High-redshift quasars in Euclid

The student will develop the tools for identifying high-redshift z>7 quasars in the Euclid Wide Field Survey, and then implement the survey after Euclid launch in 2023. The first task will be further development of the search algorithm to incorporate emission-line galaxies. This will be tested on Hypersuprimecam Data Release 3. The consequences for the survey selection function will be quantified. Secondly the procedures for working with actual Euclid data will be developed by building a pipeline to process synthetic data in the Euclid archive. Further development will proceed on science verification data, in due course, before application to the first survey data leading up to Data Release 1. The student will also contribute to an ongoing collaboration with Heidelberg, searching for high-z quasars with existing ground-based data. Observations of the confirmed quasars will be used to investigate the evolution of the cosmic neutral fraction of hydrogen during the epoch of reionisation.