Placing High-Redshift Quasars in Perspective: a Catalog of Spectroscopic Properties from the Gemini Near Infrared Spectrograph -- Distant Quasar Survey

Abstract

We present spectroscopic measurements for 226 sources from the Gemini Near Infrared Spectrograph - Distant Quasar Survey (GNIRS-DQS). Being the largest uniform, homogeneous survey of its kind, it represents a flux-limited sample ($m_i$ $\lesssim$ 19.0 mag, $H$ $\lesssim$ 16.5 mag) of Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) quasars at 1.5 $\lesssim$ $z$ $\lesssim$ 3.5 with a monochromatic luminosity ($\lambda L_{\lambda }$) at 5100 ${\unicode{xC5}}$ in the range of $10^{44}-10^{46}$ erg ${\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$. A combination of the GNIRS and SDSS spectra covers principal quasar diagnostic features, chiefly the C IV $\lambda$1549, Mg II $\lambda \lambda$2798, 2803, H$\beta$ $\lambda$4861, and [O III] $\lambda \lambda$4959, 5007 emission lines, in each source. The spectral inventory will be utilized primarily to develop prescriptions for obtaining more accurate and precise redshifts, black hole masses, and accretion rates for all quasars. Additionally, the measurements will facilitate an understanding of the dependence of rest-frame ultraviolet-optical spectral properties of quasars on redshift, luminosity, and Eddington ratio, and test whether the physical properties of the quasar central engine evolve over cosmic time.

20 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in ApJS; catalog data can be obtained at http://physics.uwyo.edu/agn/GNIRS-DQS/spectra.html

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• Gemini Near Infrared Spectrograph -- Distant Quasar Survey: Augmented Spectroscopic Catalog and a Prescription for Correcting UV-Based Quasar Redshifts
• The missing FeII bump in faint JWST AGN: possible evidence for metal-poor broad-line regions at early cosmic times
• Shedding New Light on Weak Emission-Line Quasars in the C${}_{\mathrm{IV}}$-H$\beta$ Parameter Space
• [OIII] emission in z=2 quasars with and without Broad Absorption Lines
• Gemini Near Infrared Spectrograph - Distant Quasar Survey: Prescriptions for Calibrating UV-Based Estimates of Supermassive Black Hole Masses in High-Redshift Quasars
• Spectral variability studies in Active Galactic Nuclei: Exploring continuum and emission line regions in the age of LSST and JWST
• QUEST (Quasar Unsupervised Encoder and Synthesis Tool): A machine learning framework to generate quasar spectra
• Can X-ray Observations Improve Optical-UV-based Accretion-Rate Estimates for Quasars?
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