Microquasars are the compact objects generally including accreting black holes which produce relativistic jets.The physical mechanisms of jet launching,collimation,and acceleration are poorly understood.Microquasars s...Microquasars are the compact objects generally including accreting black holes which produce relativistic jets.The physical mechanisms of jet launching,collimation,and acceleration are poorly understood.Microquasars show strong variability in multi-wavelength observations.In x-rays,the sources show the fast variation features down to millisecond time scales,with the prominent quasiperiodic oscillations(QPOs)around 0.1 Hz–tens of Hz in light curves,however,physical origin of QPOs is still uncertain.FAST as the largest radio telescope provides the opportunity to study fast variability of both radio flux and polarization in microquasars.In the FAST observations from 2020–2022,we reported the first evidence of radio subsecond quasi-periodic oscillations of GRS 1915+105,providing the direct link between QPOs and the dynamics of relativistic jets.These QPOs with the centroid frequency around 5 Hz are transient,accompanied with strong evolution of the spectral index.Combined with multiwavelength observations,we discuss the possible physical models to produce radio QPOs in BH systems:the helical motion of jet knots or precession of the jet base.In near future,high time resolution radio monitoring of microquasars based on FAST is expected to discover more new phenomena in black hole systems,which will be important for understanding the physics in strong gravity.展开更多
The[O iii]λλ4960,5008 emission lines in the optical spectra of galaxies and quasars have been widely used to investigate the possible variation of the fine-structure constantαover cosmic time.In this work,we utiliz...The[O iii]λλ4960,5008 emission lines in the optical spectra of galaxies and quasars have been widely used to investigate the possible variation of the fine-structure constantαover cosmic time.In this work,we utilize the Large Sky Area Multi-object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope(LAMOST)quasar survey,for the first time,to measure the relativeαvariationΔα/αin time through the[O iii]doublet method.From the LAMOST Data Release 9 quasar catalog,we refine a sample of 209 quasar spectra with strong and narrow[O iii]emission lines over a redshift range of 0<z<0.8.Analysis on all of the 209 spectra obtainsΔα/α=(0.5±3.7)×10^(−4),which suggests that there is no evidence of varyingαon the explored cosmological timescales.Assuming a linear variation,the mean rate of change inΔα/αis limited to be(−3.4±2.4)×10^(−13)yr^(−1)in the last 7.0 Gyr.While our LAMOST-based constraint on Δα/α is not competitive with those of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey(SDSS)quasar observations,our analysis serves to corroborate the results of SDSS with another independent survey.展开更多
Since the discovery of quasars in the 1960s,people have been curious and confused about quasars’characteristics such as high brightness,long distance,large redshift,high energy and wide spectral lines.Until the mid-1...Since the discovery of quasars in the 1960s,people have been curious and confused about quasars’characteristics such as high brightness,long distance,large redshift,high energy and wide spectral lines.Until the mid-1990s,with the improvement of observational techniques,the mystery of quasars was gradually revealed,and one of the important achievements was the observation of the host galaxy of quasars,which is the active galactic nucleu.Although the discovery of active galactic nuclei has made a leap in the study of quasars,it also raises a series of questions for further study of quasars:First,the energy radiated by a quasar can reach more than a thousand times the total energy of the galaxy,is its energy source still nuclear fusion?Secondly,to maintain the continuous activity of active galactic nuclei requires a large amount of fuel,how is this fuel efficiently transported to the core region?Thirdly,observations show that the brightness of quasars can change dramatically in a few days or even less,what is the physical mechanism that causes this change?Fortunately,the author has recently studied and proposed a new theory of galaxy formation and evolution,which can be used to reveal the formation process and essential characteristics of quasars,solving easily the above problems.展开更多
Based on the Seventh Data Release(DR7) quasar catalog from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey,we investigate the variability of optical quasars in W1,W2,W3 and W4 bands of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer(WISE) and t...Based on the Seventh Data Release(DR7) quasar catalog from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey,we investigate the variability of optical quasars in W1,W2,W3 and W4 bands of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer(WISE) and the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer(NEOWISE).Adopting the structure function(SF) method,we calculate the SF(δt = 1 yr) which shows no obvious correlations with the bolometric luminosity,the black hole mass and the Eddington ratio.The ensemble SFs in W1 and W2 bands show that the SF slopes are steeper than those in previous studies which may be caused by different cadence and observational epoch number.We further investigate the relation of variability amplitude σmbetween mid-infrared band and optical band,but no obvious correlation is found.No correlation is found between W1–W2 and g-r color.We think that the mid-infrared emission of quasars may be smoothed out by the extended dust distribution,thus leading to no obvious correlation.For the radio-loud quasar sub-sample,we further analyze the relation between the variability amplitude in the mid-infrared band and the radio luminosity at 6 cm,but no obvious correlations are found,which indicate the mid-infrared emission contributed from the synchrotron radiation of the relativistic jet is very weak.展开更多
We report on the discovery of unusual broad absorption lines(BALs)in the bright quasar SDSS J075133.35+134548.3 at z~1,using archival and newly obtained optical and NIR spectroscopic data.The BALs are detected reliabl...We report on the discovery of unusual broad absorption lines(BALs)in the bright quasar SDSS J075133.35+134548.3 at z~1,using archival and newly obtained optical and NIR spectroscopic data.The BALs are detected reliably in HeⅠ*λ3889,HeⅠ*λ10830 and tentatively in AlⅢ,MgⅡ.These BALs show complex velocity structures consisting of two major components:a high-velocity component(HV),with a blueshifted velocity range ofΔv_(HV)~9300--3500 km s^(-1),which can be reliably detected in HeⅠ*λ10830,and tentatively in AlⅢand MgⅡ,whereas it is undetectable in HeⅠ*λ3889;and a low-velocity component(LV),withΔv_(LV)~3500--1800 km s^(-1),is only detected in HeⅠ*λ3889 and HeⅠ*λ10830.With the BALs from different ions,the HV outflowing gas can be constrained to have a density of nH~10^(10.3)-10^(11.4) cm^(-3),a column density of NH~10^(21) cm^(-2)and an ionization parameter of U~10^(-1.83)-10^(-1.72);inferring a distance of RHV~0.5 pc from the central continuum source with a monochromatic luminosityλLλ(5100)=7.0×10^(45)erg s^(-1)at 5100 A.This distance is remarkably similar to that of the normal broad line region(BLR)estimated from reverberation experiments,suggesting association of the BLR and the HV BAL outflowing gas.Interestingly,a blueshifted component is also detected in AlⅢand MgⅡbroad emission lines(BELs),and the AlⅢ/MgⅡof such a BEL component can be reproduced by the physical parameters inferred from the HV BAL gas.The LV BAL gas likely has a larger column density,a higher ionization level and hence a smaller distance than the HV BAL gas.Further spectroscopy with a high S/N ratio and broader wavelength coverage is needed to confirm this to shed new light on the possible connection between BALs and BELs.展开更多
The redshift range from 2.2 to 3 is known as the ＇redshift desert＇ of quasars because quasars with redshifts in this range have similar optical colors as normal stars and are thus difficult to find in optical sky su...The redshift range from 2.2 to 3 is known as the ＇redshift desert＇ of quasars because quasars with redshifts in this range have similar optical colors as normal stars and are thus difficult to find in optical sky surveys. A quasar candidate, SDSS J085543.40-001517.7, which was selected by a recently proposed criterion involving near-IR Y - K and optical g - z colors, was identified spectroscopically as a new quasar with a redshift of 2.427 by the Guoshoujing Telescope （LAMOST） commissioning observation in 2009 December and confirmed by the observation made with the NAOC/Xinglong 2.16 m telescope in 2010 March. This quasar was not identified in the SDSS spectroscopic survey. Comparing with other SDSS quasars, we found that this new quasar, with an i magnitude of 16.44, is apparently the brightest one in the redshift range from 2.3 to 2.7. From its spectral properties, we derived its central black hole mass to be （1.4 - 3.9） × 10^110 M⊙ and its bolometric luminosity to be 3.7 × 10^48 erg s^-1, which indicates that this new quasar is intrinsically very bright and belongs to the class of the most luminous quasars in the universe. Our identification supports the notion that quasars in the redshift desert can be found by the quasar selection criterion involving the near-IR colors. More missing quasars are expected to be uncovered by future LAMOST spectroscopic surveys, which is important to the study of the cosmological evolution of quasars at redshifts higher than 2.2.展开更多
We report the discovery of eight new quasars in one extragalactic field （a five-degree field centered at RA=08^h58^m08.2^s, Dec=01°32′29.7″） with the Guoshoujing Telescope （LAMOST） commissioning observation...We report the discovery of eight new quasars in one extragalactic field （a five-degree field centered at RA=08^h58^m08.2^s, Dec=01°32′29.7″） with the Guoshoujing Telescope （LAMOST） commissioning observations made on 2009 December 18. These quasars, with i magnitudes from 16.44 to 19.34 and redshifts from 0.898 to 2.773, were not identified in the SDSS spectroscopic survey, though six of them with redshifts less than 2.5 were selected as quasar targets in SDSS. Except for one source without near-IR Y-band data, seven of these eight new quasars satisfy a newly proposed quasar selection criterion involving both near-IR and optical colors. Two of them were found in the ＇redshift desert＇ for quasars （z from 2.2 to 3）, indicating that the new criterion is efficient for uncovering missing quasars with similar optical colors to stars. Although LAMOST encountered some problems during the commissioning observations, we were still able to identify 38 other known SDSS quasars in this field, with i magnitudes from 16.24 to 19.10 and redshifts from 0.297 to 4.512. Our identifications imply that a substantial fraction of quasars may be miss- ing in previous quasar surveys. The implication of our results to the future LAMOST quasar survey is discussed.展开更多
We present preliminary analyses of spectra of quasar candidates in two Guoshoujing Telescope （GSJT, formerly named the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope - LAMOST） test fields near M 31 where ...We present preliminary analyses of spectra of quasar candidates in two Guoshoujing Telescope （GSJT, formerly named the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope - LAMOST） test fields near M 31 where one is close to the optical center of the disk and the other is towards the northeastern outskirts of the halo, obtained during the early stage of the GSJT commissioning in the last season of 2009. Both fields contain background low-redshift quasar candidates selected from the SDSS photometry. In total, 14 new quasars with redshifts up to 2 and i magnitudes between 16.7 and 19.2, are discovered, including 7 within the 2.5° central region of M 31. We briefly discuss the potential applications of these newly discovered bright quasars.展开更多
We report the discovery of Balmer broad absorption lines （BALs） in the quasar LBQS 1206＋1052 and present a detailed analysis of the peculiar absorption line spectrum. Besides the Mg II λλ2796, 2803 doublet, BALs ...We report the discovery of Balmer broad absorption lines （BALs） in the quasar LBQS 1206＋1052 and present a detailed analysis of the peculiar absorption line spectrum. Besides the Mg II λλ2796, 2803 doublet, BALs are also detected in the He I＊ multiplet at λλ2946, 3189, 3889 A arising from the metastable helium 2 3 S level, and in Hα and Hβ from the excited hydrogen H I＊ n = 2 level, which are rarely seen in quasar spectra. We identify two components in the BAL troughs of v ～ 2000 km s 1 width： One component shows an identical profile in H I＊, He I＊ and Mg II with its centroid blueshifted by v c ≈ 726 km s-1 . The other component is detected in He I＊ and Mg II with v c ≈ 1412 km s-1 . We estimate the column densities of H I＊, He I＊, and Mg II, and compare them with possible level population mechanisms. Our results favor the scenario that the Balmer BALs originate in a partially ionized region with a column density of N H ～ 10 21 10 22 cm-2 for an electron density of n e ～ 10 6 10 8 cm-3 via Lyα resonant scattering pumping. The harsh conditions needed may help to explain the rarity of Balmer absorption line systems in quasar spectra. With an i-band PSF magnitude of 16.50, LBQS 1206＋1052 is the brightest Balmer-BAL quasar ever reported. Its high brightness and unique spectral properties make LBQS 1206＋1052 a promising candidate for followup high-resolution spectroscopy, multi-band observations, and long-term monitoring.展开更多
With a recently constructed composite quasar spectrum and the χ<SUP>2</SUP> minimization technique, we describe a general method for estimating the photometric redshifts of a large sample of quasars by de...With a recently constructed composite quasar spectrum and the χ<SUP>2</SUP> minimization technique, we describe a general method for estimating the photometric redshifts of a large sample of quasars by deriving theoretical color-redshift relations and comparing the theoretical colors with the observed ones. We estimated the photometric redshifts from the 5-band SDSS photometric data of 18678 quasars in the first major data release of SDSS and compared them with their spectroscopic redshifts. The difference is less than 0.1 for 47 % of the quasars and less than 0.2 for 68 %. Based on the calculation of the theoretical color-color diagrams of stars, galaxies and quasars both on the SDSS system and on the BATC system, we expect that we would be able to select candidates of high redshift quasars more efficaciously with the latter than with the former, provided the BATC survey can detect objects with magnitudes fainter than 21.展开更多
Making use of quasar spectra from LAMOST,in the spectral data around the Mg_(Ⅱ)emission lines,research described in this paper has detected 217 Mg_(Ⅱ)narrow absorption lines(NALs)with W_(r)^(λ2796)≥3σ_(w)and W_(r...Making use of quasar spectra from LAMOST,in the spectral data around the Mg_(Ⅱ)emission lines,research described in this paper has detected 217 Mg_(Ⅱ)narrow absorption lines(NALs)with W_(r)^(λ2796)≥3σ_(w)and W_(r)^(λ2803)≥2σ_(w)in a redshift range of 0.4554≤z_(abs)≤2.1110.For quasars observed by both LAMOST and SDSS,we find that 135 Mg_(Ⅱ)NALs were obviously observed in the LAMOST spectra,347 Mg_(Ⅱ)NALs were were apparent in the SDSS spectra,and 132 Mg_(Ⅱ)NALs were clearly present in both the SDSS and LAMOST spectra.The missed Mg_(Ⅱ)NALs are likely ascribed to low signal-to-noise ratios of corresponding spectra.Among the Mg 11 NALs obviously observed in SDSS or LAMOST spectra,eight Mg 11 NALs were significantly changed with|ΔW_(r)^(λ2796)|≥3σw in time intervals ofΔMJD/(1+z_(em))=359-2819 d.展开更多
Studying the relationships among quasar spectral features is essential to unveil the origins of the emission lines and the quasars’ physical processes. Principal component analysis(PCA) is a powerful tool to investig...Studying the relationships among quasar spectral features is essential to unveil the origins of the emission lines and the quasars’ physical processes. Principal component analysis(PCA) is a powerful tool to investigate correlations between variables. Here, we present the results of PCA on the spectra of low-redshift SDSS quasars. The rest-frame wavelength range studied is 4000 – 5500 ?, involving some typical features of quasar spectra, such as Hβ, [O Ⅲ] and Fe Ⅱ emission lines. The first principal component is the anti-correlation between [O Ⅲ] and Fe Ⅱ, the well-known eigenvector one(EV1). The next six principal components also show clear(anti-)correlations between line strengths and/or velocity widths of various features, which agree well with measured spectral properties. By comparing the weights of these principal components with other quasar properties, we can identify their underlying drivers. We find that the second principal component represents spectral slope, and can quantify quasar host fraction, intrinsic slope and reddening well. The third component exhibits the velocity width variation of Hβ, and may be a proxy for orientation. In addition, we calculate the fractional-contribution spectra to investigate which components dominate the variance at individual wavelength ranges. Our results also indicate that the optical Fe Ⅱ emission may have distinct origins.展开更多
With the 1.26 m National Astronomical Observatory-Guangzhou University Infrared/Optical Telescope(NAGIOT) at Xinglong Station of National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, we obtained 419 groups...With the 1.26 m National Astronomical Observatory-Guangzhou University Infrared/Optical Telescope(NAGIOT) at Xinglong Station of National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, we obtained 419 groups of simultaneous observations at g, r and i bands, for the first time,targeting quasar 3 C 454.3 during 15 nights from 2016 October 23 to 2016 December 15. Based on our observations, we investigate the optical variabilities, the relation between brightness and color index, and the periodicity variability. The presented analyses demonstrate that: 1. The maximum variations at the g, r and i bands are △mg|max= 1.015 ± 0.042 mag,△mr|max= 1.188 ± 0.050 mag and △mi|max= 1.305 ± 0.057 mag respectively. 2. During our 15 night monitoring program, intra-day variability was detected on one night(Nov. 2). Also, the brightness increased by A = 15.86% over 50.8 min,then decreased by A = 22.42% over 40.1 min. After a small bright state, its brightness increased again by18.1% over 55 min at the g band. Similar phenomena happened at r and i bands. The intra-day variabilities at the three bands on 2016 November 2 indicate a period of 105 min, which implies a black hole mass of MBH =(0.3 ~ 1.85)× 10^9 M⊙. 3. There is an anti-correlation between color index and magnitude,suggesting the source becomes redder when it brightens.展开更多
This paper presents the past,present and future status of the Russian VLBI network "Quasar".This network has been developed for at least 20 years by the Institute of Applied Astronomy of the Russian Academy ...This paper presents the past,present and future status of the Russian VLBI network "Quasar".This network has been developed for at least 20 years by the Institute of Applied Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences(IAA RAS). The equipment installed currently at each "Quasar" station and the facilities for processing observational data are described briefly. The latest results are presented, including the Earth orientation parameters(EOP) determined from the "Quasar" VLBI data and comparison with those from other processing centers. Our future plans to extend the "Quasar" VLB I network to the east and to the west will be carried out by establishing the Ussurijsk station in the Far East and the RussianCuban station in the west. They are considered in the context of the Russian section activity in the GGOS project. The expected improvement of the EOP determination accuracy can be obtained within the future configuration of the "Quasar" network,which is proved by simulation.展开更多
We combine K-nearest neighbors(KNN)with a genetic algorithm(GA)for photometric redshift estimation of quasars,short for GeneticKNN,which is a weighted KNN approach supported by a GA.This approach has two improvements ...We combine K-nearest neighbors(KNN)with a genetic algorithm(GA)for photometric redshift estimation of quasars,short for GeneticKNN,which is a weighted KNN approach supported by a GA.This approach has two improvements compared to KNN:one is the feature weighted by GA;the other is that the predicted redshift is not the redshift average of K neighbors but the weighted average of median and mean of redshifts for K neighbors,i.e.p×zmedian+(1-p)×zmean.Based on the SDSS and SDSS-WISE quasar samples,we explore the performance of GeneticKNN for photometric redshift estimation,comparing with the other six traditional machine learning methods,i.e.the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator(LASSO),support vector regression(SVR),multi-layer perceptrons(MLP),XGBoost,KNN and random forest.KNN and random forest show their superiority.Considering the easy implementation of KNN,we make improvement on KNN as GeneticKNN and apply GeneticKNN on photometric redshift estimation of quasars.Finally the performance of GeneticKNN is better than that of LASSO,SVR,MLP,XGBoost,KNN and random forest for all cases.Moreover the accuracy is better with the additional WISE magnitudes for the same method.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.12133007)the National Key Research and Development Program of China(Grant Nos.2021YFA0718503 and 2023YFA1607901)the Cultivation Project for FAST Scientific Payoff and Research Achievement of CAMS-CAS。
文摘Microquasars are the compact objects generally including accreting black holes which produce relativistic jets.The physical mechanisms of jet launching,collimation,and acceleration are poorly understood.Microquasars show strong variability in multi-wavelength observations.In x-rays,the sources show the fast variation features down to millisecond time scales,with the prominent quasiperiodic oscillations(QPOs)around 0.1 Hz–tens of Hz in light curves,however,physical origin of QPOs is still uncertain.FAST as the largest radio telescope provides the opportunity to study fast variability of both radio flux and polarization in microquasars.In the FAST observations from 2020–2022,we reported the first evidence of radio subsecond quasi-periodic oscillations of GRS 1915+105,providing the direct link between QPOs and the dynamics of relativistic jets.These QPOs with the centroid frequency around 5 Hz are transient,accompanied with strong evolution of the spectral index.Combined with multiwavelength observations,we discuss the possible physical models to produce radio QPOs in BH systems:the helical motion of jet knots or precession of the jet base.In near future,high time resolution radio monitoring of microquasars based on FAST is expected to discover more new phenomena in black hole systems,which will be important for understanding the physics in strong gravity.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(grant Nos.12422307,12373053,and 12321003)the Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences(grant No.ZDBS-LY-7014)+1 种基金Chinese Academy of Sciences,and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province(grant No.BK20221562)supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences President's International Fellowship Initiative(grant No.2023VMB0001)。
文摘The[O iii]λλ4960,5008 emission lines in the optical spectra of galaxies and quasars have been widely used to investigate the possible variation of the fine-structure constantαover cosmic time.In this work,we utilize the Large Sky Area Multi-object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope(LAMOST)quasar survey,for the first time,to measure the relativeαvariationΔα/αin time through the[O iii]doublet method.From the LAMOST Data Release 9 quasar catalog,we refine a sample of 209 quasar spectra with strong and narrow[O iii]emission lines over a redshift range of 0<z<0.8.Analysis on all of the 209 spectra obtainsΔα/α=(0.5±3.7)×10^(−4),which suggests that there is no evidence of varyingαon the explored cosmological timescales.Assuming a linear variation,the mean rate of change inΔα/αis limited to be(−3.4±2.4)×10^(−13)yr^(−1)in the last 7.0 Gyr.While our LAMOST-based constraint on Δα/α is not competitive with those of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey(SDSS)quasar observations,our analysis serves to corroborate the results of SDSS with another independent survey.
文摘Since the discovery of quasars in the 1960s,people have been curious and confused about quasars’characteristics such as high brightness,long distance,large redshift,high energy and wide spectral lines.Until the mid-1990s,with the improvement of observational techniques,the mystery of quasars was gradually revealed,and one of the important achievements was the observation of the host galaxy of quasars,which is the active galactic nucleu.Although the discovery of active galactic nuclei has made a leap in the study of quasars,it also raises a series of questions for further study of quasars:First,the energy radiated by a quasar can reach more than a thousand times the total energy of the galaxy,is its energy source still nuclear fusion?Secondly,to maintain the continuous activity of active galactic nuclei requires a large amount of fuel,how is this fuel efficiently transported to the core region?Thirdly,observations show that the brightness of quasars can change dramatically in a few days or even less,what is the physical mechanism that causes this change?Fortunately,the author has recently studied and proposed a new theory of galaxy formation and evolution,which can be used to reveal the formation process and essential characteristics of quasars,solving easily the above problems.
基金funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administrationsupported by the National Key R&D Program of China(2017YFA0402704and 2018YFA0404502)+2 种基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(11733002 and 11773013)the Excellent Youth Foundation of the Jiangsu Scientific Committee(BK 20150014)support from the Science and Technology Supporting Program in Langfang city(No.2018011005)
文摘Based on the Seventh Data Release(DR7) quasar catalog from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey,we investigate the variability of optical quasars in W1,W2,W3 and W4 bands of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer(WISE) and the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer(NEOWISE).Adopting the structure function(SF) method,we calculate the SF(δt = 1 yr) which shows no obvious correlations with the bolometric luminosity,the black hole mass and the Eddington ratio.The ensemble SFs in W1 and W2 bands show that the SF slopes are steeper than those in previous studies which may be caused by different cadence and observational epoch number.We further investigate the relation of variability amplitude σmbetween mid-infrared band and optical band,but no obvious correlation is found.No correlation is found between W1–W2 and g-r color.We think that the mid-infrared emission of quasars may be smoothed out by the extended dust distribution,thus leading to no obvious correlation.For the radio-loud quasar sub-sample,we further analyze the relation between the variability amplitude in the mid-infrared band and the radio luminosity at 6 cm,but no obvious correlations are found,which indicate the mid-infrared emission contributed from the synchrotron radiation of the relativistic jet is very weak.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC,11573024,11473025,11421303,11573001and 11822301)the National Basic Research Program of China(the 973 Program 2013CB834905and 2015CB857005)+11 种基金supported by the NSFC(11503022)the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai(No.15ZR 1444200)supported by the NSFC(11233002)support from the Anhui Provincial NSF(1608085QA06)Young Wanjiang Scholar programfunded by the Strategic Priority Research Programthe Emergence of Cosmological Structures(XDB09000000),National Astronomical Observatories,Chinese Academy of Sciencesthe Special Fund for Astronomy from the Ministry of FinanceFunding for SDSS-Ⅲhas been provided by the Alfred P.Sloan Foundationthe Participating Institutionsthe National Science Foundationthe U.S.Department of Energy Office of Science。
文摘We report on the discovery of unusual broad absorption lines(BALs)in the bright quasar SDSS J075133.35+134548.3 at z~1,using archival and newly obtained optical and NIR spectroscopic data.The BALs are detected reliably in HeⅠ*λ3889,HeⅠ*λ10830 and tentatively in AlⅢ,MgⅡ.These BALs show complex velocity structures consisting of two major components:a high-velocity component(HV),with a blueshifted velocity range ofΔv_(HV)~9300--3500 km s^(-1),which can be reliably detected in HeⅠ*λ10830,and tentatively in AlⅢand MgⅡ,whereas it is undetectable in HeⅠ*λ3889;and a low-velocity component(LV),withΔv_(LV)~3500--1800 km s^(-1),is only detected in HeⅠ*λ3889 and HeⅠ*λ10830.With the BALs from different ions,the HV outflowing gas can be constrained to have a density of nH~10^(10.3)-10^(11.4) cm^(-3),a column density of NH~10^(21) cm^(-2)and an ionization parameter of U~10^(-1.83)-10^(-1.72);inferring a distance of RHV~0.5 pc from the central continuum source with a monochromatic luminosityλLλ(5100)=7.0×10^(45)erg s^(-1)at 5100 A.This distance is remarkably similar to that of the normal broad line region(BLR)estimated from reverberation experiments,suggesting association of the BLR and the HV BAL outflowing gas.Interestingly,a blueshifted component is also detected in AlⅢand MgⅡbroad emission lines(BELs),and the AlⅢ/MgⅡof such a BEL component can be reproduced by the physical parameters inferred from the HV BAL gas.The LV BAL gas likely has a larger column density,a higher ionization level and hence a smaller distance than the HV BAL gas.Further spectroscopy with a high S/N ratio and broader wavelength coverage is needed to confirm this to shed new light on the possible connection between BALs and BELs.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.10525313)the National Key Basic Research Science Foundation of China(2007CB815405)+1 种基金the Open Project Program of the Key Laboratory of Optical Astronomy,NAOC,CASThe Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST,now called the Guoshoujing Telescope) is a National Major Scientific Project built by the Chinese Academy of Sciences
文摘The redshift range from 2.2 to 3 is known as the ＇redshift desert＇ of quasars because quasars with redshifts in this range have similar optical colors as normal stars and are thus difficult to find in optical sky surveys. A quasar candidate, SDSS J085543.40-001517.7, which was selected by a recently proposed criterion involving near-IR Y - K and optical g - z colors, was identified spectroscopically as a new quasar with a redshift of 2.427 by the Guoshoujing Telescope （LAMOST） commissioning observation in 2009 December and confirmed by the observation made with the NAOC/Xinglong 2.16 m telescope in 2010 March. This quasar was not identified in the SDSS spectroscopic survey. Comparing with other SDSS quasars, we found that this new quasar, with an i magnitude of 16.44, is apparently the brightest one in the redshift range from 2.3 to 2.7. From its spectral properties, we derived its central black hole mass to be （1.4 - 3.9） × 10^110 M⊙ and its bolometric luminosity to be 3.7 × 10^48 erg s^-1, which indicates that this new quasar is intrinsically very bright and belongs to the class of the most luminous quasars in the universe. Our identification supports the notion that quasars in the redshift desert can be found by the quasar selection criterion involving the near-IR colors. More missing quasars are expected to be uncovered by future LAMOST spectroscopic surveys, which is important to the study of the cosmological evolution of quasars at redshifts higher than 2.2.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.10525313)the National Key Basic Research Science Foundation of China (2007CB815405)The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST,now called the Guoshoujing Telescope) is a National Major Scientific Project built by the Chinese Academy of Sciences
文摘We report the discovery of eight new quasars in one extragalactic field （a five-degree field centered at RA=08^h58^m08.2^s, Dec=01°32′29.7″） with the Guoshoujing Telescope （LAMOST） commissioning observations made on 2009 December 18. These quasars, with i magnitudes from 16.44 to 19.34 and redshifts from 0.898 to 2.773, were not identified in the SDSS spectroscopic survey, though six of them with redshifts less than 2.5 were selected as quasar targets in SDSS. Except for one source without near-IR Y-band data, seven of these eight new quasars satisfy a newly proposed quasar selection criterion involving both near-IR and optical colors. Two of them were found in the ＇redshift desert＇ for quasars （z from 2.2 to 3）, indicating that the new criterion is efficient for uncovering missing quasars with similar optical colors to stars. Although LAMOST encountered some problems during the commissioning observations, we were still able to identify 38 other known SDSS quasars in this field, with i magnitudes from 16.24 to 19.10 and redshifts from 0.297 to 4.512. Our identifications imply that a substantial fraction of quasars may be miss- ing in previous quasar surveys. The implication of our results to the future LAMOST quasar survey is discussed.
基金The Guoshoujing Telescope(GSJT)is a National Major Scientific Project built by the Chinese Academy of SciencesFunding for the project has been provided by the National Development and Reform Commission
文摘We present preliminary analyses of spectra of quasar candidates in two Guoshoujing Telescope （GSJT, formerly named the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope - LAMOST） test fields near M 31 where one is close to the optical center of the disk and the other is towards the northeastern outskirts of the halo, obtained during the early stage of the GSJT commissioning in the last season of 2009. Both fields contain background low-redshift quasar candidates selected from the SDSS photometry. In total, 14 new quasars with redshifts up to 2 and i magnitudes between 16.7 and 19.2, are discovered, including 7 within the 2.5° central region of M 31. We briefly discuss the potential applications of these newly discovered bright quasars.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grants Nos.10973013 and 11033007)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities through grant WK 2030220006+8 种基金the SOA project CHINARE2012-02-03Funding for the SDSS and SDSS-Ⅱ has been provided by the Alfred P.Sloan Foundationthe Participating Institutionsthe National Science Foundationthe U.S. Department of Energythe National Aeronautics and Space Administrationthe Japanese Monbukagakushothe Max Planck Societythe Higher Education Funding Council for England
文摘We report the discovery of Balmer broad absorption lines （BALs） in the quasar LBQS 1206＋1052 and present a detailed analysis of the peculiar absorption line spectrum. Besides the Mg II λλ2796, 2803 doublet, BALs are also detected in the He I＊ multiplet at λλ2946, 3189, 3889 A arising from the metastable helium 2 3 S level, and in Hα and Hβ from the excited hydrogen H I＊ n = 2 level, which are rarely seen in quasar spectra. We identify two components in the BAL troughs of v ～ 2000 km s 1 width： One component shows an identical profile in H I＊, He I＊ and Mg II with its centroid blueshifted by v c ≈ 726 km s-1 . The other component is detected in He I＊ and Mg II with v c ≈ 1412 km s-1 . We estimate the column densities of H I＊, He I＊, and Mg II, and compare them with possible level population mechanisms. Our results favor the scenario that the Balmer BALs originate in a partially ionized region with a column density of N H ～ 10 21 10 22 cm-2 for an electron density of n e ～ 10 6 10 8 cm-3 via Lyα resonant scattering pumping. The harsh conditions needed may help to explain the rarity of Balmer absorption line systems in quasar spectra. With an i-band PSF magnitude of 16.50, LBQS 1206＋1052 is the brightest Balmer-BAL quasar ever reported. Its high brightness and unique spectral properties make LBQS 1206＋1052 a promising candidate for followup high-resolution spectroscopy, multi-band observations, and long-term monitoring.
基金Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
文摘With a recently constructed composite quasar spectrum and the χ<SUP>2</SUP> minimization technique, we describe a general method for estimating the photometric redshifts of a large sample of quasars by deriving theoretical color-redshift relations and comparing the theoretical colors with the observed ones. We estimated the photometric redshifts from the 5-band SDSS photometric data of 18678 quasars in the first major data release of SDSS and compared them with their spectroscopic redshifts. The difference is less than 0.1 for 47 % of the quasars and less than 0.2 for 68 %. Based on the calculation of the theoretical color-color diagrams of stars, galaxies and quasars both on the SDSS system and on the BATC system, we expect that we would be able to select candidates of high redshift quasars more efficaciously with the latter than with the former, provided the BATC survey can detect objects with magnitudes fainter than 21.
基金supported by the Guangxi Natural Science Foundation(2018GXNSFAA050001,2019GXNSFFA245008,GKAD19245136)the Scientific Research Project of Guangxi University for Nationalities(2018KJQD01)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.11763001,11363001,12073007)。
文摘Making use of quasar spectra from LAMOST,in the spectral data around the Mg_(Ⅱ)emission lines,research described in this paper has detected 217 Mg_(Ⅱ)narrow absorption lines(NALs)with W_(r)^(λ2796)≥3σ_(w)and W_(r)^(λ2803)≥2σ_(w)in a redshift range of 0.4554≤z_(abs)≤2.1110.For quasars observed by both LAMOST and SDSS,we find that 135 Mg_(Ⅱ)NALs were obviously observed in the LAMOST spectra,347 Mg_(Ⅱ)NALs were were apparent in the SDSS spectra,and 132 Mg_(Ⅱ)NALs were clearly present in both the SDSS and LAMOST spectra.The missed Mg_(Ⅱ)NALs are likely ascribed to low signal-to-noise ratios of corresponding spectra.Among the Mg 11 NALs obviously observed in SDSS or LAMOST spectra,eight Mg 11 NALs were significantly changed with|ΔW_(r)^(λ2796)|≥3σw in time intervals ofΔMJD/(1+z_(em))=359-2819 d.
文摘Studying the relationships among quasar spectral features is essential to unveil the origins of the emission lines and the quasars’ physical processes. Principal component analysis(PCA) is a powerful tool to investigate correlations between variables. Here, we present the results of PCA on the spectra of low-redshift SDSS quasars. The rest-frame wavelength range studied is 4000 – 5500 ?, involving some typical features of quasar spectra, such as Hβ, [O Ⅲ] and Fe Ⅱ emission lines. The first principal component is the anti-correlation between [O Ⅲ] and Fe Ⅱ, the well-known eigenvector one(EV1). The next six principal components also show clear(anti-)correlations between line strengths and/or velocity widths of various features, which agree well with measured spectral properties. By comparing the weights of these principal components with other quasar properties, we can identify their underlying drivers. We find that the second principal component represents spectral slope, and can quantify quasar host fraction, intrinsic slope and reddening well. The third component exhibits the velocity width variation of Hβ, and may be a proxy for orientation. In addition, we calculate the fractional-contribution spectra to investigate which components dominate the variance at individual wavelength ranges. Our results also indicate that the optical Fe Ⅱ emission may have distinct origins.
基金partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. U1531245, 11733001, U1831119, 11873073, 11173009, U1431112, 11733006 and 11873073)the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (2017A030313011)+1 种基金supports for Astrophysics Key Subjects of Guangdong Province and Guangzhou CityScience and Technology Program of Guangzhou (201707010401)
文摘With the 1.26 m National Astronomical Observatory-Guangzhou University Infrared/Optical Telescope(NAGIOT) at Xinglong Station of National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, we obtained 419 groups of simultaneous observations at g, r and i bands, for the first time,targeting quasar 3 C 454.3 during 15 nights from 2016 October 23 to 2016 December 15. Based on our observations, we investigate the optical variabilities, the relation between brightness and color index, and the periodicity variability. The presented analyses demonstrate that: 1. The maximum variations at the g, r and i bands are △mg|max= 1.015 ± 0.042 mag,△mr|max= 1.188 ± 0.050 mag and △mi|max= 1.305 ± 0.057 mag respectively. 2. During our 15 night monitoring program, intra-day variability was detected on one night(Nov. 2). Also, the brightness increased by A = 15.86% over 50.8 min,then decreased by A = 22.42% over 40.1 min. After a small bright state, its brightness increased again by18.1% over 55 min at the g band. Similar phenomena happened at r and i bands. The intra-day variabilities at the three bands on 2016 November 2 indicate a period of 105 min, which implies a black hole mass of MBH =(0.3 ~ 1.85)× 10^9 M⊙. 3. There is an anti-correlation between color index and magnitude,suggesting the source becomes redder when it brightens.
文摘This paper presents the past,present and future status of the Russian VLBI network "Quasar".This network has been developed for at least 20 years by the Institute of Applied Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences(IAA RAS). The equipment installed currently at each "Quasar" station and the facilities for processing observational data are described briefly. The latest results are presented, including the Earth orientation parameters(EOP) determined from the "Quasar" VLBI data and comparison with those from other processing centers. Our future plans to extend the "Quasar" VLB I network to the east and to the west will be carried out by establishing the Ussurijsk station in the Far East and the RussianCuban station in the west. They are considered in the context of the Russian section activity in the GGOS project. The expected improvement of the EOP determination accuracy can be obtained within the future configuration of the "Quasar" network,which is proved by simulation.
基金the National Key R&D Program of China(Grant No.2018YFB 1702703)funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.11873066,U1531122 and U1731109)+3 种基金Funding for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey(SDSS)Ⅳhas been provided by the Alfred P.Sloan Foundationthe U.S.Department of Energy Office of Science,and the Participating Institutionssupport and resources from the Center for High-Performance Computing at the University of UtahThe Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer(WISE)is a joint project of the University of California,Los Angeles,and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology,funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration。
文摘We combine K-nearest neighbors(KNN)with a genetic algorithm(GA)for photometric redshift estimation of quasars,short for GeneticKNN,which is a weighted KNN approach supported by a GA.This approach has two improvements compared to KNN:one is the feature weighted by GA;the other is that the predicted redshift is not the redshift average of K neighbors but the weighted average of median and mean of redshifts for K neighbors,i.e.p×zmedian+(1-p)×zmean.Based on the SDSS and SDSS-WISE quasar samples,we explore the performance of GeneticKNN for photometric redshift estimation,comparing with the other six traditional machine learning methods,i.e.the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator(LASSO),support vector regression(SVR),multi-layer perceptrons(MLP),XGBoost,KNN and random forest.KNN and random forest show their superiority.Considering the easy implementation of KNN,we make improvement on KNN as GeneticKNN and apply GeneticKNN on photometric redshift estimation of quasars.Finally the performance of GeneticKNN is better than that of LASSO,SVR,MLP,XGBoost,KNN and random forest for all cases.Moreover the accuracy is better with the additional WISE magnitudes for the same method.
