Faint Quasar Surveys

Abstract

Faint quasar surveys are necessary complements to bright quasar surveys to remove the degeneracy between redshift and luminosity inherent in any single magnitude-limited sample. I discuss two ongoing surveys for faint quasars at 3.3<z<5 and 5<z<6 using imaging data from the Big Throughput Camera on the CTIO 4m. I also discuss a sample of faint spectroscopically selected AGN with z<4.7 found serendipitously in the CNOC2 Field Galaxy Redshift Survey. Faint quasars at 2<z<3.5 from this sample, when combined with literature data on more luminous quasars at the same redshift, show evidence for a much weaker Baldwin Effect in CIV 1549 and Ly-alpha than previously seen at z<1.5. This may imply that the slopes of the Baldwin Effect for these transitions evolve with redshift, steepening with cosmic time. Finally I discuss the prospects for extending faint quasar surveys to z~7 using near-IR followup of very red objects in the Red-Sequence Cluster Survey.