Discovery of a pair of z=4.25 quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Schneider, D P; Fan, X H; Strauss, M A; Gunn, J E; Richards, G T; Knapp, G R; Lupton, R H; Saxe, D H; Anderson, J E; Bahcall, N A
Date: 2000
MTMT: 1064412
WoS ID: 000165095200001
Scopus ID: 0003122871
DOI: 10.1086/316834
Abstract:
We report the discovery of a pair of z = 4.25 quasars with a separation of 33 ". The brighter of the two objects was identified as a high-redshift quasar candidate from Sloan Digital Sky Survey multicolor imaging data, and the redshift was measured from a spectrum obtained with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. The slit orientation of this observation by chance included another quasar, approximately 1 mag fainter and having the same redshift as the target. This is the third serendipitous discovery of a z > 4 quasar. The differences in the relative strengths and profiles of the emission lines suggest that this is a quasar pair and not a gravitational lens. The two objects are likely to be physically associated; the projected physical separation is approximately 210 h(50)(-1) kpc and the redshifts are identical to approximate to0.01, implying a radial physical separation of 950 h(50)(-1) kpc or less. The existence of this pair is strong circumstantial evidence that z similar to 4 quasars are clustered.
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