Related papers: Extreme quasars at high redshift

We present preliminary results from a pencil-beam spectroscopic survey of low-luminosity quasars at z ~ 2.2-2.5. Our goal is to compare these sources with low redshift analogues of similar luminosity. High s/n and moderate resolution…

Extremely variable quasars (EVQs) are a population of sources showing large optical photometric variability revealed by time-domain surveys. The physical origin of such extreme variability is yet unclear. In this first paper of a series, we…

We conduct a pilot investigation to determine the optimal combination of color and variability information to identify quasars in current and future multi-epoch optical surveys. We use a Bayesian quasar selection algorithm (Richards et al.…

Studies of the most luminous quasars at high redshift directly probe the evolution of the most massive black holes in the early Universe and their connection to massive galaxy formation. However, extremely luminous quasars at high redshift…

A brief Chandra observation of the ultraluminous quasar, SDSS J010013.02+280225.8 at redshift 6.326, showed it to be a relatively bright, soft X-ray source with a count rate of about 1 ct/ks. In this paper we present results for the quasar…

We aim to identify QSO2 candidates in the redshift desert using optical and infrared photometry. At this intermediate redshift range, most of the prominent optical emission lines in QSO2 sources (e.g. CIV1549; [OIII]4959,5008) fall either…

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…

Results are presented on the X-ray properties of 9 high-redshift (1.2 < z < 3.4) radio-loud quasars (RLQs) observed by ASCA (10 observations) and ROSAT (11 observations, for a subset of 6 quasars). New ASCA observations of S5 0014+81 (z =…

We report the multiwavelength properties of eFEDS J084222.9+001000 (hereafter ID830), a quasar at $z=3.4351$, identified as the most X-ray luminous radio-loud quasar in the eROSITA Final Equatorial Depth Survey (eFEDS) field. ID830 shows a…

We present spectroscopic measurements for 226 sources from the Gemini Near Infrared Spectrograph - Distant Quasar Survey (GNIRS-DQS). Being the largest uniform, homogeneous survey of its kind, it represents a flux-limited sample ($m_{i}$…

We present a $z = 0.94$ quasar, SDSS J004846.45-004611.9, discovered in the SDSS-III BOSS survey. A visual analysis of this spectrum reveals highly broadened and blueshifted narrow emission lines, in particular [Ne~V]$\lambda3426$ and…

We present the analysis of the rest frame ultraviolet and optical spectra of 30 bright blue quasars at $z\sim3$, selected to examine the suitability of AGN as cosmological probes. In our previous works, we found an unexpectedly high…

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 high S/N UV spectra for eight quasars at z $\sim$ 3 obtained with VLT/FORS. The spectra enable us to analyze in detail the strong and weak emission features in the rest-frame range 1300-2000 A of each source (Ciii]$\lambda$1909,…

"Changing-look" quasars are a new class of highly variable active galactic nuclei that have changed their spectral type over surprisingly short timescales of just a few years. The origin of this phenomenon is debated, but is likely to…

We investigate Extremely Red Quasars (ERQs), a remarkable population of heavily-reddened quasars at redshift z$\sim$2 - 3 that might be caught during a short-lived 'blow-out' phase of quasar/galaxy evolution. We perform a near-IR…

We present Chandra X-ray observations of 14 radio-loud quasars at redshifts $3 < z < 4$, selected from a well-defined sample. All quasars are detected in the 0.5-7.0 keV energy band, and resolved X-ray features are detected in five of the…

We present J-H-K' photometry for a sample of 45 high redshift quasars found by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The sample was originally selected on the basis of optical colors and spans a redshift range from 3.6 to 5.03. Our photometry…

Steep soft X-ray (0.1-2 keV) quasars share several unusual properties: narrow Balmer lines, strong FeII emission, large and fast X-ray variability, rather steep 2-10 keV spectrum. These intriguing objects have been suggested to be the…

We analyze the X-ray variability of 264 Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectroscopic quasars using the Chandra public archive. This data set consists of quasars with spectroscopic redshifts out to z~5 and covers rest-frame time scales up to Delta…