Degree Department

Placing High-Redshift Quasars in Perspective: Unifying Distant Quasars with Their Lower Redshift Counterparts through Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (open access)

Placing High-Redshift Quasars in Perspective: Unifying Distant Quasars with Their Lower Redshift Counterparts through Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

I present spectroscopic measurements for 260 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 of Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) quasars at 1.5 < z < 3.5. A combination of the GNIRS and SDSS spectra covers principal quasar diagnostic features, chiefly the C IV λ1549, Mg II λλ2798, 2803, Hβ λ4861, and [O III] λλ4959, 5007 emission lines, in each source. The spectral inventory is utilized primarily to develop prescriptions for obtaining more accurate and precise redshifts, black hole masses, and accretion rates for all quasars. Additionally, the measurements 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.
Date: May 2023
Creator: Matthews, Brandon M.
System: The UNT Digital Library