Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: The South Galactic Cap u -band Sky Survey (SCUSS) provides a deep u -band imaging of about 5000 deg 2 in south Galactic cap. It is about 1.5 mag deeper than the SDSS u -band. In this article, we evaluate the capability of quasar selection using both SCUSS and SDSS data, based on considerations of the deep SCUSS u -band imaging and two-epoch u -band variability. We find that the combination of the SCUSS u -band and the SDSS griz -band allows us to select more faint quasars and more quasars at redshift around 2.2 than the selection that uses only the SDSS ugriz data. Quasars have significant u -band variabilities. The fraction of quasars with large two-epoch variability is much higher than that of stars. The selection by variability can select both low-redshift quasars with ultraviolet excess and mid-redshift (2 < z < 3.5) quasars where quasar selection by optical colors is inefficient. The above two selections are complementary and make full use of the SCUSS u -band advantages.
DOI: 10.1086/680212
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funders: Yale University, Vanderbilt University, Princeton University, Ohio State University, Harvard University, University of Washington, Johns Hopkins University, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Portsmouth, New Mexico State University, York University, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, College of Engineering, Michigan State University, National Key Research and Development Program of China, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
OpenAlex ID: W2089579419