A SURVEY OF LUMINOUS HIGH-REDSHIFT QUASARS WITH SDSS AND WISE. II. THE BRIGHT END OF THE QUASAR LUMINOSITY FUNCTION AT z similar to 5

Abstract

This is the second paper in a series on a new luminous z ~ 5 quasar survey using optical and near-infrared colors. Here we present a new determination of the bright end of the quasar luminosity function (QLF) at z ~ 5. Combining our 45 new quasars with previously known quasars that satisfy our selections, we construct the largest uniform luminous z ~ 5 quasar sample to date, with 99 quasars in the range of 4.7 ≤ z < 5.4 and −29 < M 1450 ≤ −26.8, within the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) footprint. We use a modified 1/V a method including flux limit correction to derive a binned QLF, and we model the parametric QLF using maximum likelihood estimation. With the faint-end slope of the QLF fixed as α = −2.03 from previous deeper samples, the best fit of our QLF gives a flatter bright end slope β = −3.58 ± 0.24 and a fainter break magnitude ${M}_{1450}^{* }$ = −26.98 ± 0.23 than previous studies at similar redshift. Combined with previous work at lower and higher redshifts, our result is consistent with a luminosity evolution and density evolution model. Using the best-fit QLF, the contribution of quasars to the ionizing background at z ~ 5 is found to be 18%–45% with a clumping factor C of 2–5. Our sample suggests an evolution of radio loud fraction with optical luminosity but no obvious evolution with redshift. Show more