Did most high-redshift quasars escape detection?

Citation
C. Wolf et al., Did most high-redshift quasars escape detection?, ASTRON ASTR, 343(2), 1999, pp. 399-406
Citations number
30
Categorie Soggetti
Space Sciences
Journal title
ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ISSN journal
00046361 → ACNP
Volume
343
Issue
2
Year of publication
1999
Pages
399 - 406
Database
ISI
SICI code
0004-6361(199903)343:2<399:DMHQED>2.0.ZU;2-Z
Abstract
We present follow-up spectroscopy to the Calar Alto Deep Imaging Survey (CA DIS), reporting on the quasars in the CADIS 16 h-field, and including preli minary data from two other fields, In this 10' x 10' field we found six qua sars at redshift z > 2.2 which are brighter than R = 22(m), while surface d ensities determined in previous surveys are reported to be below one on ave rage. This is the highest reported surface density of high-redshift quasars within the given limits. We believe this result to be a consequence of the multicolor database and the search technique used in CADIS. Our observations further seem to indicate that the density of high-redshift quasars is also higher than predicted by the luminosity function of Warren et al. (1994) by a factor of three, implying that common search methods ha ve overlooked the majority of high-redshift quasars at this magnitude level . In particular, an application of the V/V-max test to our preliminary list of AGNs with R < 22(m) and z < 4 yields (V/V-max) = 0.51 +/- 0.06, charact erizing our preliminary redshift distribution as flat.