Quasars with large proper motions: A selection from the LQAC-5 catalogue combined with Gaia EDR3

Focusing on astrometric and photometric properties^⋆

¹ SYRTE, Observatoire de Paris – Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, LNE, 61 avenue de l’Observatoire, 75014 Paris, France
e-mail: jean.souchay@obspm.fr
² U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington, DC 20392-5420, USA

Received: 30 July 2021
Accepted: 8 January 2022

Abstract

Context. Thanks to the cross-identification between the Gaia EDR3 (E-Data Release 3) catalogue and the quasars’ compiled catalogue LQAC-5 (Large Quasar Astrometric Catalogue-5), accurate astrometric parameters as well as photometric measurements were available for a set of 416 113 quasars.

Aims. After analysing the astrometric and photometric properties of these quasars,we concentrate our study on objects characterized by significant proper motion, which contradicts the postulate that they are fixed in the celestial sphere.

Methods. We derived statistical properties of the positions, parallaxes, and proper motions of the quasars cross-matched with Gaia EDR3. We carried out a specific investigation of quasars with a proper motion larger than 10 mas yr⁻¹, and used colour–colour diagrams in mid-infrared to discriminate these quasars from stellar contamination. We discuss, in detail, a few cases where the abnormal proper motion could be caused by misidentifications.

Results. We note that 43% of LQAC-5 quasars were not detected by Gaia EDR3, mainly because of the cut-off magnitude at G = 21. The comparison between r(G) (Gaia) and r (SDSS) shows a normal distribution. The normalized distributions of parallaxes and proper motions are identical to that of the Gaia CRF2, as well as the distribution of the G_BP − G_RP colour index. We have identified 937 LQAC-5 objects (0.27% of the sample) with Gaia EDR3 proper motion which is significant at the 5σ level. We have clearly shown that below z = 0.35, the integrated magnitude G(r) obtained from SDSS spectra is smaller than G (Gaia), leading to the statement that the quasars are generally resolved under this threshold, which should lead to a bad determination of proper motion. Moreover, to discriminate quasars from stellar contamination, we have plotted them in a mid-infrared colour–colour diagram. Finally, we have made a final selection of 41 objects with μ > 10 mas yr⁻¹, satisfying drastic constraints, which makes them potential candidates for considering their proper motion as real.

Conclusions. In this paper we carried out a complete analysis of the quasars of the LQAC-5 which were cross-identified with Gaia EDR3 ; this serves as an alternative and complementary study with respect to Gaia CRF2, involving a different population of quasars. We selected a set of 41 quasars with a proper motion exceeding 10 mas yr⁻¹, which can be considered as very high for objects which are a priori fixed in the celestial sphere.