The Scavenger Hunt for Quasar Samples to Be Used as Cosmological Tools

Abstract

Although the Λ Cold Dark Matter model is the most accredited cosmological model, information at high redshifts (z) between type Ia supernovae (z=2.26) and the Cosmic Microwave Background (z=1100) is crucial to validate this model further. To this end, we have discovered a sample of 1132 quasars up to z=7.54 exhibiting a reduced intrinsic dispersion of the relation between ultraviolet and X-ray fluxes, δF=0.22 vs. δF=0.29 (24% less), than the original sample. This gold sample, once we correct the luminosities for selection biases and redshift evolution, enables us to determine the matter density parameter ΩM with a precision of 0.09. Unprecedentedly, this quasar sample is the only one that, as a standalone cosmological probe, yields such tight constraints on ΩM while being drawn from the same parent population of the initial sample.

Keywords

• quasars
• cosmological parameters
• ΛCDM
• statistical methods