Quasar Bazaar: A Quasar Hack Week
IFPU
2 – 6 February 2026
This workshop aims to bring together a diverse crowd of international re-
searchers –cosmologists, quasars experts, and data scientists– to explore novel anal-
yses and usages of quasar data. We will focus on two main topics: (i) quasars as cosmological tracers and (ii) quasars as multi-modal data. With the recent release of
the Quaia catalog [11] extracted from Gaia DR3, we now have access to 1.3 million
quasar candidates up to redshift z ∼ 4. This makes it a beautiful resource for the
study of the large-scale structure of our Universe, its peculiarities and its properties.
Additionally, for the brightest candidates, we have low-resolution spectra (BP/RP)
from Gaia and some higher-resolution spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
Catalogs and observations from James Webb Space Telescope, DESI, and Euclid
could also be combined. These data enable an array of innovative projects, from
detecting abnormal structures, e.g. using Topological Data Analysis, to analyzing
anomalous quasars objects in the spectra space, or connecting them to the galaxy
structures environment they lie in. Those topics align well with IFPU research areas (e.g. Structures of the Universe) and its goals of encouraging multi-disciplinary programs and new collaborations. To support these objectives and the development of novel ideas in this Focus Week, we plan to create a collaborative space that fosters discussions, “hacking”, experimenting, and learning from researchers with different backgrounds and perspectives.
Meeting program:
Organisers:
- Roberto Trotta
- Gabriella Contardo
- Serafina Di Gioia