A Catalog of Quasar Properties from Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 16

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive catalog of over 750,000 quasars from SDSS DR16, including their spectral properties, redshifts, and physical parameters, enabling detailed statistical studies of quasar diversity and correlations.

Contribution

The paper introduces an extensive, improved catalog of quasar properties from SDSS DR16, with refined redshifts and physical measurements, surpassing previous datasets in size and accuracy.

Findings

Catalog includes 750,414 quasars with broad redshift and luminosity ranges.

Improved systemic redshifts with quantified uncertainties and corrections.

Demonstrates utility in analyzing quasar spectral diversity and property correlations.

Abstract

We present a catalog of continuum and emission line properties for 750,414 broad-line quasars included in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 16 quasar catalog (DR16Q), measured from optical spectroscopy. These quasars cover broad ranges in redshift ($0.1\lesssim z\lesssim 6$) and luminosity ($44\lesssim \log (L_{\rm bol}/{\rm erg\,s^{-1}})\lesssim 48$), and probe lower luminosities than an earlier compilation of SDSS DR7 quasars. Derived physical quantities such as single-epoch virial black hole masses and bolometric luminosities are also included in this catalog. We present improved systemic redshifts and realistic redshift uncertainties for DR16Q quasars using the measured line peaks and correcting for velocity shifts of various lines with respect to the systemic velocity. About 1%, 1.4%, and 11% of the original DR16Q redshifts deviate from the systemic redshifts by $|\Delta V|>1500\,{\rm km\,s^{-1}}$, $|\Delta V|\in [1000,1500]\,{\rm km\,s^{-1}}$, and $|\Delta V|\in [500,1000]\,{\rm km\,s^{-1}}$, respectively; about $1900$ DR16Q redshifts were catastrophically wrong ($|\Delta V|>10,000\,{\rm km\,s^{-1}}$). We demonstrate the utility of this data product in quantifying the spectral diversity and correlations among physical properties of quasars with large statistical samples.