Probing the Faint End of the Quasar Luminosity Function at z~4 in the COSMOS Field

Abstract

We searched for quasars that are ~3 mag fainter than the SDSS quasars in the redshift range 3.7 ≾ z ≾ 4.7 in the COSMOS field to constrain the faint end of the quasar luminosity function (QLF). Using optical photometric data, we selected 31 quasar candidates with 22 < i < 24 at z ~ 4. We obtained optical spectra for most of these candidates using FOCAS on the Subaru telescope and identified eight low-luminosity quasars at z ~ 4. In order to derive the QLF based on our spectroscopic follow-up campaign, we estimated the photometric completeness of our quasar survey through detailed Monte Carlo simulations. Our QLF at z ~ 4 has a much shallower faint-end slope (β = −1.67^(+0.11)_(−0.17)) than that obtained by other recent surveys in the same redshift. Our result is consistent with the scenario of downsizing evolution of active galactic nuclei inferred by recent optical and X-ray quasar surveys at lower redshifts.