The Radio-Loud Fraction of Quasars is a Strong Function of Redshift and Optical Luminosity

Using a sample of optically-selected quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we have determined the radio-loud fraction (RLF) of quasars as a function of redshift and optical luminosity. The sample contains more than 30,000 objects and spans a redshift range of 0 < z 6 5 and a luminosity range of −30 6 Mi < −22. We use both the radio-to-optical flux ratio (R parameter) and radio luminosity to define radio-loud quasars. After breaking the correlation between redshift and luminosity due to the flux-limited nature of the sample, we find that the RLF of quasars decreases with increasing redshift and decreasing luminosity. The relation can be described in the form of log(RLF/(1–RLF)) = b0+bz log(1+z)+bM(M2500+26), whereM2500 is the absolute magnitude at restframe 2500 Å, and bz , bM < 0. When using R > 10 to define radio-loud quasars, we find that b0 = −0.132±0.116, bz = −2.052±0.261, and bM = −0.183±0.025. The RLF at z = 0.5 declines from 24.3% to 5.6% as luminosity decreases from M2500 = −26 to M2500 = −22, and the RLF at M2500 = −26 declines from 24.3% to 4.1% as redshift increases from 0.5 to 3, suggesting that the RLF is a strong function of both redshift and luminosity. We also examine the impact of fluxrelated selection effects on the RLF determination using a series of tests, and find that the dependence of the RLF on redshift and luminosity is highly likely to be physical, and the selection effects we considered are not responsible for the dependence. Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721 Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195 Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Peyton Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544 Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218 Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University, 525 Davey Laboratory, University Park, PA 16802