Related papers: Research on the central region of quasars based on…
Observations of high-redshift quasars frequently promote suggestions of large black hole masses, whose presence so early in cosmic time is not easily explicable. I consider the parallel with ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) -- now known…
We study 16,707 quasar spectra from the SDSS using the Karhunen-Lo\`eve (KL) transform (or Principal Component Analysis, PCA). The quasar eigenspectra of the full catalog reveal the following: 1st order - the mean spectrum; 2nd order - a…
Using complete samples of steep-spectrum quasars, we present evidence for a correlation between radio and optical luminosity which is not caused by selection effects, nor caused by an orientation dependence (such as relativistic beaming),…
Recent results have questioned the description of the QSO luminosity function in terms of a pure luminosity evolution and call for a luminosity dependent luminosity evolution. Measurements of the QSO clustering amplitude and evolution allow…
Several observational analyses suggest that matter is spatially structured at $\approx 130h^{-1}Mpc$ at low redshifts. This peak in the power spectrum provides a standard ruler in comoving space which can be used to compare the local…
We use several quasar samples to determine the density and luminosity evolution of quasars. Combining different samples and accounting for varying selection criteria require tests of correlation and the determination of distributions for…
[abridged] Quasars (QSOs) at the highest known redshift (z~6) are unique probes of the early growth of supermassive black holes (BHs). Until now, only the most luminous QSOs have been studied, often one object at a time. Here we present the…
We explore the evolution of the X-ray luminosity function of quasars and the intrinsic correlation between the X-ray and 2500\AA $\,$ ultraviolet luminosities, utilizing techniques verified in previous works and a sample of over 4000…
The Eddington ratio is a key parameter that governs the diversity of quasar properties. It can be scaled with a strong anti-correlation between optical Fe II and [O III] emission. In search of such indicators in the far-UV band, the HST…
So far, roughly 40 quasars with redshifts greater than z=6 have been discovered. Each quasar contains a black hole with a mass of about one billion solar masses ($10^9 M_\odot$). The existence of such black holes when the Universe was less…
We present results of a deep HST/WFPC2 imaging study of 17 quasars at z~0.4, designed to determine the properties of their host galaxies. The sample consists of quasars with absolute magnitudes in the range -24>M_V>-28, allowing us to…
Recent discoveries by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) of four bright redshift z=6 quasars could constrain the mechanism by which the supermassive black holes powering these sources are assembled. Here we compute the probability that the…
We present results from an archival study of 70 medium-redshift QSOs observed with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on board the Hubble Space Telescope. The QSOs have magnitudes M_V <= -23 (total nuclear plus host light) and redshifts…
Quasars of high redshift may be ejected from a nearby active galaxy of low redshift. This physical association then leads to the suggestion that the redshifts of quasars are not really an indication of their distances. In this…
While amongst the most luminous objects in the universe, many details regarding the inner structure of quasars remain unknown. One such area is the mechanism promoting increased polarisation in the broad absorption line troughs of certain…
Low-frequency radio surveys are ideal for selecting orientation-independent samples of extragalactic sources because the sample members are selected by virtue of their isotropic steep-spectrum extended emission. We use the new 7C Redshift…
Changing-look quasars are a recently identified class of active galaxies in which the strong UV continuum and/or broad optical hydrogen emission lines associated with unobscured quasars either appear or disappear on timescales of months to…
High-redshift quasars have been an excellent tracer to study the astrophysics and cosmology at early Universe. Using 577 spectroscopically confirmed high-redshift quasars and 1,796 highly reliable photometric quasar candidates (all with…
We investigate the spectro-photometric variability of quasars due to lensing of small mass substructure (from several tens to several hundreds solar masses). The aim of this paper is to explore the milli/microlensing influence on the flux…
We investigate the $\mbh- \sigma_*$ relation for radio-loud quasars with redshift $z<0.83$ in Data Release 3 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The sample consists of 3772 quasars with better model of H$\beta$ and \oiii lines and…