A large sample of binary quasars: Does quasar bias tracks from Mpc to kpc scales?

We present the most precise estimate to date of the bias of quasars on very small scales, based on a measurement of the clustering of 47 spectroscopically confirmed binary quasars with proper transverse separations of ~25 h^{-1} kpc. The quasars in our sample, which is an order-of-magnitude larger than previous samples, are targeted using a Kernel Density Estimation technique (KDE) applied to Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) imaging over most of the SDSS area. Our sample is "complete," in that all possible pairs of binary quasars across our area of interest have been spectroscopically confirmed from a combination of previous surveys and our own long-slit observational campaign. We determine the projected correlation function of quasars (\bar W_p) in four bins of proper transverse scale over the range 17.0 \lesssim R_{prop} \lesssim 36.2 h^{-1} kpc. Due to our large sample size, our measured projected correlation function in each of these four bins of scale is more than twice as precise as any previous measurement made over our {\em full} range of scales. We also measure the bias of our quasar sample in four slices of redshift across the range 0.43 \le z \le 2.26 and compare our results to similar measurements of how quasar bias evolves on Mpc-scales. This measurement addresses the question of whether it is reasonable to assume that quasar bias evolves with redshift in a similar fashion on both Mpc and kpc scales. Our results can meaningfully constrain the one-halo term of the Halo Occupation Distribution (HOD) of quasars and how it evolves with redshift. This work was partially supported by NSF grant 1515404.