3,424 research outputs found
Dust Reddening in SDSS Quasars
We explore the form of extragalactic reddening toward quasars using a sample
of 9566 quasars with redshifts 0<z<2.2, and accurate optical colors from the
Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We confirm that dust reddening is the primary
explanation for the red ``tail'' of the color distribution of SDSS quasars. Our
fitting to 5-band photometry normalized by the modal quasar color as a function
of redshift shows that this ``tail'' is well described by SMC-like reddening
but not by LMC-like, Galactic, or Gaskell et al. (2004) reddening. Extension to
longer wavelengths using a subset of 1886 SDSS-2MASS matches confirms these
results at high significance. We carry out Monte-Carlo simulations that match
the observed distribution of quasar spectral energy distributions using a
Lorentzian dust reddening distribution; 2% of quasars selected by the main SDSS
targeting algorithm (i.e., which are not extincted out of the sample) have
E_{B-V} > 0.1; less than 1% have E_{B-V} > 0.2, where the extinction is
relative to quasars with modal colors. Reddening is uncorrelated with the
presence of intervening narrow-line absorption systems, but reddened quasars
are much more likely to show narrow absorption at the redshift of the quasar
than are unreddened quasars. Thus the reddening towards quasars is dominated by
SMC-like dust at the quasar redshift.Comment: 29 pages including 8 figures. AJ, September 2004 issu
A Multi-Wavelength Study of the Jet, Lobes and Core of the Quasar PKS 2101-490
We present a detailed study of the X-ray, optical and radio emission from the
jet, lobes and core of the quasar PKS 2101-490 as revealed by new Chandra, HST
and ATCA images. We extract the radio to X-ray spectral energy distributions
from seven regions of the 13 arcsecond jet, and model the jet X-ray emission in
terms of Doppler beamed inverse Compton scattering of the cosmic microwave
background (IC/CMB) for a jet in a state of equipartition between particle and
magnetic field energy densities. This model implies that the jet remains highly
relativistic hundreds of kpc from the nucleus, with a bulk Lorentz factor Gamma
~ 6 and magnetic field of order 30 microGauss. We detect an apparent radiative
cooling break in the synchrotron spectrum of one of the jet knots, and are able
to interpret this in terms of a standard one-zone continuous injection model,
based on jet parameters derived from the IC/CMB model. However, we note
apparent substructure in the bright optical knot in one of the HST bands. We
confront the IC/CMB model with independent estimates of the jet power, and find
that the IC/CMB model jet power is consistent with the independent estimates,
provided that the minimum electron Lorentz factor gamma_min > 50, and the knots
are significantly longer than the jet width, as implied by de-projection of the
observed knot lengths.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, 6 table
Measurement of the small-scale structure of the intergalactic medium using close quasar pairs
The distribution of diffuse gas in the intergalactic medium (IGM) imprints a
series of hydrogen absorption lines on the spectra of distant background
quasars known as the Lyman- forest. Cosmological hydrodynamical
simulations predict that IGM density fluctuations are suppressed below a
characteristic scale where thermal pressure balances gravity. We measured this
pressure-smoothing scale by quantifying absorption correlations in a sample of
close quasar pairs. We compared our measurements to hydrodynamical simulations,
where pressure smoothing is determined by the integrated thermal history of the
IGM. Our findings are consistent with standard models for photoionization
heating by the ultraviolet radiation backgrounds that reionized the universe.Comment: Accepted for publication on Scienc
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