High-redshift quasars in SDSS

In this paper, we first present the observations of 14 bright, high-redshift quasars (3.66<=z<=4.77, i*<~20) discovered in the SDSS fall equatorial stripe, and the SDSS photometry of two previously known high-redshift quasars in the same region of the sky.

Combined with the quasars presented in Paper I (1999AJ....118....1F) and by Schneider et al. (2001AJ....121.1232S), we define a color-selected flux-limited sample of 39 quasars at 3.6<z<5.0 and i*<~20, covering a total effective area of 182deg^2^. From this sample, we estimate the average spectral power-law slope in the rest-frame UV for quasars at z~4 to be -0.79 with a standard deviation of 0.34, and the average rest-frame equivalent width of the Ly{alpha}+N V emission line to be 69{AA} with a standard deviation of 18{AA}.