Outflows & Feedback from Extremely Red Quasars

Feedback from accreting supermassive black holes is often invoked in galaxy evolution models to inhibit star formation, truncate galaxy growth, and establish the observed black-hole/bulge mass correlation. We are studying outflows and feedback in a unique sample of extremely red quasars (ERQs) during the peak epoch of galaxy formation (at redshifts 2.3 < z < 3.4). We identified ERQs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III) Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) quasar catalog based on their extremely red i-W3 colors, but we find that ERQs typically have a suite of other extreme properties including 1) a high incidence of blueshifted broad absorption lines, 2) broad emission lines with unusually large rest equivalent widths (REWs), peculiar "wingless" profiles, and frequent large blueshifts (reaching ∼8740 km s^-1), and 3) characteristically very broad and blueshifted [OIII] 4959,5007Å lines that trace ionized outflows at speeds up to ∼6700 km s^-1. We propose that these ERQs represent a young quasar population with powerful outflows on the precipice of causing important disruptive feedback effects in their host galaxies.