based on Statistical Mixture Modeling with RBF Neural Networks

For LAMOST, the largest sky survey program in China, the solution of the problem of automatic discrimination of stars from galaxies by spectra has shown that the results of the PSF test can be significantly refined. However, the problem is made worse when the redshifts of galaxies are not available. We present a new automatic method of star/(normal) galaxy separation, which is based on Statistical Mixture Modeling with Radial Basis Function Neural Networks (SMM-RBFNN). This work is a continuation of our previous one, where active and non-active celestial objects were successfully segregated. By combining the method in this paper and the previous one, stars can now be effectively separated from galaxies and AGNs by their spectra-a major goal of LAMOST, and an indispensable step in any automatic spectrum classification system. In our work, the training set includes standard stellar spectra from Jacoby's spectrum library and simulated galaxy spectra of EO, SO, Sa, Sb types with redshift ranging from 0 to 1     

The LAMOST survey of background quasars in the vicinity of M31 and M33–Ⅲ.results from the 2013 regular survey

In this work, we report new quasars discovered in fields in the vicinity of the Andromeda(M31) and Triangulum(M33) galaxies with the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope(LAMOST, also called the Guo Shou Jing Telescope) during the 2013 observational season, the second year of the regular survey. In total, 1330 new quasars are discovered in an area of ～133 deg2 around M31and M33. With i magnitudes ranging from 14.79 to 20.0 and redshifts from 0.08 to4.85, the 1330 new quasars represent a significant increase in the number of identified quasars in fields in the vicinity of M31 and M33. Up to now, there have been a total of 1870 quasars discovered by LAMOST in this area. The much enlarged sample of known quasars in this area can potentially be utilized to construct a precise astrometric reference frame for the measurement of minute proper motions of M31, M33 and their associated substructures, which are vital for understanding the formation and evolution of M31, M33 and the Local Group of galaxies. Moreover, in the sample,there are a total of 45, 98 and 225 quasars with i magnitudes brighter than 17.0, 17.5and 18.0 respectively. In the aforementioned brightness bins, 15, 35 and 84 quasars are reported here for the first time, and 6, 21 and 81 are reported in our pervious work. In addition, 0, 1 and 6 are from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and 24, 41 and 54 are from the NED database. These bright quasars provide an invaluable sample to study the kinematics and chemistry of the interstellar/intergalactic medium of the Local Group.     

Ionization state of cosmic hydrogen by early stars and quasars

Cosmic hydrogen is reionized and maintained in its highly ionized state by the ultraviolet emission attributed to an early generation of stars and quasars. The Lyα opacity observed in absorption spectra of high-redshift quasars permits more stringent constraints on the ionization state of cosmic hydrogen. Based on density perturbation and structure formation theory, we develop an analytic model to trace the evolution of the ionization state in the post-overlap epoch of reionization, in which the bias factor is taken into ac-count. For quasars, we represent an improved luminosity function by utilizing a hybrid approach for the halo formation rate that is in reasonable agreement with the published measurements at 2 z 6. Comparison with the classic Press-Schechter mass function of dark matter halos, we demonstrate that the biased mass distribution indeed enhances star formation efficiency in the overdense environment by more than 25 per cent following the overlap of ionized bubbles. In addition, an alternative way is introduced to derive robust estimates of the mean free path for ionizing photons. In our model, star-forming galax-ies are likely to dominate the ionizing background radiation beyond z = 3, and quasars contribute equally above a redshift of z ～ 2.5. From 5 ≤ z ≤ 6, the lack of evolution in photoionization rate can thus be explained by the relatively flat evolution in star formation efficiency, although the mean free path of ionizing photons increases rapidly. Moreover, in the redshift interval z ～ 2 - 6, the expected mean free path and Gunn-Peterson optical depth obviously evolve by a factor of ～ 500 and ～ 50 respectively. We find that the rel-ative values of critical overdensities for hydrogen ionization and collapse could be 430% at z ≈ 2 and 2% at z ≈ 6, suggesting a rapid overlap process in the overdense regions around instant quasars following reionization. We further illustrate that the absolute esti-mates of the fraction of neutral hydrogen computed from theoretical models may not be important because of comparable uncertainties in the computation.     

Spectral principal component analysis of the Hβ region of low-redshift SDSS quasars

Studying the relationships among quasar spectral features is essential to unveil the origins of the emission lines and the quasars' physical processes. Principal component analysis(PCA) is a powerful tool to investigate correlations between variables. Here, we present the results of PCA on the spectra of low-redshift SDSS quasars. The rest-frame wavelength range studied is 4000 – 5500 ?, involving some typical features of quasar spectra, such as Hβ, [O Ⅲ] and Fe Ⅱ emission lines. The first principal component is the anti-correlation between [O Ⅲ] and Fe Ⅱ, the well-known eigenvector one(EV1). The next six principal components also show clear(anti-)correlations between line strengths and/or velocity widths of various features, which agree well with measured spectral properties. By comparing the weights of these principal components with other quasar properties, we can identify their underlying drivers. We find that the second principal component represents spectral slope, and can quantify quasar host fraction, intrinsic slope and reddening well. The third component exhibits the velocity width variation of Hβ, and may be a proxy for orientation. In addition, we calculate the fractional-contribution spectra to investigate which components dominate the variance at individual wavelength ranges. Our results also indicate that the optical Fe Ⅱ emission may have distinct origins.     

Automated Separation os Stars and Normal Galaxies Based on Statistical Mixture Modeling with RBF Neural Net—works

For LAMOST,the largest sky survey program in China,the solution of the problem of automatic discrimination of stars from galaxies by spectra has shown that the results of the PSF test can be significantly refined.However,the problem is made worse when the redshifts of galaxies are not available.We present a new automatic method of star/(normal)galaxy separation,which is based on Statistical Mixture Modeling with Radial Basis Function Neural netrworks(SMM-RBFNN).This work is a continuation of our previous one,where active and non-active celestial objects were successfully segregated.By combining the method in this paper and the previous one,stars can now be effectively separated from galaxies and AGNs by their spectra-a major goal of LAMOST,and an indispensable step in any automatic spectrum classification system.In our work,the training set includes standard stellar spectra from Jacoby‘s spectrum library and simulated galaxy spectra of EO,SO,Sa,Sb types with redshift ranging from 0 to 1.2,and the test set of stellar spectra from Pickles‘atlas and SDSS spectra of normal galaxies with SNR of 13.Experiments show that our SMM-RBFNN is more efficient in both the training and testing stages than the BPNN(back propagation neural networks),and more importantly,it can achieve a good classification accuracy of 99.22% and 96.52%,respectively for stars and normal galaxies.     

The Multi-Wavelength Quasar Survey III. Quasars in Field 836

This is the third paper in a series connected with our Multiwavelength Quasar Survey. The survey is aimed to provide a quasar sample more complete than any previous survey by using a combined selection technique to reduce selection effects. We present the observational results for the X-ray candidates in field f836. We found 15 X-ray AGNs in this field of which eight are new discoveries. The X-ray data and optical spectra of these AGNs are given. We give the X-ray candidate selection criteria, which proved to be highly efficient in isolating X-ray AGNs.     

Ionization state of cosmic hydrogen by early stars and quasars

Cosmic hydrogen is reionized and maintained in its highly ionized state by the ultraviolet emission attributed to an early generation of stars and quasars. The Lyα opacity observed in absorption spectra of high-redshift quasars permits more stringent constraints on the ionization state of cosmic hydrogen. Based on density perturbation and structure formation theory, we develop an analytic model to trace the evolution of the ionization state in the post-overlap epoch of reionization, in which the bias factor is taken into account. For quasars, we represent an improved luminosity function by utilizing a hybrid approach for the halo formation rate that is in reasonable agreement with the published measurements at 2 ≤ z ≤ 6. Comparison with the classic Press-Schechter mass function of dark matter halos, we demonstrate that the biased mass distribution indeed enhances star formation efficiency in the overdense environment by more than 25 per cent following the overlap of ionized bubbles. In addition, an alternative way is introduced to derive robust estimates of the mean free path for ionizing photons. In our model, star-forming galaxies are likely to dominate the ionizing background radiation beyond z = 3, and quasars contribute equally above a redshift of z ～ 2.5. From 5 ≤ z ≤ 6, the lack of evolution in photoionization rate can thus be explained by the relatively flat evolution in star formation efficiency, although the mean free path of ionizing photons increases rapidly. Moreover, in the redshift interval z ～ 2 - 6, the expected mean free path and Gunn-Peterson optical depth obviously evolve by a factor of ～ 500 and ～50 respectively. We find that the relative values of critical overdensities for hydrogen ionization and collapse could be 430% at z ≈2 and 2% at z ≈6, suggesting a rapid overlap process in the overdense regions around instant quasars following reionization. We further illustrate that the absolute estimates of the fraction of neutral hydrogen computed from theoretical models may n     

An empirical model to form and evolve galaxies in dark matter halos

Based on the star formation histories of galaxies in halos with different masses, we develop an empirical model to grow galaxies in dark matter halos. This model has very few ingredients, any of which can be associated with observational data and thus be efficiently assessed. By applying this model to a very high resolution cosmological N-body simulation, we predict a number of galaxy properties that are a very good match to relevant observational data. Namely, for both centrals and satellites, the galaxy stellar mass functions up to redshift z ≈ 4 and the conditional stellar mass functions in the local universe are in good agreement with observations. In addition, the two point correlation function is well predicted in the different stellar mass ranges explored by our model. Furthermore, after applying stellar population synthesis models to our stellar composition as a function of redshift, we find that the luminosity functions in the 0.1_u,0.1_g,0.1_r,0.1_i and 0.1_z bands agree quite well with the SDSS observational results down to an absolute magnitude at about –17.0. The SDSS conditional luminosity function itself is predicted well. Finally, the cold gas is derived from the star formation rate to predict the HI gas mass within each mock galaxy. We find a remarkably good match to observed HI-to-stellar mass ratios. These features ensure that such galaxy/gas catalogs can be used to generate reliable mock redshift surveys.