We present a sample of 120 dust-reddened quasars identified by matching radio
sources detected at 1.4 GHz in the FIRST survey with the near-infrared 2MASS
catalog and color-selecting red sources. Optical and/or near-infrared
spectroscopy provide broad wavelength sampling of their spectral energy
distributions that we use to determine their reddening, characterized by
E(B-V). We demonstrate that the reddening in these quasars is best-described by
SMC-like dust. This sample spans a wide range in redshift and reddening (0.1 <
z < 3, 0.1 < E(B-V) < 1.5), which we use to investigate the possible
correlation of luminosity with reddening. At every redshift, dust-reddened
quasars are intrinsically the most luminous quasars. We interpret this result
in the context of merger-driven quasar/galaxy co-evolution where these reddened
quasars are revealing an emergent phase during which the heavily obscured
quasar is shedding its cocoon of dust prior to becoming a "normal" blue quasar.
When correcting for extinction, we find that, depending on how the parent
population is defined, these red quasars make up < 15-20% of the luminous
quasar population. We estimate, based on the fraction of objects in this phase,
that its duration is 15-20% as long as the unobscured, blue quasar phase.
Description
[1207.2175] FIRST-2MASS Red Quasars: Transitional Objects Emerging from the Dust
%0 Generic
%1 glikman2012first2mass
%A Glikman, Eilat
%A Urrutia, Tanya
%A Lacy, Mark
%A Djorgovski, S. George
%A Mahabal, Ashish
%A Myers, Adam D.
%A Ross, Nicholas P.
%A Petitjean, Patrick
%A Ge, Jian
%A Schneider, Donald P.
%A York, Donald G.
%D 2012
%K dust obscured quasars
%T FIRST-2MASS Red Quasars: Transitional Objects Emerging from the Dust
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.2175
%X We present a sample of 120 dust-reddened quasars identified by matching radio
sources detected at 1.4 GHz in the FIRST survey with the near-infrared 2MASS
catalog and color-selecting red sources. Optical and/or near-infrared
spectroscopy provide broad wavelength sampling of their spectral energy
distributions that we use to determine their reddening, characterized by
E(B-V). We demonstrate that the reddening in these quasars is best-described by
SMC-like dust. This sample spans a wide range in redshift and reddening (0.1 <
z < 3, 0.1 < E(B-V) < 1.5), which we use to investigate the possible
correlation of luminosity with reddening. At every redshift, dust-reddened
quasars are intrinsically the most luminous quasars. We interpret this result
in the context of merger-driven quasar/galaxy co-evolution where these reddened
quasars are revealing an emergent phase during which the heavily obscured
quasar is shedding its cocoon of dust prior to becoming a "normal" blue quasar.
When correcting for extinction, we find that, depending on how the parent
population is defined, these red quasars make up < 15-20% of the luminous
quasar population. We estimate, based on the fraction of objects in this phase,
that its duration is 15-20% as long as the unobscured, blue quasar phase.
@misc{glikman2012first2mass,
abstract = {We present a sample of 120 dust-reddened quasars identified by matching radio
sources detected at 1.4 GHz in the FIRST survey with the near-infrared 2MASS
catalog and color-selecting red sources. Optical and/or near-infrared
spectroscopy provide broad wavelength sampling of their spectral energy
distributions that we use to determine their reddening, characterized by
E(B-V). We demonstrate that the reddening in these quasars is best-described by
SMC-like dust. This sample spans a wide range in redshift and reddening (0.1 <
z < 3, 0.1 < E(B-V) < 1.5), which we use to investigate the possible
correlation of luminosity with reddening. At every redshift, dust-reddened
quasars are intrinsically the most luminous quasars. We interpret this result
in the context of merger-driven quasar/galaxy co-evolution where these reddened
quasars are revealing an emergent phase during which the heavily obscured
quasar is shedding its cocoon of dust prior to becoming a "normal" blue quasar.
When correcting for extinction, we find that, depending on how the parent
population is defined, these red quasars make up < 15-20% of the luminous
quasar population. We estimate, based on the fraction of objects in this phase,
that its duration is 15-20% as long as the unobscured, blue quasar phase.},
added-at = {2012-07-11T11:39:33.000+0200},
author = {Glikman, Eilat and Urrutia, Tanya and Lacy, Mark and Djorgovski, S. George and Mahabal, Ashish and Myers, Adam D. and Ross, Nicholas P. and Petitjean, Patrick and Ge, Jian and Schneider, Donald P. and York, Donald G.},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/214dbba4f38d0ef50a0d06b1b954ed229/miki},
description = {[1207.2175] FIRST-2MASS Red Quasars: Transitional Objects Emerging from the Dust},
interhash = {31bca78ddf338a6a52f1d01de3cc257e},
intrahash = {14dbba4f38d0ef50a0d06b1b954ed229},
keywords = {dust obscured quasars},
note = {cite arxiv:1207.2175Comment: 21 pages, 17 figures plus a spectral atlas. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal},
timestamp = {2012-07-11T11:39:33.000+0200},
title = {FIRST-2MASS Red Quasars: Transitional Objects Emerging from the Dust},
url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.2175},
year = 2012
}