Related papers: Discovery of Hidden Blazars
We present deep radio observations of the most distant complete quasar sample drawn from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Combining our new data with those from literature we obtain a sample which is ~100 per cent complete down to S_1.4GHz =…
We present follow-up spectroscopy to the Calar Alto Deep Imaging Survey (CADIS), reporting on the quasars in the CADIS 16h-field, and including preliminary data from two other fields. In this 10' x 10' field we found six quasars at redshift…
A small subset of optically selected radio-quiet quasars showing weak or no emission lines may turn out to be the elusive radio-quiet BL Lac objects, or simply be radio-quiet QSOs with a still-forming/shielded broad line region (BLR). High…
The intense UV radiation from a highly luminous QSO should excite fluorescent Ly-alpha emission from any nearby neutral hydrogen clouds. We present a very deep narrow-band search for such emission near the z=2.168 quasar PKS 0424-131,…
At redshift larger than 3 there is a disagreement between the number of blazars (whose jet is pointing at us) and the number of expected parents (whose jet is pointing elsewhere). Now we strengthen this claim because (i) the number of…
BL Lacertae (Lac) objects that are detected at very-high energies (VHE) are of fundamental importance to study multiple astrophysical processes, including the physics of jets, the properties of the extragalactic background light and the…
This paper presents new optical and near-UV spectra of 11 extremely powerful jetted quasars, with radio to optical flux density ratio $>$ 10$^3$, that concomitantly cover the low-ionization emission of \mgii\ and \hb\ as well as the \feii\…
We present the discovery of only the second radio-selected, z ~ 6 quasar. We identified SDSS J222843.54+011032.2 (z=5.95) by matching the optical detections of the deep Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Stripe 82 with their radio counterparts…
The most luminous quasars at high redshift harbour the fastest-growing and most massive black holes in the early Universe. They are exceedingly rare and hard to find. Here, we present our search for the most luminous quasars in the redshift…
We take a sample of 94 ultraluminous, optical quasars from the search of over 14,486 deg^2 by Onken et al. 2022 in the range 4.4<redshift<5.2 and match them against the Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey (RACS) observed on the Australian Square…
Some recent work on radio source fields at z~0.7 and z~4 is discussed. At z~0.7 we find that radio-loud quasars are typically found in moderately rich environments independent of radio luminosity, consistent with previous results at z~0.5.…
With the Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) we have observed seven powerful FR2 radio galaxies and seven quasars. Both samples, the galaxies and the quasars, are comparable in isotropic 178 MHz luminosity (10^26.5 W/Hz < P…
Context: PKS 0903-57 is a little-studied gamma-ray blazar which has recently attracted considerable interest due to the strong flaring episodes observed since 2020 in HE (100 MeV < E < 100 GeV) and VHE (100 GeV < E < 10 TeV) gamma-rays. Its…
Broad absorption lines (BALs) in quasar spectra identify high velocity outflows that likely exist in all quasars and could play a major role in feedback to galaxy evolution. Studying the variability in these BALs can help us understand the…
Archival Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 images were used to search for optical emission associated with the radio jets of a number of luminous quasars. From this search, we report new optical hotspot detections in the well-known blazar…
The overall spectra (SED) of blazars, from radio to gamma-ray energies, seem to obey well defined trends, with a continuity of properties between blazars of different classes. To quantify this statement we can either investigate their…
Despite extensive efforts, only two quasars have been found at $z>7$ to date due to a combination of low spatial density and high contamination from more ubiquitous Galactic cool dwarfs in quasar selection. This limits our current knowledge…
Blazars are powerful, variable emitters from radio to gamma-ray wavelengths. Even though the general picture of synchrotron emission at low energies and inverse Compton at the high energy end is well established, many important aspects of…
Blazars are a sub-class of quasars with Doppler boosted jets oriented close to the line of sight, and thus efficient probes of supermassive black hole growth and their environment, especially at high redshifts. Here we report on Very Long…
A new broad absorption line quasar (BAL) sample is derived from the first data released by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. With 116 objects, it is the largest BAL sample yet assembled. Over the redshift range 1.8 < z < 3.8, the crude fraction…