Related papers: Quasar Radio-Loudness and the Elliptical Core Prob…
The results of a comprehensive study of the cluster environments and black-hole masses of an optically matched sample of radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars are presented. No evidence is found for a difference in large-scale environments,…
X-ray luminous radio-quiet high redshift QSOs are rare and can be used for the investigation of several important astronomical questions. We have conducted a large area survey for radio-quiet high redshift QSOs in the ROSAT All-Sky Survey,…
Recent work on red and blue quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) has identified peculiar number distributions as a function of radio loudness that we explore and attempt to explain from the perspective of a picture in which a subset of the…
We present analysis of a homogeneous, optically selected, volume-limited ($0.2<z<0.3$) sample of 128 radio-quiet quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) recently observed at 6 GHz with the Very Large Array (VLA) in A-configuration ($\sim0.33''$…
The distribution of QSO radio luminosities has long been debated in the literature. Some argue that it is a bimodal distribution, implying that there are two separate QSO populations (normally referred to as 'radio-loud' and 'radio-quiet'),…
Evidence has accumulated suggesting the clustering of radio loud quasars is greater than for radio quiet quasars. We interpret these results in a context in which the fraction of radio loud quasar formation is less than or equal to that for…
We test the hypothesis that radio galaxies are a random subset of otherwise normal elliptical galaxies. Starting with the observed optical luminosity functions for elliptical galaxies, we show that the probability of an elliptical forming a…
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 use a homogeneous sample of about 300, 0.3 <~ z <~ 3, radio-loud quasars drawn from the FIRST and 2dF QSO surveys to investigate a possible dependence of radio activity on black-hole mass. By analyzing composite spectra for the…
We present a new approach to tackle the issue of radio loudness in quasars. We constrain a (simple) prescription for the intrinsic distribution of radio-to-optical ratios by comparing properties of Monte Carlo simulated samples with those…
Over the past few years, we have been collecting data with the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) on the galaxy environments around active galactic nuclei (AGN). Here we present some results from a sample of 21 radio-loud and 20 radio-quiet…
The majority of this paper is devoted to discrete radio sources, and their consequences for cosmology. Three main issues are considered: (i) what makes a galaxy radio loud?; (ii) what do we know about how the population of radio-loud…
Based on an $R$-band imaging survey of high-redshift ($z \approx 2$) QSOs with the 4.2m WHT, we report the detection of extensions to the nuclear PSFs of two radio-quiet and one radio-loud QSO. The extensions are most likely host galaxies,…
In this paper we present results of an analysis of radio-quiet QSO environments. The aim is to determine the relation between QSOs and galaxies as a function of redshift. We cross-correlate a sample of ~150 QSOs from optically and X-ray…
We present results of the hosts of four high-redshift ($z \approx 2$) and high luminosity ($M_B \lsim -28$ mag) QSOs, three radio-quiet one radio-loud, imaged in R and K bands. The extensions to the nuclear unresolved source are most likely…
To better constrain the hypotheses proposed to explain why only a few quasars are radio loud (RL), we compare the characteristics of 1958 nearby $(z\le 0.3)$ SDSS quasars, covered by the FIRST and NVSS radio surveys. Only 22\% are RL with…
QSOs and radio-galaxies, together with the CMB, ``normal'' galaxies and clusters, represent the main source of information about the origin and evolution of the Large Scale Structure. They can be used either directly, as tracers of the…
We present near-infrared imaging of the host galaxies of 17 quasars in the redshift range 1 < z < 2, carried out at the ESO VLT UT1 8m telescope under excellent seeing conditions (~0.4 arcsec). The sample includes radio-loud (RLQ) and…
QSOs' emission lines arise from highest velocity (approximately 10000 km/s), dense gas within approximately 0.1 parsec of the central engine, out to low-velocity, low-density gas at great distances from the host galaxy. In radio-loud QSOs…
I bring together evidence for the rapidity with which quasars' radio synchrotron lobe emission fades and for the intermittency with which jet plasma is ejected from individual quasars and radio galaxies and affirm the picture presented by…