arXiv subjects

Masafusa Onoue

Publications and source records attributed to Masafusa Onoue.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Dual supermassive black holes at close separation revealed by the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program

The unique combination of superb spatial resolution, wide-area coverage, and deep depth of the optical imaging from the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Subaru Strategic Program is utilized to search for dual quasar candidates. Using an automated image analysis routine on 34,476 known SDSS quasars, we identify those with two (or more) distinct optical point sources in HSC images covering 796 deg^2. We find 421 candidates out to a redshift of 4.5 of which one hundred or so are more likely after filtering out contaminating stars. Angular separations of 0.6 - 4.0" correspond to projected separations of 3 - 30 kpc, a range relatively unexplored for population studies of luminous dual quasars. Using Keck-I/LRIS and Gemini-N/NIFS, we spectroscopically confirm three dual quasar systems at z < 1, two of which are previously unknown out of eight observed, based on the presence of characteristic broad emission lines in each component, while highlighting that the continuum of one object in one of the pairs is reddened. In all cases, the [OIII]5007 emission lines have mild velocity offsets, thus the joint [OIII] line profile is not double-peaked. We find a dual quasar fraction of 0.26+/-0.18% and no evidence for evolution. A comparison with the Horizon-AGN simulation seems to support the case of no evolution in the dual quasar fraction when broadly matching the quasar selection. These results may indicate a scenario in which the frequency of the simultaneous triggering of luminous quasars is not as sensitive as expected to the cosmic evolution of the merger rate or gas content of galaxies.

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arXiv2020

The UV Luminosity Function of Protocluster Galaxies at $z\sim4$: the Bright-end Excess and the Enhanced Star Formation Rate Density

We report the rest-frame ultraviolet luminosity function of $g$-dropout galaxies in 177 protocluster candidates (PC UVLF) at $z\sim4$ selected in the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program. Comparing with the UVLF of field galaxies at the same redshift, we find that the PC UVLF shows a significant excess towards the bright-end. This excess can not be explained by the contribution of only active galactic nuclei, and we also find that this is more significant in higher dense regions. Assuming that all protocluster members are located on the star formation main sequence, the PC UVLF can be converted into a stellar mass function. Consequently, our protocluster members are inferred to have a 2.8 times more massive characteristic stellar mass than that of the field Lyman break galaxies at the same redshift. This study, for the first time, clearly shows that the enhancement in star formation or stellar mass in overdense regions can generally be seen as early as at $z\sim4$. We also estimate the star formation rate density (SFRD) in protocluster regions as $\simeq 6-20\%$ of the cosmic SFRD, based on the measured PC UVLF after correcting for the selection incompleteness in our protocluster sample. This high value suggests that protoclusters make a non-negligible contribution to the cosmic SFRD at $z\sim4$, as previously suggested by simulations. Our results suggest that protoclusters are essential components for the galaxy evolution at $z\sim4$.

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arXiv2020

No Redshift Evolution in the Broad Line Region Metallicity up to z=7.54: Deep NIR Spectroscopy of ULAS J1342+0928

We present deep (9 hours) Gemini-N/GNIRS near-infrared spectroscopic observations of ULAS J1342+0928, a luminous quasar at z=7.54. Various broad emission lines were detected, as well as the underlying continuum and iron forests over the rest-frame wavelength 970-2930A. There is a clear trend that higher-ionization emission lines show larger blueshifts with CIV1549 exhibiting 5510^{+240}_{-110} km s-1 blueshift with respect to the systematic redshift from the far-infrared [CII] 158um emission line. Those high ionization lines have wide profiles with FWHM more than 10000 km s-1. A modest blueshift of 340^{+110}_{-80} km s-1 is also seen in MgII, the lowest ionization line identified in the spectrum. The updated MgII-based black hole mass of M_BH=9.1_{-1.3}^{+1.4} x 10^8 M_sun and the Eddington ratio of L_bol/L_Edd=1.1_{-0.2}^{+0.2} confirm that ULAS J1342+0928 is powered by a massive and actively accreting black hole. There is no significant difference in the emission line ratios such as SiIV/CIV and AlIII/CIV when compared to lower-redshift quasars in a similar luminosity range, which suggests early metal pollution of the broad-line-region clouds. This trend also holds for the FeII/MgII line ratio, known as a cosmic clock that traces the iron enrichment in the early universe. Different iron templates and continuum fitting ranges were used to explore how the FeII/MgII measurement changes as a function of spectral modeling. Quasars at even higher redshift or at fainter luminosity range (L_bol<10^46 erg s-1) are needed to probe the sites of early metal enrichment and a corresponding change in the FeII/MgII ratio.

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arXiv2020

Wide and Deep Exploration of Radio Galaxies with Subaru HSC (WERGS). III. Discovery of a z = 4.72 Radio Galaxy with Lyman Break Technique

We report a discovery of $z = 4.72$ radio galaxy, HSC J083913.17+011308.1, by using the Lyman break technique with the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Survey (HSC-SSP) catalog for VLA FIRST radio sources. The number of known high-$z$ radio galaxies (HzRGs) at $z > 3$ is quite small to constrain the evolution of HzRGs so far. The deep and wide-area optical survey by HSC-SSP enables us to apply the Lyman break technique to a large search for HzRGs. For an HzRG candidate among pre-selected $r$-band dropouts with a radio detection, a follow-up optical spectroscopy with GMOS/Gemini has been performed. The obtained spectrum presents a clear Ly$α$ emission line redshifted to $z=4.72$. The SED fitting analysis with the rest-frame UV and optical photometries suggests the massive nature of this HzRG with $\log{M_*/M_{\odot}} = 11.4$. The small equivalent width of Ly$α$ and the moderately red UV colors indicate its dusty host galaxy, implying a chemically evolved and dusty system. The radio spectral index does not meet a criterion for an ultra-steep spectrum: $α^{325}_{1400}$ of $-1.1$ and $α^{150}_{1400}$ of $-0.9$, demonstrating that the HSC-SSP survey compensates for a sub-population of HzRGs which are missed in surveys focusing on an ultra-steep spectral index.

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arXiv2019

The REQUIEM Survey I: A Search for Extended Ly-Alpha Nebular Emission Around 31 z>5.7 Quasars

The discovery of quasars few hundred megayears after the Big Bang represents a major challenge to our understanding of black holes and galaxy formation and evolution. Their luminosity is produced by extreme gas accretion onto black holes, which already reached masses of 10$^9$ M$_\odot$ by z ~ 6. Simultaneously, their host galaxies form hundreds of stars per year, using up gas in the process. To understand which environments are able to sustain the rapid formation of these extreme sources we started a VLT/MUSE effort aimed at characterizing the surroundings of a sample of 5.7 < z < 6.6 quasars dubbed: the Reionization Epoch QUasar InvEstigation with MUSE (REQUIEM) survey. We here present results of our searches for extended Ly-Alpha halos around the first 31 targets observed as part of this program. Reaching 5-sigma surface brightness limits of 0.1-1.1 x 10$^{-17}$ erg/s/cm$^2$/arcsec$^2$ over a 1 arcsec$^2$ aperture, we were able to unveil the presence of 12 Ly-Alpha nebulae, 8 of which are newly discovered. The detected nebulae show a variety of emission properties and morphologies with luminosities ranging from 8 x 10$^{42}$ to 2 x 10$^{44}$ erg/s, FWHMs between 300 and 1700 km/s, sizes < 30 pkpc, and redshifts consistent with those of the quasar host galaxies. As the first statistical and homogeneous investigation of the circum-galactic medium of massive galaxies at the end of the reionization epoch, the REQUIEM survey enables the study of the evolution of the cool gas surrounding quasars in the first 3 Gyr of the Universe. A comparison with the extended Ly-Alpha emission observed around bright (M$_{1450}$ < -25 mag) quasars at intermediate redshift indicates little variations on the properties of the cool gas from z ~ 6 to z ~ 3 followed by a decline in the average surface brightness down to z ~ 2.

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arXiv2019

Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs) VIII. A less biased view of the early co-evolution of black holes and host galaxies

We present ALMA [CII] line and far-infrared (FIR) continuum observations of three $z > 6$ low-luminosity quasars ($M_{\rm 1450} > -25$) discovered by our Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) survey. The [CII] line was detected in all three targets with luminosities of $(2.4 - 9.5) \times 10^8~L_\odot$, about one order of magnitude smaller than optically luminous ($M_{\rm 1450} \lesssim -25$) quasars. The FIR continuum luminosities range from $< 9 \times 10^{10}~L_\odot$ (3$σ$ limit) to $\sim 2 \times 10^{12}~L_\odot$, indicating a wide range in star formation rates in these galaxies. Most of the HSC quasars studied thus far show [CII]/FIR luminosity ratios similar to local star-forming galaxies. Using the [CII]-based dynamical mass ($M_{\rm dyn}$) as a surrogate for bulge stellar mass ($M_{\rm bulge}$), we find that a significant fraction of low-luminosity quasars are located on or even below the local $M_{\rm BH} - M_{\rm bulge}$ relation, particularly at the massive end of the galaxy mass distribution. In contrast, previous studies of optically luminous quasars have found that black holes are overmassive relative to the local relation. Given the low luminosities of our targets, we are exploring the nature of the early co-evolution of supermassive black holes and their hosts in a less biased way. Almost all of the quasars presented in this work are growing their black hole mass at much higher pace at $z \sim 6$ than the parallel growth model, in which supermassive black holes and their hosts grow simultaneously to match the local $M_{\rm BH} - M_{\rm bulge}$ relation at all redshifts. As the low-luminosity quasars appear to realize the local co-evolutionary relation even at $z \sim 6$, they should have experienced vigorous starbursts prior to the currently observed quasar phase to catch up with the relation.

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arXiv2019

Second Data Release of the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program

This paper presents the second data release of the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program, a wide-field optical imaging survey on the 8.2 meter Subaru Telescope. The release includes data from 174 nights of observation through January 2018. The Wide layer data cover about 300 deg^2 in all five broadband filters (grizy) to the nominal survey exposure (10min in gr and 20min in izy). Partially observed areas are also included in the release; about 1100 deg^2 is observed in at least one filter and one exposure. The median seeing in the i-band is 0.6 arcsec, demonstrating the superb image quality of the survey. The Deep (26 deg^2) and UltraDeep (4 deg^2) data are jointly processed and the UltraDeep-COSMOS field reaches an unprecedented depth of i~28 at 5 sigma for point sources. In addition to the broad-bands, narrow-band data are also available in the Deep and UltraDeep fields. This release includes a major update to the processing pipeline, including improved sky subtraction, PSF modeling, object detection, and artifact rejection. The overall data quality has been improved, but this release is not without problems; there is a persistent deblender problem as well as new issues with masks around bright stars. The user is encouraged to review the issue list before utilizing the data for scientific explorations. All the image products as well as catalog products are available for download. The catalogs are also loaded to a database, which provides an easy interface for users to retrieve data for objects of interest. In addition to these main data products, detailed galaxy shape measurements withheld from the Public Data Release 1 (PDR1) are now available to the community. The shape catalog is drawn from the S16A internal release, which has a larger area than PDR1 (160 deg^2). All products are available at the data release site, https://hsc-release.mtk.nao.ac.jp/.

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arXiv2019

Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs). X. Discovery of 35 Quasars and Luminous Galaxies at 5.7 $\le$ z $\le$ 7.0

We report the discovery of 28 quasars and 7 luminous galaxies at 5.7 $\le$ z $\le$ 7.0. This is the tenth in a series of papers from the Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs) project, which exploits the deep multi-band imaging data produced by the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Subaru Strategic Program survey. The total number of spectroscopically identified objects in SHELLQs has now grown to 93 high-z quasars, 31 high-z luminous galaxies, 16 [O III] emitters at z ~ 0.8, and 65 Galactic cool dwarfs (low-mass stars and brown dwarfs). These objects were found over 900 deg2, surveyed by HSC between 2014 March and 2018 January. The full quasar sample includes 18 objects with very strong and narrow Ly alpha emission, whose stacked spectrum is clearly different from that of other quasars or galaxies. While the stacked spectrum shows N V 1240 emission and resembles that of lower-z narrow-line quasars, the small Ly alpha width may suggest a significant contribution from the host galaxies. Thus these objects may be composites of quasars and star-forming galaxies.

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arXiv2019

Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs). VI. Black Hole Mass Measurements of Six Quasars at 6.1<z<6.7

We present deep near-infrared spectroscopy of six quasars at 6.1 5.8 quasars with measured black hole masses. From single-epoch mass measurements based on MgII2798, we find a wide range in black hole masses, from M_BH=10^7.6 to 10^9.3 Msun. The Eddington ratios L_bol/L_Edd range from 0.16 to 1.1, but the majority of the HSC quasars are powered by M_BH=10^9 Msun supermassive black holes (SMBHs) accreting at sub-Eddington rates. The Eddington ratio distribution of the HSC quasars is inclined to lower accretion rates than those of Willott et al. (2010a), who measured the black hole masses for similarly faint z=6 quasars. This suggests that the global Eddington ratio distribution is wider than has previously been thought. The presence of M_BH=10^9 Msun SMBHs at z=6 cannot be explained with constant sub-Eddington accretion from stellar remnant seed black holes. Therefore, we may be witnessing the first buildup of the most massive black holes in the first billion years of the universe, the accretion activity of which is transforming from active growth to a quiescent phase. Measurements of a larger complete sample of z>6 low-luminosity quasars, as well as deeper observations with future facilities will enable us to better understand the early SMBH growth in the reionization epoch.

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arXiv2019

A Wide and Deep Exploration of Radio Galaxies with Subaru HSC (WERGS). II. Physical Properties derived from the SED Fitting with Optical, Infrared, and Radio Data

We present physical properties of radio galaxies (RGs) with $f_{\rm 1.4 GHz} >$ 1 mJy discovered by Subaru Hyper Supreme-Cam (HSC) and VLA Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters (FIRST) survey. For 1056 FIRST RGs at $0 < z \leq 1.7$ with HSC counterparts in about 100 deg$^2$, we compiled multi-wavelength data of optical, near-infrared (IR), mid-IR, far-IR, and radio (150 MHz). We derived their color excess ($E (B-V)_{*}$), stellar mass, star formation rate (SFR), IR luminosity, the ratio of IR and radio luminosity ($q_{\rm IR}$), and radio spectral index ($α_{\rm radio}$) that are derived from the SED fitting with CIGALE. We also estimated Eddington ratio based on stellar mass and integration of the best-fit SEDs of AGN component. We found that $E (B-V)_{*}$, SFR, and IR luminosity clearly depend on redshift while stellar mass, $q_{\rm IR}$, and $α_{\rm radio}$ do not significantly depend on redshift. Since optically-faint ($i_{\rm AB} \geq 21.3$) RGs that are newly discovered by our RG survey tend to be high redshift, they tend to not only have a large dust extinction and low stellar mass but also have high SFR and AGN luminosity, high IR luminosity, and high Eddington ratio compared to optically-bright ones. The physical properties of a fraction of RGs in our sample seem to differ from a classical view of RGs with massive stellar mass, low SFR, and low Eddington ratio, demonstrating that our RG survey with HSC and FIRST provides us curious RGs among entire RG population.

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arXiv2019

Optical properties of infrared-bright dust-obscured galaxies viewed with Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam

We report on the optical properties of infrared (IR)-bright dust-obscured galaxies (DOGs) that are defined as (i-[22])_AB > 7.0. Because supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in IR-bright DOGs are expected to be rapidly growing in the major merger scenario, they provide useful clues for understanding the co-evolution of SMBHs and their host galaxies. However, the optical properties of IR-bright DOGs remain unclear because the optical emission of a DOG is very faint. By combining ~ 105 deg^2 images of the optical, near-IR, and mid-IR data obtained from the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) survey, the VISTA VIKING survey, and the WISE all-sky survey, respectively, 571 IR-bright DOGs were selected. We found that IR-bright DOGs show a redder (g-z)_AB color than other populations of dusty galaxies, such as ultra-luminous IR galaxies (ULIRGs) at a similar redshift, with a significantly large dispersion. Among the selected DOGs, star-formation (SF) dominated DOGs show a relatively red color, while active galactic nucleus (AGN) dominated DOGs show a rather blue color in optical. This result is consistent with the idea that the relative AGN contribution in the optical emission becomes more significant at a later stage in the major merger scenario. We discovered eight IR-bright DOGs showing a significant blue excess in blue HSC bands (BluDOGs). This blue excess can be interpreted as a leaked AGN emission that is either a directly leaking or a scattered AGN emission, as proposed for some blue-excess Hot DOGs in earlier studies.

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arXiv2019

The brightest UV-selected galaxies in protoclusters at $z\sim4$: Ancestors of Brightest Cluster Galaxies?

We present the results of a survey of the brightest UV-selected galaxies in protoclusters. These proto-brightest cluster galaxy (proto-BCG) candidates are drawn from 179 overdense regions of $g$-dropout galaxies at $z\sim4$ from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program identified previously as good protocluster candidates. This study is the first to extend the systematic study of the progenitors of BCGs from $z\sim2$ to $z\sim4$. We carefully remove possible contaminants from foreground galaxies and, for each structure, we select the brightest galaxy that is at least 1 mag brighter than the fifth brightest galaxy. We select 63 proto-BCG candidates and compare their properties with those of galaxies in the field and those of other galaxies in overdense structures. The proto-BCG candidates and their surrounding galaxies have different rest-UV color $(i - z)$ distributions to field galaxies and other galaxies in protoclusters that do not host proto-BCGs. In addition, galaxies surrounding proto-BCGs are brighter than those in protoclusters without proto-BCGs. The image stacking analysis reveals that the average effective radius of proto-BCGs is $\sim28\%$ larger than that of field galaxies. The $i-z$ color differences suggest that proto-BCGs and their surrounding galaxies are dustier than other galaxies at $z\sim4$. These results suggest that specific environmental effects or assembly biasses have already emerged in some protoclusters as early as $z \sim 4$, and we suggest that proto-BCGs have different star formation histories than other galaxies in the same epoch.

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arXiv2019

Discovery of the First Low-Luminosity Quasar at z > 7

We report the discovery of a quasar at z = 7.07, which was selected from the deep multi-band imaging data collected by the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Subaru Strategic Program survey. This quasar, HSC J124353.93+010038.5, has an order of magnitude lower luminosity than do the other known quasars at z > 7. The rest-frame ultraviolet absolute magnitude is M1450 = -24.13 +/- 0.08 mag and the bolometric luminosity is Lbol = (1.4 +/- 0.1) x 10^{46} erg/s. Its spectrum in the optical to near-infrared shows strong emission lines, and shows evidence for a fast gas outflow, as the C IV line is blueshifted and there is indication of broad absorption lines. The Mg II-based black hole mass is Mbh = (3.3 +/- 2.0) x 10^8 Msun, thus indicating a moderate mass accretion rate with an Eddington ratio 0.34 +/- 0.20. It is the first z > 7 quasar with sub-Eddington accretion, besides being the third most distant quasar, known to date. The luminosity and black hole mass are comparable to, or even lower than, those measured for the majority of low-z quasars discovered by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and thus this quasar likely represents a z > 7 counterpart to quasars commonly observed in the low-z universe.

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arXiv2018

Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs). V. Quasar Luminosity Function and Contribution to Cosmic Reionization at z = 6

We present new measurements of the quasar luminosity function (LF) at $z \sim 6$, over an unprecedentedly wide range of the rest-frame ultraviolet luminosity $M_{1450}$ from $-30$ to $-22$ mag. This is the fifth in a series of publications from the Subaru High-$z$ Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs) project, which exploits the deep multi-band imaging data produced by the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Subaru Strategic Program survey. The LF was calculated with a complete sample of 110 quasars at $5.7 \le z \le 6.5$, which includes 48 SHELLQs quasars discovered over 650 deg$^2$, and 63 brighter quasars discovered by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Canada-France-Hawaii Quasar Survey (including one overlapping object). This is the largest sample of $z \sim 6$ quasars with a well-defined selection function constructed to date, and has allowed us to detect significant flattening of the LF at its faint end. A double power-law function fit to the sample yields a faint-end slope $α= -1.23^{+0.44}_{-0.34}$, a bright-end slope $β= -2.73^{+0.23}_{-0.31}$, a break magnitude $M_{1450}^* = -24.90^{+0.75}_{-0.90}$, and a characteristic space density $Φ^* = 10.9^{+10.0}_{-6.8}$ Gpc$^{-3}$ mag$^{-1}$. Integrating this best-fit model over the range $-18 < M_{1450} < -30$ mag, quasars emit ionizing photons at the rate of $\dot{n}_{\rm ion} = 10^{48.8 \pm 0.1}$ s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-3}$ at $z = 6.0$. This is less than 10 % of the critical rate necessary to keep the intergalactic medium ionized, which indicates that quasars are not a major contributor to cosmic reionization.

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arXiv2018

Subaru High-z Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs) III. Star formation properties of the host galaxies at $z \gtrsim 6$ studied with ALMA

We present our ALMA Cycle 4 measurements of the [CII] emission line and the underlying far-infrared (FIR) continuum emission from four optically low-luminosity ($M_{\rm 1450} > -25$) quasars at $z \gtrsim 6$ discovered by the Subaru Hyper Suprime Cam (HSC) survey. The [CII] line and FIR continuum luminosities lie in the ranges $L_{\rm [CII]} = (3.8-10.2) \times 10^8~L_\odot$ and $L_{\rm FIR} = (1.2-2.0) \times 10^{11}~L_\odot$, which are at least one order of magnitude smaller than those of optically-luminous quasars at $z \gtrsim 6$. We estimate the star formation rates (SFR) of our targets as $\simeq 23-40~M_\odot ~{\rm yr}^{-1}$. Their line and continuum-emitting regions are marginally resolved, and found to be comparable in size to those of optically luminous quasars, indicating that their SFR or likely gas mass surface densities (key controlling parameter of mass accretion) are accordingly different. The $L_{\rm [CII]}/L_{\rm FIR}$ ratios of the hosts, $\simeq (2.2-8.7) \times 10^{-3}$, are fully consistent with local star-forming galaxies. Using the [CII] dynamics, we derived their dynamical masses within a radius of 1.5-2.5 kpc as $\simeq (1.4-8.2) \times 10^{10}~M_\odot$. By interpreting these masses as stellar ones, we suggest that these faint quasar hosts are on or even below the star-forming main sequence at $z \sim 6$, i.e., they appear to be transforming into quiescent galaxies. This is in contrast to the optically luminous quasars at those redshifts, which show starburst-like properties. Finally, we find that the ratios of black hole mass to host galaxy dynamical mass of the most of low-luminosity quasars including the HSC ones are consistent with the local value. The mass ratios of the HSC quasars can be reproduced by a semi-analytical model that assumes merger-induced black hole-host galaxy evolution.

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arXiv2017

Luminous Quasars Do Not Live in the Most Overdense Regions of Galaxies at z~4

We present the cross-correlation between 151 luminous quasars ($M_{ \mathrm{UV}} < -26$) and 179 protocluster candidates at $z \sim 3.8$, extracted from the Wide imaging survey ($ \sim 121~ $deg$^2$) performed with a part of the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP). We find that only two out of 151 quasars reside in regions that are more overdense compared to the average field at $ > 4 σ$. The distributions of the distance between quasars and the nearest protoclusters and the significance of the overdensity at the position of quasars are statistically identical to those found for $g$-dropout galaxies, suggesting that quasars tend to reside in almost the same environment as star-forming galaxies at this redshift. Using stacking analysis, we find that the average density of $g$-dropout galaxies around quasars is slightly higher than that around $g$-dropout galaxies on $1.0 - 2.5$ pMpc scales, while at $ < 0.5$ pMpc that around quasars tends to be lower. We also find that quasars with higher UV-luminosity or with more massive black holes tend to avoid the most overdense regions, and that the quasar near zone sizes are anti-correlated with overdensity. These findings are consistent with a scenario in which the luminous quasar at $z \sim4 $ resides in structures that are less massive than those expected for the progenitors of today's rich clusters of galaxies, and possibly that luminous quasars may be suppressing star formation in their close vicinity.

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arXiv2017

Minor Contribution of Quasars to Ionizing Photon Budget at z~6: Update on Quasar Luminosity Function at the Faint-end with Subaru/Suprime-Cam

We constrain the quasar contribution to cosmic reionization based on our deep optical survey of z~6 quasars down to z_R=24.15 using Subaru/Suprime-Cam in three UKIDSS-DXS fields covering 6.5 deg^2. In Kashikawa et al. (2015), we select 17 quasar candidates and report our initial discovery of two low-luminosity quasars (M_1450~ -23) from seven targets, one of which might be a Lyman alpha emitting galaxy. From an additional optical spectroscopy, none of the four candidates out of the remaining ten turn out to be genuine quasars. Moreover, the deeper optical photometry provided by the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP) shows that, unlike the two already-known quasars, the i-z and z-y colors of the last six candidates are consistent with M- or L-type brown dwarfs. Therefore, the quasar luminosity function (QLF) in the previous paper is confirmed. Compiling QLF measurements from the literature over a wide magnitude range, including an extremely faint AGN candidate from Parsa et al. (2017}, to fit them with a double power-law, we find that the best-fit faint-end slope is alpha=-2.04^+0.33_-0.18 (-1.98^+0.48_-0.21) and characteristic magnitude is M_1450^*=-25.8^+1.1_-1.9 (-25.7^+1.0_-1.8) in the case of two (one) quasar detection. Our result suggests that, if the QLF is integrated down to M_1450=-18, quasars produce ~1-12% of the ionizing photons required to ionize the whole universe at z~6 with 2sigma confidence level, assuming that the escape fraction is f_esc=1 and the IGM clumpy factor is C=3. Even when the systematic uncertainties are taken into account, our result supports the scenario that quasars are the minor contributors of reionization.

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arXiv2017

GOLDRUSH. III. A Systematic Search of Protoclusters at $z\sim4$ Based on the $>100\,\mathrm{deg^2}$ Area

We conduct a systematic search for galaxy protoclusters at $z\sim3.8$ based on the latest internal data release (S16A) of the Hyper SuprimeCam Subaru strategic program (HSC-SSP). In the Wide layer of the HSC-SSP, we investigate the large-scale projected sky distribution of $g$-dropout galaxies over an area of $121\,\mathrm{deg^2}$, and identify 216 large-scale overdense regions ($>4σ$ overdensity significance) that are good protocluster candidates. Of these, 37 are located within $8\,\mathrm{arcmin}$ ($3.4\,\mathrm{physicalMpc}$) from other protocluster candidates of higher overdensity, and are expected to merge into a single massive structure by $z=0$. Therefore, we find 179 unique protocluster candidates in our survey. A cosmological simulation that includes projection effects predicts that more than 76\% of these candidates will evolve into galaxy clusters with halo masses of at least $10^{14}\,M_{\odot}$ by $z=0$. The unprecedented size of our protocluster candidate catalog allowed us to perform, for the first time, an angular clustering analysis of the systematic sample of protocluster candidates. We find a correlation length of $35.0\,h^{-1}\,\mathrm{Mpc}$. The relation between correlation length and number density of $z\sim3.8$ protocluster candidates is consistent with the prediction of the $Λ$CDM model, and the correlation length is similar to that of rich clusters in the local universe. This result suggests that our protocluster candidates are tracing similar spatial structures as those expected of the progenitors of rich clusters and enhances the confidence that our method to identify protoclusters at high redshifts is robust. In the coming years, our protocluster search will be extended to the entire HSC-SSP Wide sky coverage of $\sim1400\,\mathrm{deg^2}$ to probe cluster formation over a wide redshift range of $z\sim2\mathrm{-}6$.

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