Volume-limited SDSS/FIRST quasars and the radio dichotomy

Much evidence has been presented in favor of and against the existence of two distinct populations of quasars, radio-loud and radio-quiet. The SDSS differs from earlier optically selected quasar surveys in the large number of quasars and the targeting of FIRST radio source counterparts as quasar candidates. This allows a qualitatively different approach of constructing a series of samples at different redshifts which are volume-limited with respect to both radio and optical luminosity. This technique avoids any biases from the strong evolution of quasar counts with redshift and potential redshift-dependent selection effects. We find that optical and radio luminosities of quasars detected in both SDSS and FIRST are not well correlated within each redshift shell, although the fraction of radio detections among optically selected quasars remains roughly constant at 10% for z <= 3.2. The distribution in the luminosity-luminosity plane does not appear to be strongly bimodal. The optical luminosity function is marginally flatter at higher radio luminosities.Comment: 4 pages, to appear in ASP proceedings of "AGN physics with the SDSS", Princeton 200

A Search for X-Ray Bright Distant Clusters of Galaxies

We present the results of a search for X--ray luminous distant clusters of galaxies. We found extended X--ray emission characteristic of a cluster towards two of our candidate clusters of galaxies. They both have a luminosity in the ROSAT bandpass of $\simeq10^{44}{\rm \,erg\,s^{-1}}$ and a redshift of $>0.5$; thus making them two of the most distant X--ray clusters ever observed. Furthermore, we show that both clusters are optically rich and have a known radio source associated with them. We compare our result with other recent searches for distant X--ray luminous clusters and present a lower limit of $1.2\times10^{-7}\,{\rm Mpc^{-3}}$ for the number density of such high redshift clusters. This limit is consistent with the expected abundance of such clusters in a standard (b=2) Cold Dark Matter Universe. Finally, our clusters provide important high redshift targets for further study into the origin and evolution of massive clusters of galaxies. Accepted for publication in the 10th September 1994 issue of ApJ.Comment: 20 pages Latex file + 1 postscript figure file appende

The Global Star Formation Rate from the 1.4 GHz Luminosity Function

The decimetric luminosity of many galaxies appears to be dominated by synchrotron emission excited by supernova explosions. Simple models suggest that the luminosity is directly proportional to the rate of supernova explosions of massive stars averaged over the past 30 Myr. The proportionality may be used together with models of the evolving 1.4 GHz luminosity function to estimate the global star formation rate density in the era z < 1. The local value is estimated to be 0.026 solar masses per year per cubic megaparsec, some 50% larger than the value inferred from the Halpha luminosity density. The value at z ~ 1 is found to be 0.30 solar masses per year per cubic megaparsec. The 10-fold increase in star formation rate density is consistent with the increase inferred from mm-wave, far-infrared, ultra-violet and Halpha observations.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, Astrophysical Journal Letters (in press); new PS version has improved figure placemen

Optimising Spectroscopic and Photometric Galaxy Surveys: Efficient Target Selection and Survey Strategy

The next generation of spectroscopic surveys will have a wealth of photometric data available for use in target selection. Selecting the best targets is likely to be one of the most important hurdles in making these spectroscopic campaigns as successful as possible. Our ability to measure dark energy depends strongly on the types of targets that we are able to select with a given photometric data set. We show in this paper that we will be able to successfully select the targets needed for the next generation of spectroscopic surveys. We also investigate the details of this selection, including optimisation of instrument design and survey strategy in order to measure dark energy. We use color-color selection as well as neural networks to select the best possible emission line galaxies and luminous red galaxies for a cosmological survey. Using the Fisher matrix formalism we forecast the efficiency of each target selection scenario. We show how the dark energy figures of merit change in each target selection regime as a function of target type, survey time, survey density and other survey parameters. We outline the optimal target selection scenarios and survey strategy choices which will be available to the next generation of spectroscopic surveys.Comment: 16 pages, 22 figures, accepted to MNRAS in dec 201

The Luminosity Function for L>L* Galaxies at z > 3

Through use of multiband (U, B, R, I) photometry we have isolated high redshift (3.0<z<3.5) galaxy candidates in a survey of 1.27 deg^2 to R = 21.25 and a survey of 0.02 deg^2 to R = 23.5. Our pool of candidates constrains the nature of the 3.0 < z < 3.5 luminosity function over the range L* < L < 100 L*, if we grant a similar level of completeness to these data as for very faint samples (to R = 25.5) selected in a similar fashion. Our constraints agree with the high redshift sky density at R = 20.5 estimated from Yee et al.'s (1996) serendipitous discovery of a bright, z = 2.7 galaxy, as well as the density at R ~ 23 by Steidel et al. (1996b). We strongly rule out -- by more than two orders of magnitude at M(R) = -25 -- the L > L* luminosity function for z = 3-5 galaxies obtained by a photometric redshift analysis of the Hubble Deep Field (HDF) by Gwyn & Hartwick (1996). Our results at R ~ 23 are more consistent with the photometric redshift analysis of the faint HDF galaxies by Sawicki & Yee (1996), but our present upper limits at the brightest magnitudes (R < 21.5, M(R) < -24) allow more generous volume densities of these super-L* galaxies.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters; 14 pages Latex, including 3 figure

Survey incompleteness and the evolution of the QSO luminosity function

We concentrate on a type of QSO survey which depends on selecting QSO candidates based on combinations of colors. Since QSO's have emission lines and power-law continua, they are expected to yield broadband colors unlike those of stellar photospheres. Previously, the fraction of QSO's expected to be hiding (unselected) within the locus of stellar (U-J, J-F) colors was estimated at about 15 percent. We have now verified that the KK88 survey is at least 11 percent incomplete, but have determined that it may be as much as 34 percent incomplete. The 'missing' QSO's are expected to be predominantly at z less than or = 2.2. We have studied the proper motion and variability properties of all stellar objects with J less than or = 22.5 or F less than or = 21.5 in the SA 57 field which has previously been surveyed with a multicolor QSO search by KK88

Optically Faint Microjansky Radio Sources

We report on the identifications of radio sources from our survey of the Hubble Deep Field and the SSA13 fields, both of which comprise the deepest radio surveys to date at 1.4 GHz and 8.5 GHz respectively. About 80% of the microjansky radio sources are associated with moderate redshift starburst galaxies or AGNs within the I magnitude range of 17 to 24 with a median of I = 22 mag. Thirty-one (20%) of the radio sources are: 1) fainter than $I>$25 mag, with two objects in the HDF $I_{AB}>$28.5, 2) often identified with very red objects $I-K>$4, and 3) not significantly different in radio properties than the brighter objects. We suggest that most of these objects are associated with heavily obscured starburst galaxies with redshifts between 1 and 3. However, other mechanisms are discussed and cannot be ruled out with the present observations.Comment: to appear in Astrophysical Journal Letters, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Onset of collective and cohesive motion

We study the onset of collective motion, with and without cohesion, of groups of noisy self-propelled particles interacting locally. We find that this phase transition, in two space dimensions, is always discontinuous, including for the minimal model of Vicsek et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 75},1226 (1995)] for which a non-trivial critical point was previously advocated. We also show that cohesion is always lost near onset, as a result of the interplay of density, velocity, and shape fluctuations.Comment: accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

Radio Wavelength Constraints on the Sources of the Far Infrared Background

The cosmic far infrared background detected recently by the COBE-DIRBE team is presumably due, in large part, to the far infrared (FIR) emission from all galaxies. We take the well-established correlation between FIR and radio luminosity for individual galaxies and apply it to the FIR background. We find that these sources make up about half of the extragalactic radio background, the other half being due to AGN. This is in agreement with other radio observations, which leads us to conclude that the FIR-radio correlation holds well for the very faint sources making up the FIR background, and that the FIR background is indeed due to star-formation activity (not AGN or other possible sources). If these star-forming galaxies have a radio spectral index between 0.4 and 0.8, and make up 40 to 60% of the extragalactic radio background, we find that they have redshifts between roughly 1 and 2, in agreement with recent estimates by Madau et al. of the redshift of peak star-formation activity. We compare the observed extragalactic radio background to the integral over the logN-logS curve for star-forming radio sources, and find that the slope of the curve must change significantly below about 1 microjansky. At 1 microjansky, the faint radio source counts predict about 25 sources per square arcminute, and these will cause SIRTF to be confusion limited at 160micron.Comment: 10 pages including 1 figure, AASTeX, accepted by Ap

The Ensemble Variability Properties of Faint QSOs

A refined sample of 64 variable objects with stellar image structure has been identified in SA 57 to $B \sim 22.5$, over a time baseline of 15 years, sampled at 11 distinct epochs. The photometric data typically have a root-mean-square error at $B = 22$ of only 0.05 mag. Thirty-five quasars in this field have already been spectroscopically confirmed, 34 of which are among the sample of variables. Of the other variables, 6 are known spectroscopically to be stars, 10 additional objects are stars based on reliable detection of proper motion, and 1 is spectroscopically a narrow-emission-line galaxy. Of the 13 remaining variables, it is argued that they are a mixture of distant halo subdwarfs and quasars with star-like colors. We compute the ensemble average structure function and autocorrelation function from the light curves in the respective quasar rest-frames, which are used to investigate the general dependences on apparent magnitude, absolute magnitude, and redshift.Comment: 40 pages, uuencoded compressed postscipt with 8 figures, ApJ in press, CRoNA 940