A Quasar Discovered at redshift 6.6 from Pan-STARRS1

Luminous high-redshift quasars can be used to probe of the intergalactic medium in the early universe because their UV light is absorbed by the neutral hydrogen along the line of sight. They help us to measure the neutral hydrogen fraction of the high-z universe, shedding light on the end of reionization epoch. In this paper, we present a discovery of a new quasar (PSO J006.1240+39.2219) at redshift z = 6.61 +/- 0.02 from Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System 1.Including this quasar, there are nine quasars above z > 6.5 up to date. The estimated continuum brightness is M-1450 = -25.96 +/- 0.08. PSO J006.1240+39.2219 has a strong Ly alpha emission compared with typical low-redshift quasars, but the measured near-zone region size is R-NZ = 3.2 +/- 1.1 proper megaparsecs, which is consistent with other quasars at z similar to 6.National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NNX08AR22G]; National Science Foundation [AST-1238877]; Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) of Taiwan through grant National Science Council (NSC) [103-2112-M-007-002-MY3, 105-2112-M-007-003-MY3]; MoST of Taiwan [NSC 100-2112-M-001-001-MY3, 104-2112-M-001-034-, 105-2112-M-001-024-]This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu