Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7 Research Articles

LARGE SDSS QUASAR GROUPS AND THEIR STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE

We use a volume-limited sample of quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR7 quasar catalog to identify quasar groups and address their statistical significance. This quasar sample has a uniform selection function on the sky and nearly a maximum possible contiguous volume that can be drawn from the DR7 catalog. Quasar groups are identified by using the Friend-of-Friend algorithm with a set of fixed comoving linking lengths. We find that the richness distribution of the richest 100 quasar groups or the size distribution of the largest 100 groups are statistically equivalent with those of randomly-distributed points with the same number density and sky coverage when groups are identified with the linking length of 70 h?1Mpc. It is shown that the large-scale structures like the huge Large Quasar Group (U1.27) reported by Clowes et al. (2013) can be found with high probability even if quasars have no physical clustering, and does not challenge the initially homogeneous cosmological models. Our results are statistically more reliable than those of Nadathur (2013), where the test was made only for the largest quasar group. It is shown that the linking length should be smaller than 50 h?1Mpc in order for the quasar groups identified in the DR7 catalog not to be dominated by associations of quasars grouped by chance. We present 20 richest quasar groups identified with the linking length of 70 h?1Mpc for further analyses.

Past and present cosmic structure in the SDSS DR7 main sample

We present a chrono-cosmography project, aiming at the inference of the four dimensional formation history of the observed large scale structure from its origin to the present epoch. To do so, we perform a full-scale Bayesian analysis of the northern galactic cap of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7 main galaxy sample, relying on a fully probabilistic, physical model of the non-linearly evolved density field. Besides inferring initial conditions from observations, our methodology naturally and accurately reconstructs non-linear features at the present epoch, such as walls and filaments, corresponding to high-order correlation functions generated by late-time structure formation. Our inference framework self-consistently accounts for typical observational systematic and statistical uncertainties such as noise, survey geometry and selection effects. We further account for luminosity dependent galaxy biases and automatic noise calibration within a fully Bayesian approach. As a result, this analysis provides highly-detailed and accurate reconstructions of the present density field on scales larger than ∼ 3 Mpc/h, constrained by SDSS observations. This approach also leads to the first quantitative inference of plausible formation histories of the dynamic large scale structure underlying the observed galaxy distribution. The results described in this work constitute the first full Bayesian non-linear analysis of the cosmic large scale structure with the demonstrated capability of uncertainty quantification. Some of these results will be made publicly available along with this work. The level of detail of inferred results and the high degree of control on observational uncertainties pave the path towards high precision chrono-cosmography, the subject of simultaneously studying the dynamics and the morphology of the inhomogeneous Universe.

Box/peanut and bar structures in edge-on and face-on nearby galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey – I. Catalogue

We investigate box/peanut and bar structures in image data of edge-on and face-on nearby galaxies taken from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to present catalogues containing the surface brightness parameters and the morphology classification. About 1700 edge-on galaxies and 2600 face-on galaxies are selected from SDSS DR7 in the g, r and i-bands. The images of each galaxy are fitted with the model of two-dimensional surface brightness of the Sérsic bulge and exponential disk. After removing some irregular data, the box/peanut, bar and other structures are easily distinguished by eye using residual (observed minus model) images. We find 292 box/peanut structures in the 1329 edge-on samples and 630 bar structures in 1890 face-on samples in the i-band, after removing some irregular data. The fraction of box/peanut galaxies is about 22 per cent against the edge-on samples, and that of bar galaxies is about 33 per cent (about 50 per cent if 629 elliptical galaxies are removed) against the face-on samples. Furthermore the strengths of the box/peanuts and bars are evaluated as strong, standard or weak. We find that the strength increases slightly with increasing B/T (bulge-to-total flux ratio), and that the fraction of box/peanuts is generally about a half of that of bars, irrespective of the strength and B/T. Our result supports the idea that a box/peanut is a bar seen edge-on.

Analysis of cool DO-type white dwarfs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey data release 10

We report on the identification of 22 new cool DO-type white dwarfs (WD) detected in Data Release 10 (DR10) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Among them, we found one more member of the so-called hot-wind DO WDs, which show ultrahigh excitation absorption lines. Our non-LTE model atmosphere analyses of these objects and two not previously analyzed hot-wind DO WDs, revealed effective temperatures and gravities in the ranges Teff=45-80kK and log g= 7.50-8.75. In eight of the spectra we found traces of C (0.001-0.01, by mass). Two of these are the coolest DO WDs ever discovered that still show a considerable amount of C in their atmospheres. This is in strong contradiction with diffusion calculations, and probably, similar to what is proposed for DB WDs, a weak mass-loss is present in DO WDs. One object is the most massive DO WD discovered so far with a mass of 1.07 M_sun if it is an ONe-WD or 1.09 M_sun if it is a CO-WD. We furthermore present the mass distribution of all known hot non-DA (pre-) WDs and derive the hot DA to non-DA ratio for the SDSS DR7 spectroscopic sample. The mass distribution of DO WDs beyond the wind limit strongly deviates from the mass distribution of the objects before the wind limit. We address this phenomenon by applying different evolutionary input channels. We argue that the DO WD channel may be fed by about 13% by post-extreme-horizontal branch stars and that PG1159 stars and O(He) stars may contribute in a similar extent to the non-DA WD channel.

Inferring the redshift distribution of the cosmic infrared background★

Cross-correlating the Planck High Frequency Instrument (HFI) maps against quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR7, we estimate the intensity distribution of the Cosmic Infrared Background (CIB) over the redshift range 0 < z < 5.We detect redshift-dependent spatial cross-correlations between the two datasets using the 857, 545 and 353 GHz channels and we obtain upper limits at 217 GHz consistent with expectations. At all frequencies with detectable signal we infer a redshift distribution peaking around z ~ 1.2 and find the recovered spectrum to be consistent with emission arising from star forming galaxies. By assuming simple modified blackbody and Kennicutt relations, we estimate dust and star formation rate density as a function of redshift, finding results consistent with earlier multiwavelength measurements over a large portion of cosmic history. However, we note that, lacking mid-infrared coverage, we are not able to make an accurate determination of the mean temperature for the dust responsible for the CIB. Our results demonstrate that clustering-based redshift inference is a valuable tool for measuring the entire evolution history of the cosmic star formation rate from a single and homogeneous dataset.

A correlation between hard gamma-ray sources and cosmic voids along the line of sight

We estimate the galaxy density along lines of sight to hard extragalactic gamma-ray sources by correlating source positions on the sky with a void catalog based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Extragalactic gamma-ray sources that are detected at very high energy (VHE; E>100 GeV) or have been highlighted as VHE-emitting candidates in the Fermi Large Area Telescope hard source catalog (together referred to as "VHE-like" sources) are distributed along underdense lines of sight at the 2.4 sigma level. There is also a less suggestive correlation for the Fermi hard source population (1.7 sigma). A correlation between 10-500 GeV flux and underdense fraction along the line of sight for VHE-like and Fermi hard sources is found at 2.4 sigma and 2.6 sigma, respectively. The preference for underdense sight lines is not displayed by gamma-ray emitting galaxies within the second Fermi catalog, containing sources detected above 100 MeV, or the SDSS DR7 quasar catalog. We investigate whether this marginal correlation might be a result of lower extragalactic background light (EBL) photon density within the underdense regions and find that, even in the most extreme case of a entirely underdense sight line, the EBL photon density is only 2% less than the nominal EBL density. Translating this into gamma-ray attenuation along the line of sight for a highly attenuated source with opacity tau(E,z) ~5, we estimate that the attentuation of gamma-rays decreases no more than 10%. This decrease, although non-neglible, is unable to account for the apparent hard source correlation with underdense lines of sight.

On the observability of coupled dark energy with cosmic voids

Abstract Taking N-body simulations with volumes and particle densities tuned to match the sloan digital sky survey DR7 spectroscopic main sample, we assess the ability of current void catalogues to distinguish a model of coupled dark matter–dark energy from Λ cold dark matter cosmology using properties of cosmic voids. Identifying voids with the vide toolkit, we find no statistically significant differences in the ellipticities, but find that coupling produces a population of significantly larger voids, possibly explaining the recent result of Tavasoli et al. In addition, we use the universal density profile of Hamaus et al. to quantify the relationship between coupling and density profile shape, finding that the coupling produces broader, shallower, undercompensated profiles for large voids by thinning the walls between adjacent medium-scale voids. We find that these differences are potentially measurable with existing void catalogues once effects from survey geometries and peculiar velocities are taken into account.

RELATIVISTIC REDSHIFTS IN QUASAR BROAD LINES

The broad emission lines commonly seen in quasar spectra have velocity widths of a few per cent of the speed of light, so special- and general-relativistic effects have a significant influence on the line profile. We have determined the redshift of the broad H-beta line in the quasar rest frame (determined from the core component of the [OIII] line) for over 20,000 quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7 quasar catalog. The mean redshift as a function of line width is approximately consistent with the relativistic redshift that is expected if the line originates in a randomly oriented Keplerian disk that is obscured when the inclination of the disk to the line of sight exceeds ~30-45 degrees, consistent with simple AGN unification schemes. This result also implies that the net line-of-sight inflow/outflow velocities in the broad-line region are much less than the Keplerian velocity when averaged over a large sample of quasars with a given line width.

CALIFA: a diameter-selected sample for an integral field spectroscopy galaxy survey

We describe and discuss the selection procedure and statistical properties of the galaxy sample used by the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area Survey (CALIFA), a public legacy survey of 600 galaxies using integral field spectroscopy. The CALIFA "mother sample" was selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR7 photometric catalogue to include all galaxies with an r-band isophotal major axis between 45" and 79.2" and with a redshift 0.005 < z < 0.03. The mother sample contains 939 objects, 600 of which will be observed in the course of the CALIFA survey. The selection of targets for observations is based solely on visibility and thus keeps the statistical properties of the mother sample. By comparison with a large set of SDSS galaxies, we find that the CALIFA sample is representative of galaxies over a luminosity range of -19 > Mr > -23.1 and over a stellar mass range between 10^9.7 and 10^11.4Msun. In particular, within these ranges, the diameter selection does not lead to any significant bias against - or in favour of - intrinsically large or small galaxies. Only below luminosities of Mr = -19 (or stellar masses < 10^9.7Msun) is there a prevalence of galaxies with larger isophotal sizes, especially of nearly edge-on late-type galaxies, but such galaxies form < 10% of the full sample. We estimate volume-corrected distribution functions in luminosities and sizes and show that these are statistically fully compatible with estimates from the full SDSS when accounting for large-scale structure. We also present a number of value-added quantities determined for the galaxies in the CALIFA sample. We explore different ways of characterizing the environments of CALIFA galaxies, finding that the sample covers environmental conditions from the field to genuine clusters. We finally consider the expected incidence of active galactic nuclei among CALIFA galaxies.

A cluster finding algorithm based on the multiband identification of red sequence galaxies

We present a new algorithm, CAMIRA, to identify clusters of galaxies in wide-field imaging survey data. We base our algorithm on the stellar population synthesis model to predict colours of red-sequence galaxies at a given redshift for an arbitrary set of bandpass filters, with additional calibration using a sample of spectroscopic galaxies to improve the accuracy of the model prediction. We run the algorithm on ~11960 deg^2 of imaging data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 8 to construct a catalogue of 71743 clusters in the redshift range 0.1<z<0.6 with richness after correcting for the incompleteness of the richness estimate greater than 20. We cross-match the cluster catalogue with external cluster catalogues to find that our photometric cluster redshift estimates are accurate with low bias and scatter, and that the corrected richness correlates well with X-ray luminosities and temperatures. We use the publicly available Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS) shear catalogue to calibrate the mass-richness relation from stacked weak lensing analysis. Stacked weak lensing signals are detected significantly for 8 subsamples of the SDSS clusters divided by redshift and richness bins, which are then compared with model predictions including miscentring effects to constrain mean halo masses of individual bins. We find the richness correlates well with the halo mass, such that the corrected richness limit of 20 corresponds to the cluster virial mass limit of about 1 \times 10^14 M_Sun/h for the SDSS DR8 cluster sample.

Direct Minkowski Functional analysis of large redshift surveys: a new high-speed code tested on the luminous red galaxy Sloan Digital Sky Survey-DR7 catalogue

As deeper galaxy catalogues are soon to come, it becomes even more importantto measure large-scale fluctuations in the catalogues with robust statistics that cover all moments of the galaxy distribution.In this paper we reinforce a direct analysis of galaxy data by employing the Germ-Grain method to calculate thefamily of Minkowski Functionals. We introduce a new code, suitable for the analysis of large data sets without smoothingand without the construction of excursion sets. We provide new tools to measure correlation properties, putting emphasis onexplicitly isolating non-Gaussian correlations with the help of integral-geometric relations. As a first application we present the analysis of large-scale fluctuations in the luminous red galaxy sample of Sloan Digital Sky Survey data release 7 data. We findsignificant deviations from the $\Lambda$ cold dark matter mock catalogues on samples as large as $500h^{-1}$Mpc (more than $3\sigma$)and slight deviations of around $2\sigma$ on $700h^{-1}$Mpc, and we investigate possible sources of these deviations.

Monte Carlo simulations of post-common-envelope white dwarf + main sequence binaries: comparison with the SDSS DR7 observed sample

Detached white dwarf + main sequence (WD+MS) systems represent the simplest population of post-common envelope binaries (PCEBs). Since the ensemble properties of this population carries important information about the characteristics of the common-envelope (CE) phase, it deserves close scrutiny. However, most population synthesis studies do not fully take into account the effects of the observational selection biases of the samples used to compare with the theoretical simulations. Here we present the results of a set of detailed Monte Carlo simulations of the population of WD+MS binaries in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7. We used up-to-date stellar evolutionary models, a complete treatment of the Roche lobe overflow episode, and a full implementation of the orbital evolution of the binary systems. Moreover, in our treatment we took into account the selection criteria and all the known observational biases. Our population synthesis study allowed us to make a meaningful comparison with the available observational data. In particular, we examined the CE efficiency, the possible contribution of internal energy, and the initial mass ratio distribution (IMRD) of the binary systems. We found that our simulations correctly reproduce the properties of the observed distribution of WD+MS PCEBs. In particular, we found that once the observational biases are carefully taken into account, the distribution of orbital periods and of masses of the WD and MS stars can be correctly reproduced for several choices of the free parameters and different IMRDs, although models in which a moderate fraction (<=10%) of the internal energy is used to eject the CE and in which a low value of CE efficiency is used (<=0.3) seem to fit better the observational data. We also found that systems with He-core WDs are over-represented in the observed sample, due to selection effects.

More than just halo mass: modelling how the red galaxy fraction depends on multiscale density in an HOD framework

The fraction of galaxies with red colours depends sensitively on environment, and on the way in which environment is measured. To distinguish competing theories for the quenching of star formation, a robust and complete description of environment is required, to be applied to a large sample of galaxies. The environment of galaxies can be described using the density field of neighbours on multiple scales - the multiscale density field. We are using the Millennium simulation and a simple HOD prescription which describes the multiscale density field of Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7 galaxies to investigate the dependence of the fraction of red galaxies on the environment. Using a volume limited sample where we have sufficient galaxies in narrow density bins, we have more dynamic range in halo mass and density for satellite galaxies than for central galaxies. Therefore we model the red fraction of central galaxies as a constant while we use a functional form to describe the red fraction of satellites as a function of halo mass which allows us to distinguish a sharp from a gradual transition. While it is clear that the data can only be explained by a gradual transition, an analysis of the multiscale density field on different scales suggests that colour segregation within the haloes is needed to explain the results. We also rule out a sharp transition for central galaxies, within the halo mass range sampled.

The SDSS-III Baryonic Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: constraints on the integrated Sachs–Wolfe effect

In the context of the study of the Integrated Sachs Wolfe effect (ISW), we construct a template of the projected density distribution up to $z\simeq 0.7$ by using the Luminous Galaxies (LGs) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR8. We use a photo-z catalogue trained with more than a hundred thousand galaxies from BOSS in the SDSS DR8 imaging area. We consider two different LG samples whose selection matches that of SDSS-III/BOSS: the LOWZ sample ($z\in [0.15,0.5]$) and the CMASS sample ($z\in[0.4,0.7]$). When building the LG density maps we use the information from star density, survey footprint, seeing conditions, sky emission, dust extinction and airmass to explore the impact of these artifacts on the two LG samples. In agreement with previous studies, we find that the CMASS sample is particularly sensitive to Galactic stars, which dominate the contribution to the auto-angular power spectrum below $\ell=7$. Other potential systematics affect mostly the low multipole range ($\ell\in[2,7]$), but leave fluctuations on smaller scales practically unchanged. The resulting power spectra in the multipole range $\ell\in[2,100]$ for the LOWZ, CMASS and LOWZ+CMASS samples are compatible with linear $\Lambda$CDM expectations and constant bias values of $b=1.98 \pm 0.11$, $2.08\pm0.14$ and $1.88\pm 0.11$, respectively, with no traces of non-Gaussianity: $f_{\rm NL}^{\rm local}=59\pm 75$ at 95% confidence level for the full LOWZ+CMASS sample in the range $\ell\in[4,100]$. After cross-correlating WMAP-9yr data with the LOWZ+CMASS LG density field, the ISW signal is detected at the level of 1.62--1.69$\,\sigma$. While this result is in close agreement with predictions from Monte Carlo simulations in the concordance $\Lambda$CDM model, it cannot rule out by itself an Einstein-de Sitter scenario, and has a moderately low signal compared to previous studies conducted on subsets of this LG sample.

STELLAR MASS AND COLOR DEPENDENCE OF THE THREE-POINT CORRELATION FUNCTION OF GALAXIES IN THE LOCAL UNIVERSE

The three-point correlation function (3PCF) for galaxies provides an opportunity to measure the non-Gaussianity generated from nonlinear structure formation and also probes information about galaxy formation and evolution that is generally not available from the two-point correlation function (2PCF). We measure the 3PCF of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7 main sample galaxies in both redshift and projected spaces on scales up to 40Mpc/h. We explore the dependence of the 3PCF on galaxy stellar mass and color in order to constrain the formation and evolution for galaxies of different properties. The study of the dependence on these properties also helps better constrain the relation between galaxy stellar mass and color and the properties of their hosting dark-matter halos. We focus on the study of the reduced 3PCF, Q, defined as the ratio between the 3PCF and the sum of the products of the 2PCFs. We find a very weak stellar mass dependence of Q in both redshift and projected spaces. On small scales, more massive galaxies tend to have slightly higher amplitudes of Q. The shape dependence of Q is also weak on these small scales, regardless of stellar mass and color. The reduced 3PCF has a strong color dependence for the low-mass galaxies, while no significant dependence on color is found for the high-mass galaxies. Low-mass red galaxies have higher amplitudes and stronger shape dependence of the reduced 3PCF than the blue galaxies, implying that these low-mass red galaxies tend to populate filamentary structures. The linear galaxy bias model fails to interpret the color dependence of Q, emphasizing the importance of a nonvanishing quadratic bias parameter in the correct modeling of the galaxy color distribution.

Search for carbon stars and DZ white dwarfs in SDSS spectra survey through machine learning

Carbon stars and DZ white dwarfs are two types of rare objects in the Galaxy. In this paper, we have applied the label propagation algorithm to search for these two types of stars from Data Release Eight (DR8) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), which is verified to be efficient by calculating precision and recall. From nearly two million spectra including stars, galaxies and QSOs, we have found 260 new carbon stars in which 96 stars have been identified as dwarfs and 7 identified as giants, and 11 composition spectrum systems (each of them consists of a white dwarf and a carbon star). Similarly, using the label propagation method, we have obtained 29 new DZ white dwarfs from SDSS DR8. Compared with PCA reconstructed spectra, the 29 findings are typical DZ white dwarfs. We have also investigated their proper motions by comparing them with proper motion distribution of 9,374 white dwarfs, and found that they satisfy the current observed white dwarfs by SDSS generally have large proper motions. In addition, we have estimated their effective temperatures by fitting the polynomial relationship between effective temperature and g-r color of known DZ white dwarfs, and found 12 of the 29 new DZ white dwarfs are cool, in which nine are between 6000K and 6600K, and three are below 6000K.

A dichotomy in satellite quenching around L* galaxies

We examine the star formation properties of bright (~0.1 L*) satellites around isolated ~L* hosts in the local Universe using spectroscopically confirmed systems in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7. Our selection method is carefully designed with the aid of N-body simulations to avoid groups and clusters. We find that satellites are significantly more likely to be quenched than a stellar mass-matched sample of isolated galaxies. Remarkably, this quenching occurs only for satellites of hosts that are themselves quenched: while star formation is unaffected in the satellites of star-forming hosts, satellites around quiescent hosts are more than twice as likely to be quenched than stellar-mass matched field samples. One implication of this is that whatever shuts down star formation in isolated, passive L* galaxies also plays at least an indirect role in quenching star formation in their bright satellites. The previously-reported tendency for "galactic conformity" in color/morphology may be a by-product of this host-specific quenching dichotomy. The S\'ersic indices of quenched satellites are statistically identical to those of field galaxies with the same specific star formation rates, suggesting that environmental and secular quenching give rise to the same morphological structure. By studying the distribution of pairwise velocities between the hosts and satellites, we find dynamical evidence that passive host galaxies reside in dark matter halos that are ~45% more massive than those of star-forming host galaxies of the same stellar mass. We emphasize that even around passive hosts, the mere fact that galaxies become satellites does not typically result in star formation quenching: we find that only ~30% of ~0.1 L* galaxies that fall in from the field are quenched around passive hosts, compared with ~0% around star forming hosts.

NO EVIDENCE FOR A DEPENDENCE OF THE MASS-SIZE RELATION OF EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES ON ENVIRONMENT IN THE LOCAL UNIVERSE

The early--type galaxy (ETG) mass--size relation has been largely studied to understand how these galaxies have assembled their mass. One key observational result of the last years is that massive galaxies increased their size by a factor of a few at fixed stellar mass from $z\sim2$. Hierarchical models favor minor mergers as a plausible driver of this size growth. Some of these models, predict a significant environmental dependence in the sense that galaxies residing in more massive halos tend to be larger than galaxies in lower mass halos, at fixed stellar mass and redshift. At present, observational results of this environmental dependence have been contradictory. In this paper we revisit this issue in the local Universe, by investigating how the sizes of massive ETGs depend on large-scale environment using an updated and accurate sample of ETGs in different environments - field, group, clusters - from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7. Our analysis does not show any significant environmental dependence of the sizes of central and satellites ETGs at fixed stellar mass at $z\sim0$. The size-mass relation of early-type galaxies at $z\sim0$ seems to be universal, i.e., independent of the mass of the host halo and of the position of the galaxy in that halo (central or satellite). The result is robust to different galaxy selections based on star formation, morphology or central density. In fact, considering our observational errors and the size of the sample, any size ratio larger than $30-40%$ between massive galaxies ($log(M_*/M_\odot)>11$) living in clusters and in the field can be ruled out at $3\sigma$ level.

Galaxies with background QSOs – II. An automated search for multiple galaxy emission lines

We have improved upon our previous search technique of systematically searching QSO spectra for narrow galactic H-alpha emission, which indicates a foreground galaxy within the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) spectral fiber. We now search for H-alpha plus eight other galactic emission lines in the same manner. We have scanned the SDSS DR7 QSO catalog spectra searching for these emission lines. Here we present our sample which focuses on the redshift range z<0.401 where galactic H-alpha is detectable in the SDSS spectra. This has revealed 27 unique galaxies on top of QSOs (GOTOQs). We have deblended the QSOs from the respective galaxies and determined the photometric properties of these systems. We find upon deblending that most of the galaxies are primarily blue, late-type galaxies with colors in the range -0.71<(u-r)<2.07. We find a slight anti-correlation between reddening and impact parameter (E(B-V)_(g-i) vs. b). The galaxies have average star formation rates of 0.01 to 1 M_sun yr^-1, with an average of 0.6 M_sun} yr^-1. They range in z from 0 to 0.4 and in stellar luminosity from about 0.01 L* to 3.0 L*. They are foreground to QSOs of brightness 17.4 to 20.4 magnitudes (r-band) with impact parameters of 1 to 10 kpc. They represent a fair sample of typical galaxies for which it should be possible to determine accurately various quantities (e.g. abundances, dust extinction, Faraday rotation) using follow-up analysis of the background QSOs. [...]

WHITE-DWARF-MAIN-SEQUENCE BINARIES IDENTIFIED FROM THE LAMOST PILOT SURVEY

We present a set of white dwarf-main sequence (WDMS) binaries identified spectroscopically from the Large sky Area Multi-Object fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST, also called the Guo Shou Jing Telescope) pilot survey. We develop a color selection criteria based on what is so far the largest and most complete Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR7 WDMS binary catalog and identify 28 WDMS binaries within the LAMOST pilot survey. The primaries in our binary sample are mostly DA white dwarfs except for one DB white dwarf. We derive the stellar atmospheric parameters, masses, and radii for the two components of 10 of our binaries. We also provide cooling ages for the white dwarf primaries as well as the spectral types for the companion stars of these 10 WDMS binaries. These binaries tend to contain hot white dwarfs and early-type companions. Through cross-identification, we note that nine binaries in our sample have been published in the SDSS DR7 WDMS binary catalog. Nineteen spectroscopic WDMS binaries identified by the LAMOST pilot survey are new. Using the 3$\sigma$ radial velocity variation as a criterion, we find two post-common-envelope binary candidates from our WDMS binary sample.