The UV-bright Quasar Survey (UVQS): DR1

TL;DR

The UV-bright Quasar Survey (UVQS) DR1 identifies and confirms 217 new AGN at z~1 using UV and IR color selection, providing valuable targets for UV spectroscopy and publicly releasing the data.

Contribution

This work presents the first data release of UVQS, discovering and confirming new UV-bright AGN using color selection and spectroscopic follow-up, expanding the catalog of high-redshift AGN.

Findings

Confirmed 86% of candidates as AGN with z>0.5

Discovered 217 new AGN without previous redshifts

Publicly released data through Mikulski Archive

Abstract

We present the first data release (DR1) from our UV-bright Quasar Survey (UVQS) for new $z \sim 1$ active galactic nuclei (AGN) across the sky. Using simple GALEX UV and WISE near-IR color selection criteria, we generated a list of 1450 primary candidates with $FUV < 18.5$ mag. We obtained discovery spectra, primarily on 3m-class telescopes, for 1040 of these candidates and confirmed 86% as AGN with redshifts generally at $z>0.5$. Including a small set of observed secondary candidates, we report the discovery of 217 AGN with $FUV < 18$ mag that had no previously reported spectroscopic redshift. These are excellent potential targets for UV spectroscopy before the end of the {\it Hubble Space Telescope} mission. The main data products are publicly released through the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes.