THE OBSCURED QUASARS IN IRAS F15307+3252 AND SIMILAR OBJECTS

IRAS F15307+3252 is one of the most luminous galaxies known and a fine exampleof an IR/opticallyselected type 2 quasar. As in lower power Seyfert galaxies,the powerful AGN is hidden from our sight by an absorbing torus, but thedetection of polarized broad lines in the optical suggests that it wouldresemble an ordinary quasar if seen from an orthogonal angle. We propose here areobservation with XMMNewton of F15307+3252 (our earlier XMM observation wasbadly affected by background flares) and new observations of 3 similar objects,with the aim of detecting the hard Xray emission from their hidden powersources. The proposed study of excellent type 2 quasar candidates has majorimplications for the growth of massive black holes in the Universe. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]