Standardizing reverberation-measured C IV time-lag quasars, and using them with standardized Mg II quasars to constrain cosmological parameters

Abstract

We use 38 C IV quasar (QSO) reverberation-mapped (RM) observations, which span eight orders of magnitude in luminosity and the redshift range $0.001064\le z\le 3.368$, to simultaneously constrain cosmological-model and QSO radius-luminosity ($R-L$) relation parameters in six cosmological models, using an improved technique that more correctly accounts for the asymmetric errors bars of the time-lag measurements. We find that $R-L$ relation parameters are independent of the cosmological models used in the analysis and so the $R-L$ relation can be used to standardize the C IV QSOs. The C IV QSO cosmological constraints are consistent with those from Mg II QSOs, allowing us to derive joint C IV + Mg II QSO cosmological constraints which are consistent with currently accelerated cosmological expansion, as well as consistent with cosmological constraints derived using better-established baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) and Hubble parameter [$H(z)$] measurements. When jointly analyzed with $H(z)$ + BAO data, current C IV + Mg II QSO data mildly tighten current $H(z)$ + BAO data cosmological constraints.

Comments: 19 pages, 11 figures, MNRAS accepted version