The clustering of intermediate redshift quasars as measured by the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey

We measure the quasar two-point correlation function over the redshift range 2.2<z<2.8 using data from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey. We use a homogeneous subset of the data consisting of 27,129 quasars with spectroscopic redshifts---by far the largest such sample used for clustering measurements at these redshifts to date. The sample covers 3,600 square degrees, corresponding to a comoving volume of 9.7(Gpc/h)^3 assuming a fiducial LambdaCDM cosmology, and it has a median absolute i-band magnitude of -26, k-corrected to z=2. After accounting for redshift errors we find that the redshift space correlation function is fit well by a power-law of slope -2 and amplitude s_0=(9.7\pm 0.5)Mpc/h over the range 3<s<25Mpc/h. The projected correlation function, which integrates out the effects of peculiar velocities and redshift errors, is fit well by a power-law of slope -1 and r_0=(8.4\pm 0.6)Mpc/h over the range 4<R<16Mpc/h. There is no evidence for strong luminosity or redshift dependence to the clustering amplitude, in part because of the limited dynamic range in our sample. Our results are consistent with, but more precise than, previous measurements at similar redshifts. Our measurement of the quasar clustering amplitude implies a bias factor of b~3.5 for our quasar sample. We compare the data to models to constrain the manner in which quasars occupy dark matter halos at z~2.4 and infer that such quasars inhabit halos with a characteristic mass of ~10^{12}Msun/h with a duty cycle for the quasar activity of 1 per cent.Comment: 20 pages, 18 figures. Minor modifications to match version accepted by journa

The Hercules-Aquila Cloud

We present evidence for a substantial overdensity of stars in the direction of the constellations of Hercules and Aquila. The Cloud is centered at a Galactic longitude of about 40 degrees and extends above and below the Galactic plane by at least 50 degrees. Given its off-centeredness and height, it is unlikely that the Hercules-Aquila Cloud is related to the bulge or thick disk. More likely, this is a new structural component of the Galaxy that passes through the disk. The Cloud stretches about 80 degrees in longitude. Its heliocentric distance lies between 10 and 20 kpc so that the extent of the Cloud in projection is roughly 20 kpc by 15 kpc. It has an absolute magnitude of -13 and its stellar population appears to be comparable to, but somewhat more metal-rich than, M92.Comment: ApJ (Letters), in pres

Galactic Globular and Open Clusters in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. I. Crowded Field Photometry and Cluster Fiducial Sequences in ugriz

We present photometry for globular and open cluster stars observed with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). In order to exploit over 100 million stellar objects with r < 22.5 mag observed by SDSS, we need to understand the characteristics of stars in the SDSS ugriz filters. While star clusters provide important calibration samples for stellar colors, the regions close to globular clusters, where the fraction of field stars is smallest, are too crowded for the standard SDSS photometric pipeline to process. To complement the SDSS imaging survey, we reduce the SDSS imaging data for crowded cluster fields using the DAOPHOT/ALLFRAME suite of programs and present photometry for 17 globular clusters and 3 open clusters in a SDSS value-added catalog. Our photometry and cluster fiducial sequences are on the native SDSS 2.5-meter ugriz photometric system, and the fiducial sequences can be directly applied to the SDSS photometry without relying upon any transformations. Model photometry for red giant branch and main-sequence stars obtained by Girardi et al. cannot be matched simultaneously to fiducial sequences; their colors differ by ~0.02-0.05 mag. Good agreement (< ~0.02 mag in colors) is found with Clem et al. empirical fiducial sequences in u'g'r'i'z' when using the transformation equations in Tucker et al.Comment: 30 pages, 25 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJS. Version with high resolution figures available at http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~deokkeun/AnJohnson.pd

Discovery of an Unusual Dwarf Galaxy in the Outskirts of the Milky Way

In this Letter, we announce the discovery of a new dwarf galaxy, Leo T, in the Local Group. It was found as a stellar overdensity in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 5 (SDSS DR5). The color-magnitude diagram of Leo T shows two well-defined features, which we interpret as a red giant branch and a sequence of young, massive stars. As judged from fits to the color-magnitude diagram, it lies at a distance of about 420 kpc and has an intermediate-age stellar population with a metallicity of [Fe/H]= -1.6, together with a young population of blue stars of age of 200 Myr. There is a compact cloud of neutral hydrogen with mass roughly 10^5 solar masses and radial velocity 35 km/s coincident with the object visible in the HIPASS channel maps. Leo T is the smallest, lowest luminosity galaxy found to date with recent star-formation. It appears to be a transition object similar to, but much lower luminosity than, the Phoenix dwarf.Comment: Ap J (Letters) in press, the subject of an SDSS press release toda

New Low Accretion-Rate Magnetic Binary Systems and their Significance for the Evolution of Cataclysmic Variables

Discoveries of two new white dwarf plus M star binaries with striking optical cyclotron emission features from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) brings to six the total number of X-ray faint, magnetic accretion binaries that accrete at rates < 10^{-13} Msun/yr, or <1% of the values normally encountered in cataclysmic variables. This fact, coupled with donor stars that underfill their Roche lobes and very cool white dwarfs, brand the binaries as post common-envelope systems whose orbits have not yet decayed to the point of Roche-lobe contact. They are pre-magnetic CVs, or pre-Polars. The systems exhibit spin/orbit synchronism and apparently accrete by efficient capture of the stellar wind from the secondary star, a process that has been dubbed a ``magnetic siphon''. Because of this, period evolution of the binaries will occur solely by gravitational radiation, which is very slow for periods >3 hr. Optical surveys for the cyclotron harmonics appear to be the only means of discovery, so the space density of pre-Polars could rival that of Polars, and the binaries provide an important channel of progenitors (in addition to the asynchronous Intermediate Polars). Both physical and SDSS observational selection effects are identified that may help to explain the clumping of all six systems in a narrow range of magnetic field strength around 60 MG.Comment: 25 pages, 13 figures, Accepted to Ap

LOTIS, Super-LOTIS, SDSS and Tautenburg Observations of GRB 010921

We present multi-instrument optical observations of the High Energy Transient Explorer (HETE-2)/Interplanetary Network (IPN) error box of GRB 010921. This event was the first gamma ray burst (GRB) localized by HETE-2 which has resulted in the detection of an optical afterglow. In this paper we report the earliest known observations of the GRB010921 field, taken with the 0.11-m Livermore Optical Transient Imaging System (LOTIS) telescope, and the earliest known detection of the GRB010921 optical afterglow, using the 0.5-m Sloan Digital Sky Survey Photometric Telescope (SDSS PT). Observations with the LOTIS telescope began during a routine sky patrol 52 minutes after the burst. Observations were made with the SDSS PT, the 0.6-m Super-LOTIS telescope, and the 1.34-m Tautenburg Schmidt telescope at 21.3, 21.8, and 37.5 hours after the GRB, respectively. In addition, the host galaxy was observed with the USNOFS 1.0-m telescope 56 days after the burst. We find that at later times (t > 1 day after the burst), the optical afterglow exhibited a power-law decline with a slope of $\alpha = 1.75 \pm 0.28$. However, our earliest observations show that this power-law decline can not have extended to early times (t < 0.035 day).Comment: AASTeX v5.x LaTeX 2e, 6 pages with 2 postscript figures, will be submitted to ApJ Letter

A Cautionary Tale: MARVELS Brown Dwarf Candidate Reveals Itself To Be A Very Long Period, Highly Eccentric Spectroscopic Stellar Binary

We report the discovery of a highly eccentric, double-lined spectroscopic binary star system (TYC 3010-1494-1), comprising two solar-type stars that we had initially identified as a single star with a brown dwarf companion. At the moderate resolving power of the MARVELS spectrograph and the spectrographs used for subsequent radial-velocity (RV) measurements (R ~ <30,000), this particular stellar binary mimics a single-lined binary with an RV signal that would be induced by a brown dwarf companion (Msin(i)~50 M_Jup) to a solar-type primary. At least three properties of this system allow it to masquerade as a single star with a very low-mass companion: its large eccentricity (e~0.8), its relatively long period (P~238 days), and the approximately perpendicular orientation of the semi-major axis with respect to the line of sight (omega~189 degrees). As a result of these properties, for ~95% of the orbit the two sets of stellar spectral lines are completely blended, and the RV measurements based on centroiding on the apparently single-lined spectrum is very well fit by an orbit solution indicative of a brown dwarf companion on a more circular orbit (e~0.3). Only during the ~5% of the orbit near periastron passage does the true, double-lined nature and large RV amplitude of ~15 km/s reveal itself. The discovery of this binary system is an important lesson for RV surveys searching for substellar companions; at a given resolution and observing cadence, a survey will be susceptible to these kinds of astrophysical false positives for a range of orbital parameters. Finally, for surveys like MARVELS that lack the resolution for a useful line bisector analysis, it is imperative to monitor the peak of the cross-correlation function for suspicious changes in width or shape, so that such false positives can be flagged during the candidate vetting process.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, 6 table

Cats and Dogs, Hair and A Hero: A Quintet of New Milky Way Companions

We present five new satellites of the Milky Way discovered in Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) imaging data, four of which were followed-up with either the Subaru or the Isaac Newton Telescopes. They include four probable new dwarf galaxies -- one each in the constellations of Coma Berenices, Canes Venatici, Leo and Hercules -- together with one unusually extended globular cluster, Segue 1. We provide distances, absolute magnitudes, half-light radii and color-magnitude diagrams for all five satellites. The morphological features of the color-magnitude diagrams are generally well described by the ridge line of the old, metal-poor globular cluster M92. In the last two years, a total of ten new Milky Way satellites with effective surface brightness mu_v >~ 28 mag/sq. arcsec have been discovered in SDSS data. They are less luminous, more irregular and appear to be more metal-poor than the previously-known nine Milky Way dwarf spheroidals. The relationship between these objects and other populations is discussed. We note that there is a paucity of objects with half-light radii between ~40 pc and ~ 100 pc. We conjecture that this may represent the division between star clusters and dwarf galaxies.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, submitted to the Astrophysical Journa