AllBRICQS: The Discovery of Luminous Quasars in the Northern Hemisphere

Abstract

We present the second catalog of bright quasars from the All-sky BRIght, Complete Quasar Survey (AllBRICQS), focusing on spectroscopically observed quasars in the Northern Hemisphere with Galactic latitude |b| > 10 degrees. This catalog includes their spectral data, redshifts, and luminosities. AllBRICQS aims to identify the last remaining optically bright quasars using data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer and Gaia all-sky survey Data Release 3 (DR3). AllBRICQS searches for quasars that are brighter than B-P = 16.5 or R-P = 16 mag in Gaia DR3, based on simple selection criteria. Here, we report 62 new AllBRICQS quasars spanning various types, which include typical broad emission line quasars and the most luminous iron low-ionization broad absorption line quasars discovered to date. Spectroscopic observations were conducted using the Long-Slit Spectrograph on the 1.8 m telescope at Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory, the Yunnan Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera on the 2.4 m telescope at Lijiang Observatory, and the Beijing Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera on the 2.16 m telescope at Xinglong Observatory. We applied flux calibration using Zwicky Transient Facility broadband photometry to correct for attenuation due to intermittent thin clouds during the observations. Redshifts were determined using inverse-variance weighted cross-correlation methods. Our targets span the bolometric luminosity range of 44.9 < log (L-bol/erg s(-1)) < 48.0 at redshifts between 0.09 and 2.48. These confirmed AllBRICQS quasars provide a valuable resource for future research into quasar evolution, black holes, their environments, and their host galaxies across multiple wavelengths. Show more