Near‐Infrared Observations of the Environments of Radio‐quiet QSOs atz ≳ 1

We present the results of an infrared survey of QSO fields at z=0.95, 0.995and 1.5. Each z<1 field was imaged to typical continuum limits of J=20.5,Kprime=19 (5 sigma), and line fluxes of 1.3E10{-16}ergs/cm^2/s (1 sigma)in a 1%interference filter. 16 fields were chosen with z~0.95 targets, 14 with z~0.995and 6 with z~1.5. A total area of 0.05 square degrees was surveyed, and twoemission-line objects were found. We present the infrared and opticalphotometry of these objects. Optical spectroscopy has confirmed the redshift ofone object (at z=0.989) and is consistent with the other object having asimilar redshift. We discuss the density of such objects across a range ofredshifts from this survey and others in the literature. We also presentnumber-magnitude counts for galaxies in the fields of radio quiet QSOs,supporting the interpretation that they exist in lower density environmentsthan their radio loud counterparts. The J-band number counts are among thefirst to be published in the J=16--20.Comment: 34 pages, including 12 figures; accepted for publication in the Ap