Related papers: The Apparently Normal Galaxy Hosts for Two Luminou…
We present a photometrical and morphological study of the properties of low redshift (z < 0.5) quasars based on a large and homogeneous dataset of objects derived from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (DR7). This study over number by a factor…
The host galaxy of the quasar SDSS J114816.64+525150.3 (at redshift z=6.42, when the Universe was <1 billion years old) has an infrared luminosity of 2.2x10^13 L_sun, presumably significantly powered by a massive burst of star formation. In…
We analyse different photometric and spectroscopic properties of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and quasars (QSOs) selected by their mid-IR power-law and X-ray emission from the COSMOS survey. We use a set of star-forming galaxies as a…
Observations with the PC2 CCD of the Hubble Space Telescope are described of two bright QSOs of redshift ~0.3. 1403+434 is IR-bright and radio-quiet, and 2201+315 is radio-loud with extended structure. Exposures were taken with the F702W…
We have used the HST WFPC2 camera to survey 132 BL Lac objects comprising seven complete radio-, X-ray-, and optically-selected samples. We obtained useful images for 110 targets spanning the redshift range 0 < z < 1.3. In two thirds of the…
Measurement of black hole mass for low-$z$ ($z\leq 0.8$) Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) is difficult due to the strong contribution from host galaxy stellar light necessitating detailed spectral decomposition to estimate the AGN luminosity.…
We present the results of our recent Hubble Space Telescope imaging study, in which we have successfully deconvolved host and nuclear flux for the some of the most luminous quasars in the Universe. Host morphologies have been recovered for…
Substructures, expected in cold dark matter haloes, have been proposed to explain the anomalous flux ratios in gravitational lenses. About 25% of lenses in the Cosmic Lens All-Sky Survey (CLASS) appear to have luminous satellites within ~ 5…
We present JWST/NIRSpec Integral Field Spectroscopy in the rest-frame optical bands of the system PJ308-21, a quasar at $z=6.2342$ caught as its host galaxy interacts with companion galaxies. We detect spatially extended emission of several…
A five square arcminute region around the luminous radio-loud quasar SDSS J0836+0054 (z=5.8) hosts a wealth of associated galaxies, characterized by very red (1.3 < i_775 - z_{850} < 2.0) color. The surface density of these z~5.8 candidates…
We report deep optical integral-field spectroscopy with the MUSE of the luminous radio-quiet QSO PG1307+085 (z=0.154) obtained during the commissioning of the instrument. Given the high sensitivity and spatial resolution delivered by MUSE,…
We have studied the host galaxies of a sample of radio-loud AGN spanning more than four decades in the energy output of the nucleus. The core sample includes 40 low-power sources (BL Lac objects) and 22 high-power sources (radio-loud…
We investigate the triggering mechanism and the structural properties of obscured luminous active galactic nuclei from a detailed study of the rest-frame $B$ and $I$ HST images of 29 nearby ($z\approx 0.04-0.4$) optically selected type 2…
We have observed the galaxy environments around two complete samples of radio-loud (steep-spectrum) and radio-quiet quasars (RLQ and RQQ) at 0.5 < z < 0.8 that are matched in B-luminosity, and find that the environments of both quasar…
We present results of a CO(1-0) line survey in a complete sample of 12 low redshift (Z < 0.1), optically bright QSOs (PG QSOs with M_B < -23 mag). Six new CO detections are reported here at levels exceeding I_CO ~2 Jy km/s. Combined with…
A significant minority of high redshift radio galaxy (HzRG) candidates show extremely red broad band colours and remain undetected in emission lines after optical `discovery' spectroscopy. In this paper we present deep GTC optical imaging…
We report the discovery of a new gravitational lens candidate Q2138-431AB, comprising two quasar images at a redshift of 1.641 separated by 4.5 arcsecs. The spectra of the two images are very similar, and the redshifts agree to better than…
Models and observations suggest that luminous quasar activity is triggered by mergers, so it should preferentially occur in the most massive primordial dark matter haloes, where the frequency of mergers is expected to be the highest. Since…
Hubble Space Telescope (HST) WFPC-2 I-band (F814W) images of three X-ray selected BL Lacertae objects (MS1221.8+2452, MS1407.9+5954, & MS2143.4+0704) reveal that each of these BL Lac objects is well-centered in an extended nebulosity that…
Quasars (QSOs) hosting supermassive black holes are believed to reside in massive halos harboring galaxy overdensities. However, many observations revealed average or low galaxy densities around $z\gtrsim6$ QSOs. This could be partly…