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arXiv · 1109.6241

The First High Redshift Quasar from Pan-STARRS

Eric Morganson·Gisella De Rosa·Roberto Decarli·Fabian Walter·Ken Chambers·Ian McGreer·Xiaohui Fan·William Burgett·Heather Flewelling·Klaus Hodapp·Nick Kaiser·Eugene Magnier·Paul Price·Hans-Walter Rix·Bill Sweeney·Christopher Waters
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Abstract

We present the discovery of the first high redshift (z > 5.7) quasar from the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System 1 (Pan-STARRS1 or PS1). This quasar was initially detected as an i dropoutout in PS1, confirmed photometrically with the SAO Widefield InfraRed Camera (SWIRC) at Arizona's Multiple Mirror Telescope (MMT) and the Gamma-Ray Burst Optical/Near-Infrared Detector (GROND) at the MPG 2.2 m telescope in La Silla. The quasar was verified spectroscopically with the the MMT Spectrograph, Red Channel and the Cassegrain Twin Spectrograph (TWIN) at the Calar Alto 3.5 m telescope. It has a redshift of 5.73, an AB z magnitude of 19.4, a luminosity of 3.8 x 10^47 erg/s and a black hole mass of 6.9 x 10^9 solar masses. It is a Broad Absorption Line quasar with a prominent Ly-beta peak and a very blue continuum spectrum. This quasar is the first result from the PS1 high redshift quasar search that is projected to discover more than a hundred i dropout quasars, and could potentially find more than 10 z dropout (z > 6.8) quasars.

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Eric Morganson, Gisella De Rosa, Roberto Decarli, Fabian Walter, Ken Chambers, Ian McGreer, Xiaohui Fan, William Burgett, Heather Flewelling, Klaus Hodapp, Nick Kaiser, Eugene Magnier, Paul Price, Hans-Walter Rix, Bill Sweeney, Christopher Waters. 2011-09-28. The First High Redshift Quasar from Pan-STARRS. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-6256/143/6/142

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