New Puzzles in Supermassive Black Hole Evolution

Nic Ross
LBNL



Abstract:

The SDSS-3 Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) is assembling an unprecedented dataset of high, z>2, quasars. With nearly two years of observations already complete, 50,000 z>2.2 objects have been spectroscopically identified, a third of the final sample.

In this talk, I plan to: (i) Introduce and gave the latest news on the BOSS Quasar Survey; (ii) describe the techniques that went into the target selection necessary to detect these objects; (iii) report on some of the initial science results from the BOSS project, including the quasar luminosity function and the variable nature of luminous AGN; and (iv) give some very early results on new investigations into the MIR (WISE) and FIR (Herschel) properties of BOSS quasars, and how these could tie-in to the next generation of large (ground-based) spectroscopic surveys.