XQ-100: A legacy survey of one hundred 3.5 < z < 4.5 quasars observed with VLT/XSHOOTER

Abstract

We describe the execution and data reduction of the European Southern Observatory Large Programme "Quasars and their absorption lines: a legacy survey of the high-redshift universe with VLT/XSHOOTER" (hereafter `XQ-100'). XQ-100 has produced and made publicly available an homogeneous and high-quality sample of echelle spectra of 100 QSOs at redshifts z~3.5-4.5 observed with full spectral coverage from 315 to 2500 nm at a resolving power ranging from R~4000 to 7000, depending on wavelength. The median signal-to-noise ratios are 33, 25 and 43, as measured at rest-frame wavelengths 1700, 3000 and 3600 Angstrom, respectively. This paper provides future users of XQ-100 data with the basic statistics of the survey, along with details of target selection, data acquisition and data reduction. The paper accompanies the public release of all data products, including 100 reduced spectra. XQ-100 is the largest spectroscopic survey to date of high-redshift QSOs with simultaneous rest-frame UV/optical coverage, and as such enables a wide range of extragalactic research, from cosmology and galaxy evolution to AGN astrophysics.

In press at A&A. Table A.2 updated to match the summary table in the ESO archive

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Cited by in corpus (49)

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• The mean free path of ionizing photons at 5 < z < 6: evidence for rapid evolution near reionization
• Constraints from Ly-$\alpha$ forests on non-thermal dark matter including resonantly-produced sterile neutrinos
• Joint constraints on thermal relic dark matter from strong gravitational lensing, the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest, and Milky Way satellites
• Three new VHS-DES Quasars at 6.7 < z < 6.9 and Emission Line Properties at z > 6.5
• XQR-30: the ultimate XSHOOTER quasar sample at the reionization epoch
• Widespread, strong outflows in XQR-30 quasars at the Reionisation epoch
• New Constraints on Quasar Evolution: Broad Line Velocity Shifts over $1.5\lesssim z\lesssim 7.5$
• The cosmology of sub-MeV dark matter freeze-in
• MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies (MAGG) -- I: Survey design and the environment of a near pristine gas cloud at z~3.5
• A New Precision Measurement of the Small-Scale Line-of-Sight Power Spectrum of the Ly$\alpha$ Forest
• Witnessing galaxy assembly in an extended z~3 structure
• XQR-30: Black Hole Masses and Accretion Rates of 42 z>6 Quasars
• A comparison of quasar emission reconstruction techniques for $z\ge 5.0$ Lyman-$\alpha$ and Lyman-$\beta$ transmission
• The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument: One-dimensional power spectrum from first Lyman-$\alpha$ forest samples with Fast Fourier Transform
• Optimal 1D Ly$\alpha$ Forest Power Spectrum Estimation -- II. KODIAQ, SQUAD & XQ-100
• The MUSE Ultra Deep Field (MUDF). I. Discovery of a group of Ly$\alpha$ nebulae associated with a bright $z\approx 3.23$ quasar pair
• The evolution of the Si IV content in the Universe from the epoch of reionization to cosmic noon
• Chemical Abundance of z~6 Quasar Broad-Line Regions in the XQR-30 Sample
• Measuring the mass of the black widow PSR J1555-2908
• The Lyman continuum escape fraction and the Mean Free Path of hydrogen ionizing photons for bright z~4 QSOs from SDSS DR14
• Evidence of First Stars-enriched Gas in High-redshift Absorbers
• Placing High-Redshift Quasars in Perspective: a Catalog of Spectroscopic Properties from the Gemini Near Infrared Spectrograph -- Distant Quasar Survey
• The Astrophysical Consequences of Intervening Galaxy Gas on Fast Radio Bursts
• Into the Lyα jungle: exploring the circumgalactic medium of galaxies at z ~ 4-5 with MUSE
• Evidence of Pop~III stars' chemical signature in neutral gas at z~6. A study based on the E-XQR-30 spectroscopic sample
• Sub-damped Lyman alpha systems in the XQ-100 survey II -- Chemical evolution at 2.4<z<4.3
• Solving the conundrum of intervening strong MgII absorbers towards GRBs and quasars
• Absorption-selected galaxies trace the low-mass, late-type, star-forming population at $z\sim 2-3$
• The Sejong Suite: Cosmological Hydrodynamical Simulations with Massive Neutrinos, Dark Radiation, and Warm Dark Matter
• Possible evidence for a large-scale enhancement in the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest power spectrum at redshift $\text{z}\ge 4$
• A measurement of the Lyman-beta forest power spectrum and its cross with the Lyman-alpha forest in X-Shooter XQ-100
• Deep Forest: Neural Network reconstruction of the Lyman-alpha forest
• Dark matter produced from neutrinos
• Dark matter production through a non-thermal flavon portal
• Characterising SMSS J2157--3602, the most luminous known quasar, with accretion disc models
• The Diversity of Metal-Enrichment and Abundance Patterns at High Redshift: A Magellan Survey of Gas-rich Galaxies Traced by Damped Lyman-alpha Absorbers at z~5
• MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies (MAGG) -- VI. The cool and enriched gas environment of z$\gtrsim$3 Ly$\alpha$ emitters
• The Qz5 Survey (I): How the HI Mass Density of the Universe Evolves With Cosmic Time
• Lognormal semi-numerical simulations of the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest: comparison with full hydrodynamic simulations
• SDSS J1059+4251, a highly magnified z ~ 2.8 star-forming galaxy: ESI observations of the rest-frame UV spectrum
• Constraining the ratio of median pixel optical depth profile around z ~ 4 quasars using the longitudinal proximity effect
• Multi-phase investigation of outflows in the circumgalactic and interstellar media of luminous quasars at z~5
• The igmspec Database of Public Spectra Probing the Intergalactic Medium
• The clustering of C IV and Si IV at the end of reionisation: A perspective from the E-XQR-30 survey
• Weighing Cosmic Structures with Clusters of Galaxies and the Intergalactic Medium
• Emulating the Non-Linear Matter Power-Spectrum in Mixed Axion Dark Matter Models
• DESI DR1 Lyα 1D power spectrum: The Fast Fourier Transform estimator measurement
• MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies (MAGG) -- VII. Emission line galaxies near strong blended Ly$\alpha$ absorption systems at $z\gtrsim 3$