A&A 434, 469-473 (2005)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20041894

VLT adaptive optics imaging of QSO host galaxies and their close environment at z 2.5: Results from a pilot program

R. Falomo¹, J. K. Kotilainen², R. Scarpa³ and A. Treves<sup>4

1</sup>  INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Vicolo dell'Osservatorio 5, 35122 Padova, Italy
    e-mail: falomo@pd.astro.it
²  Tuorla Observatory, University of Turku, Väisäläntie 20, 21500 Piikkiö, Finland
    e-mail: jarkot@utu.fi
³  European Southern Observatory, 3107 Alonso de Cordova, Santiago, Chile
    e-mail: rscarpa@eso.org
⁴  Università dell'Insubria, via Valleggio 11, 22100 Como, Italy
    e-mail: treves@mib.infn.it

(Received 25 August 2004 / Accepted 3 December 2004)

Abstract
We report on ESO-VLT near-IR adaptive optics imaging of one radio-loud (PKS 0113-283) and two radio quiet (Q 0045-3337 and Q 0101-337) quasars at z > 2. In the first case we are able to resolve the QSO and find that it is hosted by an elliptical of absolute magnitude M_K = -27.6. For the other two objects no extended emission has been unambiguously detected. This result, although restricted to a single object, extends up to z=2.5 the finding that cosmic evolution of radio-loud quasar hosts follows the trend expected for luminous and massive spheroids undergoing passive evolution. For Q 0045-3337 our high resolution images show that it is located 1.2 arcsec from a K=17.5 foreground disc galaxy, which may act as a gravitational lens, since the QSO most probably lies within the galaxy Einstein radius.

Key words: galaxies: active -- infrared: galaxies -- galaxies: quasars: general -- galaxies: evolution

SIMBAD Objects

© ESO 2005

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