The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project : sample characterization
Abstract
We present a detailed characterization of the 849 broad-line quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping (SDSS-RM) project. Our quasar sample covers a redshift range of 0.1 < z < 4.5 and is flux-limited to i PSF < 21.7 without any other cuts on quasar properties. The main sample characterization includes: (1) spectral measurements of the continuum and broad emission lines for individual objects from the coadded first-season spectroscopy in 2014, (2) identification of broad and narrow absorption lines in the spectra, and (3) optical variability properties for continuum and broad lines from multi-epoch spectroscopy. We provide improved systemic redshift estimates for all quasars and demonstrate the effects of the signal-to-noise ratio on the spectral measurements. We compile measured properties for all 849 quasars along with supplemental multi-wavelength data for subsets of our sample from other surveys. The SDSS-RM sample probes a diverse range in quasar properties and shows well-detected continuum and broad-line variability for many objects from first-season monitoring data. The compiled properties serve as the benchmark for follow-up work based on SDSS-RM data. The spectral fitting tools are made public along with this work.
Citation
Shen , Y , Hall , P B , Horne , K , Zhu , G , McGreer , I , Simm , T , Trump , J R , Kinemuchi , K , Brandt , W N , Green , P J , Grier , C J , Guo , H , Ho , L C , Homayouni , Y , Jiang , L , Li , J I-H , Morganson , E , Petitjean , P , Richards , G T , Schneider , D P , Starkey , D A , Wang , S , Chambers , K , Kaiser , N , Kudritzki , R-P , Magnier , E & Waters , C 2019 , ' The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project : sample characterization ' , Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series , vol. 241 , no. 2 , 34 . https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/ab074f
Publication
Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1538-4365Type
Journal article
Description
Y.S. acknowledges support from an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship and NSF grant AST-1715579. P.H. acknowledges support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), funding reference number 2017-05983. W.N.B. acknowledges support from NSF grant AST-1516784. C.J.G., W.N.B., and D.P.S. acknowledge support from NSF grant AST-1517113. Funding for SDSS-III has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science.Collections
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