Reaching the peak of the quasar spectral energy distribution - I. Observations and models

Collinson, J.S.; Ward, M.J.; Done, C.; Landt, H.; Elvis, M.; McDowell, J.C.

doi:10.1093/mnras/stv362

Reaching the peak of the quasar spectral energy distribution - I. Observations and models

Collinson, J.S.; Ward, M.J.; Done, C.; Landt, H.; Elvis, M.; McDowell, J.C.

Authors

J.S. Collinson

M.J. Ward

Professor Christine Done chris.done@durham.ac.uk
Professor

H. Landt

M. Elvis

J.C. McDowell

Abstract

We perform a spectral analysis of a sample of 11 medium redshift (1.5 ≲ z ≲ 2.2) quasars. Our sample all have optical spectra from the SDSS, infrared spectra from GNIRS and TripleSpec, and X-ray spectra from XMM–Newton. We first analyse the Balmer broad emission line profiles which are shifted into the IR spectra to constrain black hole masses. Then we fit an energy-conserving, three component accretion model of the broad-band spectral energy distribution (SED) to our multiwavelength data. 5 out of the 11 quasars show evidence of an SED peak, allowing us to constrain their bolometric luminosity from these models and estimate their mass accretion rates. Based on our limited sample, we suggest that estimating bolometric luminosities from L5100A˚L5100A˚ and L2-10 keV may be unreliable, as has been also noted for a low-redshift, X-ray selected active galactic nucleus sample.

Citation

Collinson, J., Ward, M., Done, C., Landt, H., Elvis, M., & McDowell, J. (2015). Reaching the peak of the quasar spectral energy distribution - I. Observations and models. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 449(2), 2174-2193. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv362

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Feb 17, 2015
Online Publication Date	Mar 30, 2015
Publication Date	May 11, 2015
Deposit Date	Mar 16, 2016
Publicly Available Date	Mar 17, 2016
Journal	Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Print ISSN	0035-8711
Electronic ISSN	1365-2966
Publisher	Royal Astronomical Society
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	449
Issue	2
Pages	2174-2193
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv362
Related Public URLs	http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015MNRAS.449.2174C

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This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2015 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.