HIGH REDSHIFT QUASAR SURVEY WITH IMS

Abstract

We describe a survey of quasars in the early universe, beyond z ∼ 5, which is one of the main science goals of the Infrared Medium-deep Survey (IMS) conducted by the Center for the Exploration of the Origin of the Universe (CEOU). We use multi-wavelength archival data from SDSS, CFHTLS, UKIDSS, WISE, and SWIRE, which provide deep images over wide areas suitable for searching for high redshift quasars. In addition, we carried out a J-band imaging survey at the United Kingdom InfraRed Telescope with a depth of ∼23 AB mag and survey area of ∼120 deg, which makes IMS a suitable survey for finding faint, high redshift quasars at z ∼ 7. In addition, for the quasar candidates at z ∼ 5.5, we are conducting observations with the Camera for QUasars in EArly uNiverse (CQUEAN) on the 2.1m telescope at McDonald Observatory, which has a custom-designed filter set installed to enhance the efficiency of selecting robust quasar candidate samples in this redshift range. We used various color-color diagrams suitable for the specific redshift ranges, which can reduce contaminating sources such as M/L/T dwarfs, low redshift galaxies, and instrumental defects. The high redshift quasars we are confirming can provide us with clues to the growth of supermassive black holes since z ∼ 7. By expanding the quasar sample at 5 < z < 7, the final stage of the hydrogen reionization in the intergalactic medium (IGM) can also be fully understood. Moreover, we can make useful constraints on the quasar luminosity function to study the contribution of quasars to the IGM reionization.