Related papers: Quasar Atmospheres: Toward a "Low" Theory for Quas…
The model I recently proposed for the structure of quasars (astro-ph/0008064) claims to unify all the emission, absorption and reflection phenomenology of quasars and AGN, and so is heavily overconstrained and readily tested. Here I…
Understanding how the Universe evolved from diffuse primordial gas into the rich cosmic web we observe today is one of the great challenges of modern astrophysics. Quasar absorption lines - the imprints left by intervening gas on the light…
The UV radiation from a quasar leaves a characteristic pattern in the distribution of ionized hydrogen throughout the surrounding space. This pattern or light echo propagates through the intergalactic medium at the speed of light, and can…
Quasar absorption lines provide detailed information on the chemical, kinematic, and ionization conditions in galaxies and their environments, and provide a means for studying the evolution of these conditions back to the epoch of the first…
We construct the first X-ray selected sample of broad line radio-loud AGN from the EMSS survey. In order to test unifying schemes for radio-loud objects, their spectral and statistical properties (both flat and steep spectrum objects) are…
With close pairs of quasars at different redshifts, a background quasar sightline can be used to study a foreground quasar's environment in absorption. We search 149 moderate resolution background quasar spectra, from Gemini, Keck, the MMT,…
In this first research note of a series of two, we conduct optical/UV investigations of the spectropolarimetric signatures emerging from the structure of quasars (Elvis 2000) applied to a purely theoretical, dusty model. We aim to explore…
We present a new method to test the cosmological model, based on the non-linear relation between ultraviolet and X-ray luminosity of quasars. We built a data set of ~1,138 quasars by merging several literature samples with X-ray…
Exploring the possibility that fundamental constants of Nature might vary temporally or spatially constitutes one of the key science drivers for the European Southern Observatory's ESPRESSO spectrograph on the VLT and for the HIRES…
We construct the first X-ray selected sample of radio-loud quasars from the EMSS survey. The X-ray selection allows us to explore the properties of radio-loud quasars 10-100 weaker than classical samples in the radio band. There are no…
A sample of quasars has been recently assembled to investigate the non-linear relation between their monochromatic luminosities at 2500{\AA}, and 2 keV and to exploit quasars as a new class of standardized candles. The use of this technique…
We establish a simple model for the distribution of cold gas around L* galaxies using a large set of observational constraints on the properties of strong MgII absorber systems. Our analysis suggests that the halos of L* galaxies are filled…
The effects of galaxy selection on our ability to constrain the nature of weak Ly\alpha absorbers at low redshift are explored. Current observations indicate the existence of a population of gas-rich, low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies,…
We consider the impact of quasar outflows on structure formation. Such outflows are potentially more important than galactic winds, which appear insufficient to produce the level of preheating inferred from X-ray observations of galaxy…
We use photometric data, from the optical to the mm for a large sample of optically selected radio-quiet quasars, at low and high redshifts, to test emission models from circum-nuclear dusty torii around them. Model parameters, such as dust…
The Lyman edge at 912 \AA is an important diagnostic region for studying quasi-stellar objects (QSOs). In particular, it reveals a great deal about the physical conditions within the atmospheres of accretion disks, a ubiquitous component of…
With close pairs of quasars at different redshifts, a background quasar sightline can be used to study a foreground quasar's environment in absorption. We used a sample of 17 Lyman limit systems with column density N_HI > 10^19 cm^-2…
We use multi-epoch quasar spectroscopy to determine how accurately single-epoch spectroscopy can locate quasars in emission-line parameter space in order to inform investigations where time-resolved spectroscopy is not available. We explore…
We report on the statistical analysis of quasar photoevaporation at $z\sim2.2$ by comparing the density of surrounding Ly$\alpha$ Emitters (LAEs) and continuum-selected galaxies, based on the imaging data of Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Subaru…
Weak equivalence principle (WEP) is, for the first time, tested by astrometry on quasars in the sky measured in two wavelengths. Compared to previous WEP tests based on the Shapiro time delay of massless particles, this one has profound…