Related papers: Quasars: What turns them off?
A recent observational result finds that the quenching of satellites in groups at $z=0.08$ has an angular dependence relative to the semi-major axis of the central galaxy. This observation is described as `anisotropic quenching' or `angular…
Quasar pairs are either physically distinct binary quasars or the result of gravitational lensing. The majority of known pairs are in fact lenses, with a few confirmed as binaries, leaving a population of objects that have not yet been…
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 study the mass of quasar-hosting dark matter halos at z $\sim$ 6 and further constrain the fraction of dark matter halos hosting an active quasar $f_{on}$ and the quasar beaming angle $i_{\rm max}$ using observations of CII lines in the…
We demonstrate that the UV brightest quasars at z=1-2 live in overdense environments. This is based on an analysis of deep Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 G141 grism spectroscopy of the galaxies along the lines-of-sight to UV luminous quasars…
The Chandra observations of several gravitationally lensed quasars show evidence for flux and spectral variability of the X-ray emission that is uncorrelated between images and is thought to result from the microlensing by stars in the…
Spectroscopic observations of quasar outflows at rest-frame 500-1000 Angstrom have immense diagnostic power. We present analyses of such data, where absorption troughs from three important ions are measured: first, O IV and O IV* that allow…
We analyze Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer observations of nine low-redshift (z < 0.1) Palomar-Green quasar host galaxies to investigate the spatial distribution and kinematics of the warm, ionized interstellar medium, with the goal of…
When a flux-limited quasar sample is observed at later times, there will be more dimmed quasars than brightened ones, due to a selection bias induced at the time of sample selection. Quasars are continuously varying and there are more…
We present a detailed study of the kinematics of 19 QSO2s in the range 0.3<z<0.41 and [OIII] luminosities $L_{[OIII]} > 10^{8.5}$L$_{\odot}$. We aim at advancing our understanding of the AGN feedback phenomenon by correlating outflow…
The rise and the fall of the QS population are explained in terms of massive black holes forming/accreting during the assemblage of the host galaxies, and of accretion rekindled by interactions of the host with companions in a group. We…
Correlations of hot dust emission with outflow properties are investigated, based on a large z~2 non-broad absorption lines quasar sample built from the Wide-field Infrared Survey and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey data releases. We use the…
We quantify quasar color-variability using an unprecedented variability database - ugriz photometry of 9093 quasars from SDSS Stripe 82, observed over 8 years at ~60 epochs each. We confirm previous reports that quasars become bluer when…
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…
I review recent observations on the evolution of quasars, describe new surveys for quasars at z > 5 and for quasars at z > 3.3 down to luminosities corresponding to L* galaxies, and note the possible connection between the evolution of the…
A recently-discovered class of outflows, extremely high-velocity outflows (EHVOs), may be key to understanding feedback processes as it is likely the most powerful in terms of mass-energy. These EHVOs have been observed at redshifts 1.052 <…
In this thesis, I present an investigation into the environments of quasars with respect to galaxy clusters, and environment evolution with redshift and luminosity. The orientation of the quasar with respect to the major axis of the closest…
Submillimeter (and in some cases millimeter) wavelength continuum measurements are presented for a sample of 40 active galactic nuclei (probably all quasars) lensed by foreground galaxies. The object of this study is to use the lensing…
Observations of quasars (QSOs) shining through or close to galaxies offer a way to probe the properties of the foreground matter through dust extinction and gravitational lensing. In this paper the feasibility of measuring the dust…
Galaxy-scale gas outflows triggered by active galactic nuclei have been proposed as a key physical process to regulate the co-evolution of nuclear black holes and their host galaxies. The recent detection of a massive gas outflow in one of…