Related papers: Physical properties of the first quasars
The tight relationship between the masses of black holes and galaxy spheroids in nearby galaxies implies a causal connection between the growth of these two components. Optically luminous quasars host the most prodigious accreting black…
I briefly outline recent theoretical developments on the formation of the first massive black holes (MBHs) that may grow into the population of MBHs powering quasars and inhabiting galactic centers today. I also touch upon possible…
The discovery of luminous quasars at redshifts up to 7.5 demonstrates the existence of several billion M_sun supermassive black holes (SMBHs) less than a billion years after the Big Bang. They are accompanied by intense star formation in…
The identification of bright quasars at z>6 enables detailed studies of supermassive black holes, massive galaxies, structure formation, and the state of the intergalactic medium within the first billion years after the Big Bang. We present…
Almost every galaxy in the local Universe is observed to have a massive black hole in the centre. The properties of these black holes are observed to tightly correlate with those of their host galaxy which has been interpreted as…
We have obtained deep, multi-band imaging observations around three of the most distant known quasars at redshifts z>6. Standard accretion theory predicts that the supermassive black holes present in these quasars were formed at a very…
We introduce a phenomenological investigation of the evolution and large scale distribution of quasars using a modified version of the Field and Colgate gravitational contraction model for proto-galaxies. By studying the distribution of…
Cold quasars are a rare population of luminous, unobscured quasars associated with host galaxies that have a high star formation rate. We aimed to study the host galaxies of sixty four of these cold quasars in order to probe how the…
Observations with WFC3/IR on the Hubble Space Telescope and the use of gravitational lensing techniques have facilitated the discovery of galaxies as far back as z ~ 10-12, a truly remarkable achievement. However, this rapid emergence of…
Blazars are Active Galactic Nuclei characterized by relativistic jets launched in the vicinity of the central engine (i.e. a supermassive black hole), that are oriented close to our line of sight. Their peculiar orientation makes them very…
The most distant quasars known, at redshifts z=6, generally have properties indistinguishable from those of lower-redshift quasars in the rest-frame ultraviolet/optical and X-ray bands. This puzzling result suggests that these distant…
The hypothesis of existence of primordial black holes with large masses (\geq 10^6 M\odot), formed at the earliest stages of the Universe evolution, is considered in the paper. The possibility does not contradict some theories, see e.g.…
Black-hole masses of distant quasars cannot be measured directly, but can be estimated to within a factor 3 to 5 using scaling relationships involving the quasar luminosity and broad-line width. Why such relationships are reasonable is…
We summarize cm through submm observations of the host galaxies of z ~ 6 quasars. These observations reveal the cool molecular gas (the fuel for star formation), the warm dust (heated by star formation), the fine structure line emission…
Last year (2013) was more or less the 50th anniversary of the discovery of quasars. It is an interesting time to review what we know (and don't know) about them both empirically and theoretically. These compact sources involving line…
Black-hole masses of the highest redshift quasars (4 <~ z <~ 6) are estimated using a previously presented scaling relationship, derived from reverberation mapping of nearby quasars, and compared to quasars at lower redshift. It is shown…
Recent astronomical discoveries of supermassive black holes (quasars), gamma-bursters, supernovae, and dust at high redshifts, z = (5 --10), are reviewed. Such a dense population of the early universe is at odds with the conventional…
Luminous distant quasars are unique probes of the high redshift intergalactic medium (IGM) and of the growth of massive galaxies and black holes in the early universe. Absorption due to neutral Hydrogen in the IGM makes quasars beyond a…
The uncharted territory of the high-redshift ($z\gtrsim3$) Universe holds the key to understand the evolution of quasars. In an attempt to identify the most extreme members of the quasar population, i.e., blazars, we have carried out a…
Radio-bright, jetted quasars at $z>5$ serve as unique laboratories for studying supermassive black hole activity in the early Universe. In this work, we present a sample of high-$z$ jetted quasars selected from the combination of the radio…