Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2026
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.10135 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1866915851665408000 |
|---|---|
| author | Davies, Frederick B. Bosman, Sarah E. I. Ganguly, Arpita Bañados, Eduardo Belladitta, Silvia Stern, Daniel Barroso, Javier A. Acevedo Yang, Daming Hennawi, Joseph F. Wang, Feige Yang, Jinyi Fan, Xiaohui |
| author_facet | Davies, Frederick B. Bosman, Sarah E. I. Ganguly, Arpita Bañados, Eduardo Belladitta, Silvia Stern, Daniel Barroso, Javier A. Acevedo Yang, Daming Hennawi, Joseph F. Wang, Feige Yang, Jinyi Fan, Xiaohui |
| contents | Photometric selection of luminous high-redshift ($z\gtrsim4$) quasars is plagued by contamination from numerous low-mass Galactic stars, reddened lower-redshift quasars, as well as compact luminous red galaxies. Confirmation of these rare objects thus requires extensive spectroscopic campaigns on 4 and 8-meter-class telescopes with relatively low success rates. Here we demonstrate the utility of SPHEREx spectrophotometric survey data for quasar confirmation with no ground-based follow-up required, "from the couch," applied to candidates from a purposefully simplistic photometric and astrometric Gaia+WISE selection down to low Galactic latitudes ($|b|\geq8^\circ$). Primarily from the detection of their strong broad H$α$ emission lines, we discover 87 new luminous $4.0 < z < 5.7$ quasars with median $M_\text{1450} = -27.5$, including 19 quasars at $z>5$, and recover 219 previously published quasars at $z>4$. We validate our SPHEREx selection with a 100% confirmation rate in ground-based spectroscopic follow-up of 29 of our new $z>4$ quasars, including 11 unpublished archival spectra. We also discover 203 additional lower-redshift quasars at $0.3 < z < 4$, consisting primarily of relatively rare highly-reddened and strong broad-absorption-line objects that are likely missed by traditional quasar surveys. Finally, we show that the Ly$α$ absorption breaks and H$α$ lines of luminous quasars are already detectable at redshifts $5.7\lesssim z\lesssim6.5$ after the completion of only the first of four all-sky surveys to be performed by SPHEREx during its planned two-year mission. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_10135 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Three Hundred Quasars from the Couch: A first look at high-redshift quasar discovery with SPHEREx Davies, Frederick B. Bosman, Sarah E. I. Ganguly, Arpita Bañados, Eduardo Belladitta, Silvia Stern, Daniel Barroso, Javier A. Acevedo Yang, Daming Hennawi, Joseph F. Wang, Feige Yang, Jinyi Fan, Xiaohui Astrophysics of Galaxies Photometric selection of luminous high-redshift ($z\gtrsim4$) quasars is plagued by contamination from numerous low-mass Galactic stars, reddened lower-redshift quasars, as well as compact luminous red galaxies. Confirmation of these rare objects thus requires extensive spectroscopic campaigns on 4 and 8-meter-class telescopes with relatively low success rates. Here we demonstrate the utility of SPHEREx spectrophotometric survey data for quasar confirmation with no ground-based follow-up required, "from the couch," applied to candidates from a purposefully simplistic photometric and astrometric Gaia+WISE selection down to low Galactic latitudes ($|b|\geq8^\circ$). Primarily from the detection of their strong broad H$α$ emission lines, we discover 87 new luminous $4.0 < z < 5.7$ quasars with median $M_\text{1450} = -27.5$, including 19 quasars at $z>5$, and recover 219 previously published quasars at $z>4$. We validate our SPHEREx selection with a 100% confirmation rate in ground-based spectroscopic follow-up of 29 of our new $z>4$ quasars, including 11 unpublished archival spectra. We also discover 203 additional lower-redshift quasars at $0.3 < z < 4$, consisting primarily of relatively rare highly-reddened and strong broad-absorption-line objects that are likely missed by traditional quasar surveys. Finally, we show that the Ly$α$ absorption breaks and H$α$ lines of luminous quasars are already detectable at redshifts $5.7\lesssim z\lesssim6.5$ after the completion of only the first of four all-sky surveys to be performed by SPHEREx during its planned two-year mission. |
| title | Three Hundred Quasars from the Couch: A first look at high-redshift quasar discovery with SPHEREx |
| topic | Astrophysics of Galaxies |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.10135 |