SIX MORE QUASARS AT REDSHIFT 6 DISCOVERED BY THE CANADA-FRANCE HIGH-zQUASAR SURVEY

We present imaging and spectroscopic observations for six quasars at z ⩾ 5.9 discovered by the Canada–France High-z Quasar Survey (CFHQS). The CFHQS contains subsurveys with a range of flux and area combinations to sample a wide range of quasar luminosities at z ∼ 6. The new quasars have luminosities 10–75 times lower than the most luminous Sloan Digital Sky Survey quasars at this redshift. The least luminous quasar, CFHQS J0216−0455 at z = 6.01, has absolute magnitude M1450 = −22.21, well below the likely break in the luminosity function. This quasar is not detected in a deep XMM-Newton survey showing that optical selection is still a very efficient tool for finding high-redshift quasars.