An Exploratory Analysis of New Large Gaia-informed Quasar Samples in SDSS-V

@article{aviram2026exploratory,
  title = {{An Exploratory Analysis of New Large Gaia-informed Quasar Samples in SDSS-V}},
  author = {Shir Aviram and Benny Trakhtenbrot and Tom Dwelly and Scott F. Anderson and Sean Morrison and Michael Eracleous and Yue Shen and Mara Salvato and Donald P. Schneider and Roberto J. Assef and Catarina Aydar and Franz E. Bauer and W. N. Brandt and Joel R. Brownstein and Johannes Buchner and Jeremy Darling and José G. Fernández-Trincado and Patrick B. Hall and Dong-Woo Kim and Anton M. Koekemoer and Stephanie LaMassa and Andrea Merloni and Claudio Ricci and Qian Yang and Grisha Zeltyn},
  journal = {The Astrophysical Journal},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/aea57b},
  url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aea57b},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}

TY  - JOUR
TI  - An Exploratory Analysis of New Large Gaia-informed Quasar Samples in SDSS-V
AU  - Shir Aviram
AU  - Benny Trakhtenbrot
AU  - Tom Dwelly
AU  - Scott F. Anderson
AU  - Sean Morrison
AU  - Michael Eracleous
AU  - Yue Shen
AU  - Mara Salvato
AU  - Donald P. Schneider
AU  - Roberto J. Assef
AU  - Catarina Aydar
AU  - Franz E. Bauer
AU  - W. N. Brandt
AU  - Joel R. Brownstein
AU  - Johannes Buchner
AU  - Jeremy Darling
AU  - José G. Fernández-Trincado
AU  - Patrick B. Hall
AU  - Dong-Woo Kim
AU  - Anton M. Koekemoer
AU  - Stephanie LaMassa
AU  - Andrea Merloni
AU  - Claudio Ricci
AU  - Qian Yang
AU  - Grisha Zeltyn
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/19
JO  - The Astrophysical Journal
DO  - 10.3847/1538-4357/aea57b
UR  - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aea57b
AB  - Quasars are extremely luminous objects that provide insights into the physics and evolution of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and their accretion flows, galaxy evolution, and even cosmology. In this study, we present an exploratory study based on the ongoing fifth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-V) and its unique dual-hemisphere, wide-field, and multiobject spectroscopic capabilities, with the aim of creating a comprehensive, all-sky quasar sample. The targets were selected through two novel methods, Gaia–unWISE AGN (GUA) and Skewt_QSO, that rely primarily on data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and Gaia, aiming to address gaps in previous large quasar samples. Our sample includes over 250,000 spectroscopically confirmed quasars reaching to z ∼ 5, with tens of thousands of newly identified quasars in the southern hemisphere. The selection methods are highly pure, with well over 80% of the spectra collected being genuine quasars; the main contaminants are M-type stars. The detailed spectral decomposition procedure we employed shows that the quasars in the sample span a wide range of luminosities ( L bol ∼ 10 ⁴⁴ −10 ⁴⁸ erg s ⁻¹ ), SMBH masses ( M BH ∼ 10 ⁶ −10 ¹⁰ M ⊙ ), and accretion rates ( L / L Edd ∼ 0.01−1). The distributions of these properties are consistent with those of previous quasar catalogs, which are based on past generations of SDSS, once we account for potential selection biases related to the various survey depths. Our findings confirm that novel selection methods based on optical+infrared colors and/or astrometry can yield a large, high-purity quasar sample over wide sky areas, including in cases where more nuanced multiband photometry and/or multiwavelength data in the X-ray or radio are not available. This SDSS-V sample, which is expected to grow in the near future, establishes a robust reference for future southern (time-domain) surveys, while enhancing and complementing our understanding of quasar demographics and SMBH evolution.
SN  - 0004-637X
SN  - 1538-4357
ER  -