Program: GS-2022A-Q-124

Title:Spectroscopic confirmation of dual AGNs with separation less than 6 kpc
PI:John Silverman
Co-I(s): Xuheng Ding, Tilman Hartwig, Masa Imanishi, Kazushi Iwasawa, Toshihiro Kawaguchi, Kotaro Kohno, Khee-Gan Lee, Andy Goulding, Yoshiki Matsuoka, Tohru Nagao, Masamune Oguri, Malte Schramm, Masami Ouchi, Shenli Tang, Michael Strauss, Nao Suzuki, Yoshihiro Ueda, Naoki Yasuda, Kazuhiro Shimasaku, Knud Jahnke, Xavier Prochaska

Abstract

Gemini/Flamingos-2 spectroscopy is requested to confirm the nature of a sample of dual quasar candidates with projected separation less than 6 kpc, an extremely rare population. With the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Subaru Strategic Program, we have identified SDSS quasars that have two separate point sources with <4" separation. To date, optical spectroscopy has confirmed a sample of eight physically-associated quasars with separation up to 20 kpc. Flamingos-2 will provide higher spatial resolution to acquire spectra of each component for those with projected separation of ~0.6". This program is needed to reach our final goal of acquiring a statistical sample of spectroscopically-confirmed dual quasars to measure their frequency and evolution of such systems up to z~3 with a comparison to predictions from hydrodynamic cosmological simulations. These results will place important constraints on merger simulations of galaxies and their supermassive black holes that are input to an estimate of gravitational wave events to be detected by LISA. Furthermore, this program will provide remarkable laboratories for studying the fueling of dual supermassive black holes with other instruments such as ALMA and JWST.