[5.13] Observations of quasar hosts with the Lick Adaptive Optics system

AAS 200th meeting, Albuquerque, NM, June 2002
Session 5. AGN and Quasars
Display, Monday, June 3, 2002, 9:20am-6:30pm, SW Exhibit Hall

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[5.13] Observations of quasar hosts with the Lick Adaptive Optics system

E. L. Gates (UCO/Lick Observatory), Mark Lacy (Caltech/LLNL/UC-Davis), S. E. Ridgway (Johns Hopkins), W. H. de Vries, G. Canalizo (LLNL)

We report on early results of a campaign to study the hosts of quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey using the adaptive optics (AO) system at Lick Observatory. Three z~1 quasars were observed in H band using natural guide stars to perform the AO corrections. The PSF was synthesised from observations of both the on-axis guide star and a PSF star -- guide star pair chosen to have a similar separation and sky PA to those of the quasar -- guide star pair. Both direct PSF subtraction, and modelling of the host galaxy plus quasar image reveal host galaxies whose magnitudes and scale sizes are consistent with those obtained from HST/NICMOS observations of quasars at similar redshifts. Using adaptive optics, we will be able to study far larger samples than feasible with HST, and perform a statistical analysis of host properties as a function of quasar type and luminosity.

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