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Binary Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Evidence for Excess Clustering on Small Scales
Journal article   Open access

Binary Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Evidence for Excess Clustering on Small Scales

Joseph F Hennawi, Michael A Strauss, Masamune Oguri, Naohisa Inada, Gordon T Richards, Bartosz Pindor, Donald P Schneider, Robert H Becker, Michael D Gregg, Patrick B Hall, …
The Astronomical journal, v 131(1), pp 1-23
25 Apr 2005
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/498235
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https://doi.org/10.1086/498235View
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Abstract

Physics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics Physics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics Physics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics Physics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena Physics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics Physics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
Astron.J.131:1-23,2006 We present a sample of 218 new quasar pairs with proper transverse separations R_prop < 1 Mpc/h over the redshift range 0.5 < z < 3.0, discovered from an extensive follow up campaign to find companions around the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and 2dF Quasar Redshift Survey quasars. This sample includes 26 new binary quasars with separations R_prop < 50 kpc/h (theta < 10 arcseconds), more than doubling the number of such systems known. We define a statistical sample of binaries selected with homogeneous criteria and compute its selection function, taking into account sources of incompleteness. The first measurement of the quasar correlation function on scales 10 kpc/h < R_prop < 400 kpc/h is presented. For R_prop < 40 kpc/h, we detect an order of magnitude excess clustering over the expectation from the large scale R_prop > 3 Mpc/h quasar correlation function, extrapolated down as a power law to the separations probed by our binaries. The excess grows to ~ 30 at R_prop ~ 10 kpc/h, and provides compelling evidence that the quasar autocorrelation function gets progressively steeper on sub-Mpc scales. This small scale excess can likely be attributed to dissipative interaction events which trigger quasar activity in rich environments. Recent small scale measurements of galaxy clustering and quasar-galaxy clustering are reviewed and discussed in relation to our measurement of small scale quasar clustering.

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