Related papers: Faint Quasar Surveys
[Abridged] Context: The advent of 8-10m class telescopes makes possible for the first time detailed comparison of quasars with similar luminosity and very different redshifts. Aims: A search for z-dependent gradients in line emission…
Galaxy redshift surveys can be used to detect gravitationally-lensed quasars if the spectra obtained are searched for the quasars' emission lines. Previous investigations of this possibility have used simple models to show that the 2 degree…
Over the last few years, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has discovered several hundred quasars with redshift between 4.0 and 6.4. Including the effects of magnification bias, one expects a priori that an appreciable fraction of these…
High-redshift quasars are currently the only probes of the growth of supermassive black holes and potential tracers of structure evolution at early cosmic time. Here we present our candidate selection criteria from the Panoramic Survey…
We present measurements of the size of the quasar proximity zone ($R_p$) for eleven low-luminosity ($-26.16\leq M_{1450}\leq-22.83$) quasars at $z\sim6$, discovered by the Subaru High-$z$ Exploration of Low-Luminosity Quasars project…
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…
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 present an updated determination of the z ~ 4 QSO luminosity function (QLF), improving the quality of the determination of the faint end of the QLF presented in Glikman et al. (2010). We have observed an additional 43 candidates from our…
Optical and near-infrared (NIR) spectra are presented for ULAS J131911.29+095951.4 (hereafter ULAS J1319+0950), a new redshift z = 6.127 +/- 0.004 quasar discovered in the Third Data Release (DR3) of the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey…
We show that a large-area imaging survey using narrow-band filters could detect quasars in sufficiently high number densities, and with more than sufficient accuracy in their photometric redshifts, to turn them into suitable tracers of…
We present JHK near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy of 25 candidate Type II quasars selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, using Triplespec on the Apache Point Observatory 3.5m telescope, FIRE at the Magellan/Baade 6.5m telescope, and…
From a large homogeneous sample of optical/UV emission line measurements for 993 quasars from the Large Bright Quasar Survey (LBQS), we study correlations between emission line equivalent width and both restframe ultraviolet luminosity…
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…
Quasars are galaxies hosting accreting supermassive black holes; due to their brightness, they are unique probes of the early universe. To date, only few quasars have been reported at $z > 6.5$ ($<$800 Myr after the Big Bang). In this work,…
We present the discovery of three z>5 quasars in the AGN and Galaxy Evolution Survey (AGES) spectroscopic observations of the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey (NDWFS) Bootes Field. These quasars were selected as part of a larger Spitzer…
Bright quasar samples at high redshift are useful for investigating active galactic nuclei evolution. In this study, we describe XQz5, a sample of 83 ultraluminous quasars in the redshift range $4.5 < z < 5.3$ with optical and near-infrared…
We present imaging and spectroscopic observations for six quasars at z>5.9 discovered by the Canada-France High-z Quasar Survey (CFHQS). The CFHQS contains sub-surveys with a range of flux and area combinations to sample a wide range of…
Recent studies suggest that faint active galactic nuclei may be responsible for the reionization of the universe. Confirmation of this scenario requires spectroscopic identification of faint quasars ($M_{1450}>-24$ mag) at $z \gtrsim6$, but…
The Canada-France High-z Quasar Survey (CFHQS) is an optical survey designed to locate quasars during the epoch of reionization. In this paper we present the discovery of the first four CFHQS quasars at redshift greater than 6, including…
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…