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We present the Data Release 14 Quasar catalog (DR14Q) from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV). This catalog includes all SDSS-IV/eBOSS objects that were spectroscopically targeted as quasar candidates and that are confirmed as quasars via a new automated procedure combined with a partial visual inspection of spectra, have luminosities $M_{\rm i} \left[ z=2 \right] < -20.5$ (in a $\Lambda$CDM cosmology with $H_0 = 70 \ {\rm km \ s^{-1} \ Mpc ^{-1}}$, $\Omega_{\rm M} = 0.3$, and $\Omega_{\rm \Lambda} = 0.7$), and either display at least one emission line with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) larger than $500 \ {\rm km \ s^{-1}}$ or, if not, have interesting/complex absorption features. The catalog also includes previously spectroscopically-confirmed quasars from SDSS-I, II and III. The catalog contains 526,356 quasars 144,046 are new discoveries since the beginning of SDSS-IV) detected over 9,376 deg$^2$ (2,044 deg$^2$ having new spectroscopic data available) with robust identification and redshift measured by a combination of principal component eigenspectra. The catalog is estimated to have about 0.5% contamination. The catalog identifies 21,877 broad absorption line quasars and lists their characteristics. For each object, the catalog presents SDSS five-band CCD-based photometry with typical accuracy of 0.03 mag. The catalog also contains X-ray, ultraviolet, near-infrared, and radio emission properties of the quasars, when available, from other large-area surveys., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. The catalog is available at https://data.sdss.org/sas/dr14/eboss/qso/DR14Q/DR14Q_v4_4.fits

In these proceedings we describe the WEAVE-QSO survey, which will observe around 400,000 high redshift quasars starting in 2018. This survey is part of a broader WEAVE survey to be conducted at the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope. We will focus on chiefly on the science goals, but will also briefly summarise the target selection methods anticipated and the expected survey plan. Understanding the apparent acceleration in the expansion of the Universe is one of the key scientific challenges of our time. Many experiments have been proposed to study this expansion, using a variety of techniques. Here we describe a survey that can measure this acceleration and therefore help elucidate the nature of dark energy: a survey of the Lyman-alpha forest (and quasar absorption in general) in spectra towards z>2 quasars (QSOs). Further constraints on neutrino masses and warm dark matter are also anticipated. The same data will also shed light on galaxy formation via study of the properties of inflowing/outflowing gas associated with nearby galaxies and in a cosmic web context. Gas properties are sensitive to density, temperature, UV radiation, metallicity and abundance pattern, and so constraint galaxy formation in a variety of ways. WEAVE-QSO will study absorbers with a dynamic range spanning more than 8 orders of magnitude in column density, their thermal broadening, and a host of elements and ionization species. A core principal of the WEAVE-QSO survey is the targeting of QSOs with near 100% efficiency principally through use of the J-PAS (r < 23.2) and Gaia (r < 20) data., Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, proceedings of the SF2A conference, Lyon, 2016

We present the discovery of a molecular cloud at zabs=2.5255 along the line of sight to the quasar J0000+0048. We perform a detailed analysis of the absorption lines from ionic, neutral atomic and molecular species in different excitation levels, as well as the broad-band dust extinction. We find that the absorber classifies as a Damped Lyman-alpha system (DLA) with logN(HI)(cm^-2)=20.8+/-0.1. The DLA has super-Solar metallicity with a depletion pattern typical of cold gas and an overall molecular fraction ~50%. This is the highest f-value observed to date in a high-z intervening system. Most of the molecular hydrogen arises from a clearly identified narrow (b~0.7 km/s), cold component in which CO molecules are also found, with logN(CO)~15. We study the chemical and physical conditions in the cold gas. We find that the line of sight probes the gas deep after the HI-to-H2 transition in a ~4-5 pc-size cloud with volumic density nH~80 cm^-3 and temperature of only 50 K. Our model suggests that the presence of small dust grains (down to about 0.001 {\mu}m) and high cosmic ray ionisation rate (zeta_H a few times 10^-15 s^-1) are needed to explain the observed atomic and molecular abundances. The presence of small grains is also in agreement with the observed steep extinction curve that also features a 2175 A bump. The properties of this cloud are very similar to what is seen in diffuse molecular regions of the nearby Perseus complex. The high excitation temperature of CO rotational levels towards J0000+0048 betrays however the higher temperature of the cosmic microwave background. Using the derived physical conditions, we correct for a small contribution (0.3 K) of collisional excitation and obtain TCMB(z = 2.53)~9.6 K, in perfect agreement with the predicted adiabatic cooling of the Universe. [abridged], Comment: 24 pages, 24 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

We describe the execution and data reduction of the European Southern Observatory Large Programme "Quasars and their absorption lines: a legacy survey of the high-redshift universe with VLT/XSHOOTER" (hereafter `XQ-100'). XQ-100 has produced and made publicly available an homogeneous and high-quality sample of echelle spectra of 100 QSOs at redshifts z~3.5-4.5 observed with full spectral coverage from 315 to 2500 nm at a resolving power ranging from R~4000 to 7000, depending on wavelength. The median signal-to-noise ratios are 33, 25 and 43, as measured at rest-frame wavelengths 1700, 3000 and 3600 Angstrom, respectively. This paper provides future users of XQ-100 data with the basic statistics of the survey, along with details of target selection, data acquisition and data reduction. The paper accompanies the public release of all data products, including 100 reduced spectra. XQ-100 is the largest spectroscopic survey to date of high-redshift QSOs with simultaneous rest-frame UV/optical coverage, and as such enables a wide range of extragalactic research, from cosmology and galaxy evolution to AGN astrophysics., Comment: In press at A&A. Table A.2 updated to match the summary table in the ESO archive

We present a sample of 38 intervening Damped Lyman $\alpha$ (DLA) systems identified towards 100 $z>3.5$ quasars, observed during the XQ-100 survey. The XQ-100 DLA sample is combined with major DLA surveys in the literature. The final combined sample consists of 742 DLAs over a redshift range approximately $1.6 < z_{\rm abs} < 5.0$. We develop a novel technique for computing $\Omega_{\rm HI}^{\rm DLA}$ as a continuous function of redshift, and we thoroughly assess and quantify the sources of error therein, including fitting errors and incomplete sampling of the high column density end of the column density distribution function. There is a statistically significant redshift evolution in $\Omega_{\rm HI}^{\rm DLA}$ ($\geq 3 \sigma$) from $z \sim 2$ to $z \sim$ 5. In order to make a complete assessment of the redshift evolution of $\Omega_{\rm HI}$, we combine our high redshift DLA sample with absorption surveys at intermediate redshift and 21cm emission line surveys of the local universe. Although $\Omega_{\rm HI}^{\rm DLA}$, and hence its redshift evolution, remains uncertain in the intermediate redshift regime ($0.1 < z_{\rm abs} < 1.6$), we find that the combination of high redshift data with 21cm surveys of the local universe all yield a statistically significant evolution in $\Omega_{\rm HI}$ from $z \sim 0$ to $z \sim 5$ ($\geq 3 \sigma$). Despite its statistical significance, the magnitude of the evolution is small: a linear regression fit between $\Omega_{\rm HI}$ and $z$ yields a typical slope of $\sim$0.17$\times 10^{-3}$, corresponding to a factor of $\sim$ 4 decrease in $\Omega_{\rm HI}$ between $z=5$ and $z=0$., Comment: Submitted to MNRAS, this version follows the referee's report and minor revisions. Large tables are included in the source file tarball

The SDSS-IV/eBOSS has an extensive quasar program that combines several selection methods. Among these, the photometric variability technique provides highly uniform samples, unaffected by the redshift bias of traditional optical-color selections, when $z= 2.7 - 3.5$ quasars cross the stellar locus or when host galaxy light affects quasar colors at $z < 0.9$. Here, we present the variability selection of quasars in eBOSS, focusing on a specific program that led to a sample of 13,876 quasars to $g_{\rm dered}=22.5$ over a 94.5 deg$^2$ region in Stripe 82, an areal density 1.5 times higher than over the rest of the eBOSS footprint. We use these variability-selected data to provide a new measurement of the quasar luminosity function (QLF) in the redshift range $0.682.2$. Both models are constrained to be continuous at $z=2.2$. They present a flattening of the bright-end slope at large redshift. The LEDE model indicates a reduction of the break density with increasing redshift, but the evolution of the break magnitude depends on the parameterization. The models are in excellent accord, predicting quasar counts that agree within 0.3\% (resp., 1.1\%) to $g<22.5$ (resp., $g<23$). The models are also in good agreement over the entire redshift range with models from previous studies., Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

We report the discovery of rapid variations of a high-velocity CIV broad absorption line trough in the quasar SDSS J141007.74+541203.3. This object was intensively observed in 2014 as a part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project, during which 32 epochs of spectroscopy were obtained with the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey spectrograph. We observe significant (>4sigma) variability in the equivalent width of the broad (~4000 km/s wide) CIV trough on rest-frame timescales as short as 1.20 days (~29 hours), the shortest broad absorption line variability timescale yet reported. The equivalent width varied by ~10% on these short timescales, and by about a factor of two over the duration of the campaign. We evaluate several potential causes of the variability, concluding that the most likely cause is a rapid response to changes in the incident ionizing continuum. If the outflow is at a radius where the recombination rate is higher than the ionization rate, the timescale of variability places a lower limit on the density of the absorbing gas of n_e > 3.9 x 10^5 cm^-3. The broad absorption line variability characteristics of this quasar are consistent with those observed in previous studies of quasars, indicating that such short-term variability may in fact be common and thus can be used to learn about outflow characteristics and contributions to quasar/host-galaxy feedback scenarios., Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

We present a detailed analysis of three extremely strong intervening DLAs (log N(HI)>=21.7) observed towards quasars with VLT/UVES. We measure overall metallicities of [Zn/H]~-1.2, -1.3 and -0.7 at respectively zabs=2.34 towards SDSS J2140-0321 (log N(HI) = 22.4+/-0.1), zabs=3.35 towards SDSS J1456+1609 (log N(HI) = 21.7+/-0.1) and zabs=2.25 towards SDSS J0154+1935 (log N(HI) = 21.75+/-0.15). We detect H2 towards J2140-0321 (log N(H2) = 20.13+/-0.07) and J1456+1609 (log N(H2) = 17.10+/-0.09) and argue for a tentative detection towards J0154+1935. Absorption from the excited fine-structure levels of OI, CI and SiII are detected in the system towards J2140-0321, that has the largest HI column density detected so far in an intervening DLA. This is the first detection of OI fine-structure lines in a QSO-DLA, that also provides us a rare possibility to study the chemical abundances of less abundant atoms like Co and Ge. Simple single phase photo-ionisation models fail to reproduce all the observed quantities. Instead, we suggest that the cloud has a stratified structure: H2 and CI likely originate from both a dense (log nH~2.5-3) cold (80K) and warm (250K) phase containing a fraction of the total HI while a warmer (T>1000 K) phase probably contributes significantly to the high excitation of OI fine-structure levels. The observed CI/H2 column density ratio is surprisingly low compared to model predictions and we do not detect CO molecules: this suggests a possible underabundance of C by 0.7 dex compared to other alpha elements. The absorber could be a photo-dissociation region close to a bright star (or a star cluster) where higher temperature occurs in the illuminated region. Direct detection of on-going star formation through e.g. NIR emission lines in the surrounding of the gas would enable a detailed physical modelling of the system., Comment: accepted for publication in A&A

We consider how the profile and multi-year variability properties of a large sample of C IV Broad Absorption Line (BAL) troughs change when BALs from Si IV and/or Al III are present at corresponding velocities, indicating that the line-of-sight intercepts at least some lower ionization gas. We derive a number of observational results for C IV BALs separated according to the presence or absence of accompanying lower ionization transitions, including measurements of composite profile shapes, equivalent width (EW), characteristic velocities, composite variation profiles, and EW variability. We also measure the correlations between EW and fractional-EW variability for C IV, Si IV, and Al III. Our measurements reveal the basic correlated changes between ionization level, kinematics, and column density expected in accretion-disk wind models; e.g., lines-of-sight including lower ionization material generally show deeper and broader C IV troughs that have smaller minimum velocities and that are less variable. Many C IV BALs with no accompanying Si IV or Al III BALs may have only mild or no saturation., Comment: 26 pages, 16 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ

We present a study of ~100 high redshift (z~2-4) extremely strong damped Lyman-alpha systems (ESDLA, with N(HI)>0.5x10^22 cm^-2) detected in quasar spectra from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey SDSS-III DR11. We study the neutral hydrogen, metal, and dust content of this elusive population of absorbers and confirm our previous finding that the high column density end of the N(HI) frequency distribution has a relatively shallow slope with power-law index -3.6, similar to what is seen from 21-cm maps in nearby galaxies. The stacked absorption spectrum indicates a typical metallicity ~1/20th solar, similar to the mean metallicity of the overall DLA population. The relatively small velocity extent of the low-ionisation lines suggests that ESDLAs do not arise from large-scale flows of neutral gas. The high column densities involved are in turn more similar to what is seen in DLAs associated with gamma-ray burst afterglows (GRB-DLAs), which are known to occur close to star forming regions. This indicates that ESDLAs arise from lines of sight passing at very small impact parameters from the host galaxy, as observed in nearby galaxies. This is also supported by simple theoretical considerations and recent high-z hydrodynamical simulations. We strongly substantiate this picture by the first statistical detection of Lya emission with ~(0.6+/-0.2)x10^42 erg/s in the core of ESDLAs (corresponding to about 0.1 L* at z~2-3), obtained through stacking the fibre spectra (of radius 1" corresponding to ~8 kpc at z~2.5). [truncated], Comment: 20 pages, 21 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in A&A

We present a detailed investigation of the variability of 428 C IV and 235 Si IV Broad Absorption Line (BAL) troughs identified in multi-epoch observations of 291 quasars by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-I/II/III. These observations primarily sample rest-frame timescales of 1-3 yr over which significant rearrangement of the BAL wind is expected. We derive a number of observational results on, e.g., the frequency of BAL variability, the velocity range over which BAL variability occurs, the primary observed form of BAL-trough variability, the dependence of BAL variability upon timescale, the frequency of BAL strengthening vs. weakening, correlations between BAL variability and BAL-trough profiles, relations between C IV and Si IV BAL variability, coordinated multi-trough variability, and BAL variations as a function of quasar properties. We assess implications of these observational results for quasar winds. Our results support models where most BAL absorption is formed within an order-of-magnitude of the wind-launching radius, although a significant minority of BAL troughs may arise on larger scales. We estimate an average lifetime for a BAL trough along our line-of-sight of a few thousand years. BAL disappearance and emergence events appear to be extremes of general BAL variability, rather than being qualitatively distinct phenomena. We derive the parameters of a random-walk model for BAL EW variability, finding that this model can acceptably describe some key aspects of EW variability. The coordinated trough variability of BAL quasars with multiple troughs suggests that changes in "shielding gas" may play a significant role in driving general BAL variability., Comment: 34 pages, 29 figures. Review study. ApJ, in press

We report the discovery in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey of seventeen broad absorption line (BAL) quasars with high-ionization troughs that include absorption redshifted relative to the quasar rest frame. The redshifted troughs extend to velocities up to v=12,000 km/s and the trough widths exceed 3000 km/s in all but one case. Approximately 1 in 1000 BAL quasars with blueshifted C IV absorption also has redshifted C IV absorption; objects with C IV absorption present only at redshifted velocities are roughly four times rarer. In more than half of our objects, redshifted absorption is seen in C II or Al III as well as C IV, making low-ionization absorption at least ten times more common among BAL quasars with redshifted troughs than among standard BAL quasars. However, the C IV absorption equivalent widths in our objects are on average smaller than those of standard BAL quasars with low-ionization absorption. We consider several possible ways of generating redshifted absorption. The two most likely possibilities may be at work simultaneously, in the same objects or in different ones. Rotationally dominated outflows seen against a quasar's extended continuum source can produce redshifted and blueshifted absorption, but variability consistent with this scenario is seen in only one of the four objects with multiple spectra. The infall of relatively dense and low-ionization gas to radii as small as 400 Schwarzschild radii can in principle explain the observed range of trough profiles, but current models do not easily explain the origin and survival of such gas. Whatever the origin(s) of the absorbing gas in these objects, it must be located at small radii to explain its large redshifted velocities, and thus offers a novel probe of the inner regions of quasars., Comment: MNRAS in press. 40 pages, 17 figures (a few of reduced quality); for full-resolution figures see http://www.yorku.ca/phall/RESEARCH/rsub3-aas.pdf

We present the first results from an ongoing survey for Damped Lyman-alpha systems (DLAs) in the spectra of z>2 quasars observed in the course of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), which is part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) III. Our full (non-statistical) sample, based on Data Release 9, comprises 12,081 systems with log N(HI)>=20, out of which 6,839 have log N(HI)>=20.3. This is the largest DLA sample ever compiled, superseding that from SDSS-II by a factor of seven. Using a statistical sub-sample and estimating systematics from realistic mock data, we probe the N(HI) distribution at = 2.5. Contrary to what is generally believed, the distribution extends beyond 10^22 cm^-2 with a moderate slope of index\approx-3.5. This result matches surprisingly well the opacity-corrected distribution observed at z = 0. The cosmological mass density of neutral gas in DLAs is found to be Omega_g_DLA~10^-3, evolving only mildly over the past 12 billion years., Comment: Accepted for publication as Letter to the Editor in A&A

We present a measurement of the quasar luminosity function in the range 0.682.15. Using pure luminosity evolution models, we fitted our LF measurements, and predicted quasar number counts as a function of redshift and observed magnitude. These predictions are useful inputs for future cosmology surveys such as those relying on the observation of quasars to measure baryon acoustic oscillations., Comment: 15 pages, 14 figs, accepted for publication in A&A

We measure the quasar two-point correlation function over the redshift range 2.2~10^{12}Msun/h with a duty cycle for the quasar activity of 1 per cent., Comment: 20 pages, 18 figures. Minor modifications to match version accepted by journal

The imprint of Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) on the matter power spectrum can be constrained using the neutral hydrogen density in the intergalactic medium as a tracer of the matter density. One of the goals of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III) is to derive the Hubble expansion rate and the angular scale from the BAO signal in the IGM. To this aim, the Lyman-alpha forest of 10^5 quasars will be observed in the redshift range 2.2

From a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of 78 z~3 high quality quasar spectra in the SDSS-DR7, we derive the principal components characterizing the QSO continuum over the full wavelength range available. The shape of the mean continuum, is similar to that measured at low-z (z~1), but the equivalent width of the emission lines are larger at low redshift. We calculate the correlation between fluxes at different wavelengths and find that the emission line fluxes in the red part of the spectrum are correlated with that in the blue part. We construct a projection matrix to predict the continuum in the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest from the red part of the spectrum. We apply this matrix to quasars in the SDSS-DR7 to derive the evolution with redshift of the mean flux in the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest due to the absorption by the intergalactic neutral hydrogen. A change in the evolution of the mean flux is apparent around z~3 in the sense of a steeper decrease of the mean flux at higher redshifts. The same evolution is found when the continuum is estimated from the extrapolation of a power-law continuum fitted in the red part of the quasar spectrum if a correction, derived from simple simulations, is applied. Our findings are consistent with previous determinations using high spectral resolution data. We provide the PCA eigenvectors over the wavelength range 1020-2000 \AA\ and the distribution of their weights that can be used to simulate QSO mock spectra., Comment: 15 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

The SDSS-III BOSS Quasar survey will attempt to observe z>2.15 quasars at a density of at least 15 per square degree to yield the first measurement of the Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the Ly-alpha forest. To help reaching this goal, we have developed a method to identify quasars based on their variability in the u g r i z optical bands. The method has been applied to the selection of quasar targets in the SDSS region known as Stripe 82 (the Southern equatorial stripe), where numerous photometric observations are available over a 10-year baseline. This area was observed by BOSS during September and October 2010. Only 8% of the objects selected via variability are not quasars, while 90% of the previously identified high-redshift quasar population is recovered. The method allows for a significant increase in the z>2.15 quasar density over previous strategies based on optical (ugriz) colors, achieving a density of 24.0 deg^{-2} on average down to g~22 over the 220 deg^2 area of Stripe 82. We applied this method to simulated data from the Palomar Transient Factory and from Pan-STARRS, and showed that even with data that have sparser time sampling than what is available in Stripe 82, including variability in future quasar selection strategies would lead to increased target selection efficiency in the z>2.15 redshift range. We also found that Broad Absorption Line quasars are preferentially present in a variability than in a color selection., Comment: 14 pages, 21 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) and their effects on the matter power spectrum can be studied by using the Lyman-alpha absorption signature of the matter density field along quasar (QSO) lines of sight. A measurement sufficiently accurate to provide useful cosmological constraints requires the observation of ~100000 quasars in the redshift range 2.2

In the circa 3.5 by-old Barberton greenstone belt, the supracrustal rocks form a thick and strongly deformed thrust complex. Structural studies in the southern part of the belt have shown that 2 separate phases of over-thrusting (D sub 1 and D sub 2) successively dismembered the original stratigraphy. Thrust nappes were subsequently refolded during later deformations (D sub 3 and D sub 4). This report deals with the second thrusting event which, in the study region appears to be dominant, and (unlike the earlier thrusting), affects the entire supracrustal pile. The supracrustal rocks form a predominantly NE/SW oriented, SE dipping tectonic fan (the D sub 2 fan) in which tectonic slices of ophiolitic-like rocks are interleaved with younger sedimentary sequences of the Diepgezet and malalotcha groups. Structural and sedimentological data indicate that the D sub 2 tectonic fan was formed during a prolonged, multi-stage regional horizontal shortening event during which several types of internal deformation mechanisms were successively and/or simultaneously active. Movement appears to have been predominantly to the NW and to the N. During D sub 2, periods of quiescence and sedimentation followed periods of thrust propagation. Although the exact kinematics which led to the formation of this fan is not yet known, paleoenvironmental interpretations together with structural data suggest that D sub 2 was probably related to (an) Archean collision(s).