The FIRST Bright Quasar Survey. II. 60 Nights and 1200 Spectra Later

Journal Article · Tue Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 2000 · Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1086/313300· OSTI ID:20216725

White, Richard L; Becker, Robert H; Gregg, Michael D; Laurent-Muehleisen, Sally A; Brotherton, Michael S; Impey, Chris D; Petry, Catherine E; Foltz, Craig B; Chaffee, Frederic H; Richards, Gordon T ^[1]

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1. and others

We have used the Very Large Array (VLA) FIRST survey and the Automated Plate Measuring Facility (APM) catalog of the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey I (POSS-I) plates as the basis for constructing a new radio-selected sample of optically bright quasars. This is the first radio-selected sample that is competitive in size with current optically selected quasar surveys. Using only two basic criteria, radio-optical positional coincidence and optical morphology, quasars and BL Lac objects can be identified with 60% selection efficiency; the efficiency increases to 70% for objects fainter than 17 mag. We show that a more sophisticated selection scheme can predict with better than 85% reliability which candidates will turn out to be quasars. This paper presents the second installment of the FIRST Bright Quasar Survey (FBQS), with a catalog of 636 quasars distributed over 2682 deg2. The quasar sample is characterized and all spectra are displayed. The FBQS detects both radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars out to redshift z>3. We find a large population of objects of intermediate radio loudness; there is no evidence in our sample for a bimodal distribution of radio characteristics. The sample includes {approx}29 broad absorption line quasars, both high and low ionization, and a number of new objects with remarkable optical spectra. (c) (c) 2000. The American Astronomical Society.

• OSTI ID: 20216725
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 126; ISSN 0067-0049; ISSN APJSA2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
BL LACERTAE OBJECTS
CATALOGS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
IDENTIFICATION SYSTEMS
QUASARS
RADIOWAVE RADIATION
RED SHIFT
SAMPLING
VISIBLE SPECTRA