Related papers: A Quasar Discovered at redshift 6.6 from Pan-STARR…
The detection of starlight from the host galaxies of quasars during the reionization epoch ($z>6$) has been elusive, even with deep HST observations. The current highest redshift quasar host detected, at $z=4.5$, required the magnifying…
State-of-the-art models of massive black hole formation postulate that quasars at $z>6$ reside in extreme peaks of the cosmic density structure in the early universe. Even so, direct observational evidence of these overdensities is elusive,…
Around 70 $z>6.5$ luminous quasars have been discovered, strongly biased toward the bright end, thus not providing a comprehensive view on quasar abundance beyond cosmic dawn. We present the predicted results of Roman/Rubin high-redshift…
Chandra snapshot observations of the three most distant quasars then known, at redshifts 5.82, 5.99, and 6.28, gave signficant detections even in the short, 6 -- 8 ks, observations. The X-ray to optical luminosity ratios indicate that…
We aim at probing the emission mechanism of the accreting super massive black holes in the high redshift Universe. We study the X-ray spectrum of ULAS1120+0641, the highest redshift quasar detected so far at z=7.085, which has been deeply…
We present observations of an optically-faint quasar, RD J114816.2+525339, discovered from deep multi-color observations of the field around the z = 6.42 quasar SDSS J1148+5251. The two quasars have a projected separation of 109 arcsec and…
We report the discovery of a pair of z = 4.25 quasars with a separation of 33 arcseconds. The brighter of the two objects was identified as a high-redshift quasar candidate from Sloan Digital Sky Survey multicolor imaging data, and the…
We report the discovery of a radio loud quasar with a redshift of 4.30. This object, which is the first radio selected quasar with a redshift greater than four, was discovered during an observational investigation into the evolution of the…
We report the discovery of a bright quasar (E=15.8, z=0.868) associated with the flat spectrum radio source NVSS J235953-124148. This quasar we designate QSO 2359-1241 possesses a rare combination of extreme properties that make it of…
We report the discovery of a spectacular ``post-starburst quasar'' UN J1025-0040 (B=19; z=0.634). The optical spectrum is a chimera, displaying the broad Mg II emission line and strong blue continuum characteristic of quasars, but is…
We report the detection of the 2P_3/2 -> 2P_1/2 fine-structure line of C+ at 157.74 micron in SDSSJ114816.64+525150.3 (hereafter J1148+5251), the most distant known quasar, at z=6.42, using the IRAM 30-meter telescope. This is the first…
I discuss two programs to study radio-loud quasars at high (z>4) redshift. Quasars are the most luminous, non-transient objects known and are observed to the earliest cosmic epochs. At lower redshifts, radio-loud quasars are associated with…
We present low-resolution ultraviolet spectra of 14 low redshift (z<0.8) quasars observed with HST/STIS as part of a Snap project to understand the relationship between quasar outflows and luminosity. By design, all observations cover the…
During the last years, Ly$\alpha$ nebulae have been routinely detected around high-z, radio-quiet quasars (RQQs) thanks to the advent of sensitive integral field spectrographs. Constraining the physical properties of the Ly$\alpha$ nebulae…
We present a search for bright $z\sim5$ quasars using imaging data from SkyMapper Southern Survey, Pan-STARRS1 and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). We select two sets of candidates using WISE with optical bands from SkyMapper…
We demonstrate that the UV brightest quasars at z=1-2 live in overdense environments. This is based on an analysis of deep Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 G141 grism spectroscopy of the galaxies along the lines-of-sight to UV luminous quasars…
We report on submillimetre observations of three high redshift (z>6) quasars, made using the SCUBA camera on the JCMT. Only one of the sample was detected at 850um-- SDSS J1148+5251 (z=6.43). It was also detected (>3 sigma significance) at…
We present IRAM/NOEMA, JCMT/SCUBA-2 and VLA observations of the most distant known gravitationally lensed quasar J0439+1634 at z = 6.5. We detect strong dust emission, [CII] 158 $\mu$m, [CI] 369 $\mu$m, [OI] 146 $\mu$m, CO(6-5), CO(7-6),…
We investigate the possibility of constraining the ionization state of the intergalactic medium (IGM) close to the end of reionization (z ~ 6) by measuring the size of the HII regions in high-z quasars spectra. We perform a combination of…
At low redshifts, dust-obscured quasars often have strong yet narrow permitted lines in the rest-frame optical and ultraviolet, excited by the central active nucleus, earning the designation Type II quasars. We present a sample of 145…