TY - JOUR
T1 - Optical and near-infrared spectroscopy of quasars at z > 6.5
T2 - Public data release and composite spectrum
AU - Onorato, Silvia
AU - Hennawi, Joseph F.
AU - Schindler, Jan Torge
AU - Yang, Jinyi
AU - Wang, Feige
AU - Barth, Aaron J.
AU - Bañados, Eduardo
AU - Eilers, Anna Christina
AU - Bosman, Sarah E.I.
AU - Davies, Frederick B.
AU - Venemans, Bram P.
AU - Mazzucchelli, Chiara
AU - Belladitta, Silvia
AU - Vito, Fabio
AU - Farina, Emanuele Paolo
AU - Andika, Irham T.
AU - Fan, Xiaohui
AU - Walter, Fabian
AU - Decarli, Roberto
AU - Masafusa, O.
AU - Nanni, Riccardo
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society.
PY - 2025/6/1
Y1 - 2025/6/1
N2 - We present optical and near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopic observations for a sample of 45 quasars at from ground-based instruments. Despite the diversity in instrumental set-ups and spectral quality, the data set is uniformly processed and well-characterized, making it ideally suited for several scientific goals, including the study of the quasar proximity zones and damping wings, the Ly forest, the intergalactic medium's metal content, as well as other properties such as the distribution of SMBH masses and Eddington ratios. Our composite spectrum is compared to others at both high and low z from the literature, showing differences in the strengths of many emission lines, probably due to differences in luminosity among the samples, but a consistent continuum slope, which proves that the same spectral features are preserved in quasars at different redshift ranges.
AB - We present optical and near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopic observations for a sample of 45 quasars at from ground-based instruments. Despite the diversity in instrumental set-ups and spectral quality, the data set is uniformly processed and well-characterized, making it ideally suited for several scientific goals, including the study of the quasar proximity zones and damping wings, the Ly forest, the intergalactic medium's metal content, as well as other properties such as the distribution of SMBH masses and Eddington ratios. Our composite spectrum is compared to others at both high and low z from the literature, showing differences in the strengths of many emission lines, probably due to differences in luminosity among the samples, but a consistent continuum slope, which proves that the same spectral features are preserved in quasars at different redshift ranges.
KW - cosmology: early Universe
KW - galaxies: active
KW - methods: data analysis
KW - quasars: supermassive black holes
KW - techniques: spectroscopic
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105007000636
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105007000636#tab=citedBy
U2 - 10.1093/mnras/staf787
DO - 10.1093/mnras/staf787
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:105007000636
SN - 0035-8711
VL - 540
SP - 1308
EP - 1328
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
IS - 1
ER -