XQR-30 quasars absorption systems properties

Intervening metal absorption lines in the spectra of z ~> 6 quasars are fundamental probes of the ionization state and chemical composition of circumgalactic and intergalactic gas near the end of the reionization epoch. Large absorber samples are required to robustly measure typical absorber properties and to refine models of the synthesis, transport, and ionization of metals in the early Universe. The Ultimate XSHOOTER legacy survey of quasars at z ~ 5.8-6.6 (XQR-30) has obtained high signal-to-noise spectra of 30 luminous quasars, nearly quadrupling the existing sample of 12 high quality z ~ 6 quasar spectra. We use this unprecedented sample to construct a catalogue of 778 systems showing absorption in one or more of Mg II (360 systems), Fe II (184), C II (46), C IV (479), Si IV (127), and N V (13) which span 2 <~ z 5 absorbers, especially for C IV and Si IV which are important probes of the ionizing photon background at high redshift. The sample is 50 per cent (90 per cent) complete for rest-frame equivalent widths W ~> 0.03 {AA} (0.09 {AA}). We publicly release the absorber catalogue along with completeness statistics and a python script to compute the absorption search path for different ions and redshift ranges. This data set is a key legacy resource for studies of enriched gas from the era of galaxy assembly to cosmic noon, and paves the way for even higher redshift studies with JWST and 30 m-class telescopes.

Cone search capability for table J/MNRAS/521/289/tableb1 (Adopted quasars emission redshifts and spectral resolutions for the XQR-30 and archival E-XQR-30)

Identifier
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/521/289
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/MNRAS/521/289
Related Identifier https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/521/289
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/521/289
Provenance
Creator Davies R.L.; Ryan-Weber E.; D'odorico V.; Bosman S.E.I.; Meyer R.A.,Becker G.D.; Cupani G.; Bischetti M.; Sebastian A.M.; Eilers A.-C.,Farina E.P.; Wang F.; Yang J.; Zhu Y.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 2026
Rights https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.html
OpenAccess true
Contact CDS support team <cds-question(at)unistra.fr>
Representation
Resource Type Dataset; AstroObjects
Discipline Astrophysics and Astronomy; Cosmology; Galactic and extragalactic Astronomy; High Energy Astrophysics; Interdisciplinary Astronomy; Natural Sciences; Observational Astronomy; Physics; Stellar Astronomy