The Canada-France Redshift Survey X: The Quasar Sample

Abstract

Six objects with broad emission lines and redshifts from 0.48 to 2.07 were discovered among 736 extragalactic objects in the Canada-France Redshift Survey (CFRS). Although the luminosities of half of the objects are such that they are in the Seyfert regime (M_B > -23), all would be designated as quasars in traditional surveys. Since the only selection criterion was that 17.5 < I_{AB} < 22.5, or approximately B < 23 (assuming a continuum power-law slope of alpha = -0.5), these quasars represent an unbiased, flux-limited sample. Although uncertain, the implied surface density, 200^{+120}_{-80} deg^{-2} is the highest yet measured, and is in good agreement with extrapolations from other faint surveys and the evolving luminosity function models of Boyle (1991). The distributions of the continuum properties, emission-line strengths, etc., of the quasars do not differ significantly from those of quasars selected by other means, and therefore they would have been detected in most traditional surveys. Three of the quasars may be associated with clusters or large structures of galaxies at z > 1.