Related papers: On the Search for Quasar Light Echoes
We report on our recent detection of the transverse proximity effect of 4 foreground quasars near Q0302-003 (z=3.285) as a local hardness fluctuation in the spectral shape of the intergalactic UV radiation field, found by correlating the HI…
The intense UV radiation from a highly luminous QSO should excite fluorescent Ly-alpha emission from any nearby neutral hydrogen clouds. We present a very deep narrow-band search for such emission near the z=2.168 quasar PKS 0424-131,…
A search for emission lines in foreground galaxies in quasar spectra (z(gal) < z(QSO)) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data release 5 (DR5) reveals 23 examples of quasars shining through low redshift, foreground galaxies at small…
We present rest-frame UV and Ly-alpha images of spatially-resolved structures around five high-redshift radio-loud quasars obtained with the WFPC2 camera on the Hubble Space Telescope. We find that all five quasars are extended and this…
Scattered light echoes from variable and cataclysmic stars offer one of the most effective means to probe the structure and composition of circumtellar and interstellar media. I build a simple model of light-echo surface brightness by…
Quasars trace the most massive structures at high redshifts and their presence may influence the evolution of the massive host galaxies. We study the extended Lyman alpha emission line regions (EELRs) around seven bright, mostly radio-quiet…
We propose a new interpretation of the quasar luminosity function (LF), derived from physically motivated models of quasar lifetimes and light curves. In our picture, quasars evolve rapidly and their lifetime depends on both their…
The lifetime t_Q of the luminous phase of quasars is constrained by current observations to be between 10^6 and 10^8 years, but is otherwise unkown. We model the quasar luminosity function in detail in the optical and X-ray bands using the…
What are the frequency, shape, kinematics, and luminosity of Ly\alpha\ envelopes surrounding radio-quiet quasars at high redshift, and is the luminosity of these envelopes related to that of the quasar or not? As a first step towards…
We show that comparisons of HeII Lyman-alpha forest lines of sight to nearby quasar populations can strongly constrain the lifetimes and emission geometry of quasars. By comparing the HeII and HI Lyman-alpha forests along a particular line…
The spectra of the first galaxies and quasars in the Universe should be strongly absorbed shortward of their rest-frame Lyman-alpha wavelength by neutral hydrogen (HI) in the intervening intergalactic medium. However, the Lyman-alpha line…
We present a method for studying the proximity effect and the density structure around redshift z=2-3 quasars. It is based on the probability distribution of Lyman-alpha pixel optical depths and its evolution with redshift. We validate the…
The extents of proximity zones of high-redshift quasars enable constraints on the timescales of quasar activity, which are fundamental for understanding the growth of the supermassive black holes (SMBHs) that power the quasars' emission. In…
Although the population of luminous quasars rises and falls over a period of 10^9 years, the typical lifetime of individual quasars is uncertain by several orders of magnitude. We show that quasar clustering measurements can substantially…
Since the discovery of $z\sim 6$ quasars two decades ago, studies of their Ly$\alpha$-transparent proximity zones have largely focused on their utility as a probe of cosmic reionization. But even when in a highly ionized intergalactic…
The discovery of quasars few hundred megayears after the Big Bang represents a major challenge to our understanding of black holes and galaxy formation and evolution. Their luminosity is produced by extreme gas accretion onto black holes,…
Quasars are the most luminous sources in the Universe. They are currently observed out to redshift z ~ 7 when the Universe was less than one tenth of its present age. Since their discovery 50 years ago astronomers have dreamed of using them…
Astronomical light echoes, the time-dependent light scattered by dust in the vicinity of varying objects, have been recognized for over a century. Initially, their utility was thought to be confined to mapping out the three-dimensional…
Using the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope with both far-UV (FUV) and near-UV (NUV) gratings, we measure the ionizing spectra of two bright, intermediate-redshift quasars in their rest-frame extreme…
A sample of quasars has been recently assembled to investigate the non-linear relation between their monochromatic luminosities at 2500{\AA}, and 2 keV and to exploit quasars as a new class of standardized candles. The use of this technique…