Program: GN-2009A-Q-2

Title:z=6 quasars to probe the reionization of the universe
PI:Chris Willott
Co-I(s): David Crampton, John Hutchings, David Schade, Jacqueline Bergeron, Alain Omont

Abstract

Cosmological reionization ends at redshifts around 6. Reionization is a highly inhomogeneous process, and therefore many sightlines are needed to get an accurate picture of the ionization state of the high redshift IGM. We have nearly completed a wide-field optical imaging survey with MegaCam at the CFHT of 900 sq deg with the goals of finding z~6 quasars and ultracool brown dwarfs. We have so far spectroscopically confirmed thirteen z~6 quasars and expect many more within the area observed so far. We request time with GMOS-North to obtain optical spectroscopy of more quasars from our survey to confirm their quasar identity and determine redshifts.

Publications using this program's data