Probing Accretion and Obscuration in Luminous Red Quasars

We propose to obtain XMM observations of three highly luminous dustreddenedquasars that appear to be young, transitional objects predicted by mergerdrivenmodels of quasar/galaxy coevolution. These sources have been wellstudied inoptical through midinfrared and have Eddington ratios >30%. Their black holemasses are relatively small compared to their host galaxies placing them belowthe MBH Lbulge relation. We propose to exploit the large collecting area ofthe EPIC cameras to measure NH and constrain the dusttogas ratios as well asthe photon index as an independent probe of Eddington ratio. We will alsomeasure their Xray luminosities to compare with the infrared. Theseobservations will complete the multiwavelength study of this key population of quasars. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]