# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

Early X–ray observations of quasars, both radio-quiet (RQQs) and radio-loud (RLQs), have been mainly concerned with low-redshift objects. The results achieved with EXOSAT (Comastri et al. 1992) and Ginga (Williams et al. 1992) have indicated that the hard X–ray spectra of RQQs are significantly steeper ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$$``$2) than those of RLQs ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$$``$1.6), thus confirming and extending the results obtained by Einstein (Wilkes & Elvis 1987) in the 0.2–3.5 keV energy range. In the last few years, thanks to ASCA capabilities, it has been possible to considerably extend the knowledge of the hard X–ray spectral properties of high-z RLQs (Cappi et al. 1997), which appear as flat ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$=1.61$`\pm 0.04`$) as the lower-z objects, thus giving support to the no-spectral evolution hypothesis. On the other hand, the spectral properties of high-z RQQs are still widely unknown, given their lower X–ray luminosity with respect to RLQs (Zamorani et al. 1981). In this context a program has been started to investigate the spectral properties of a sample of high-z RQQs (see Table 1), choosen among the brightest objects found cross-correlating the Véron-Véron quasars catalogue (Véron-Cetty & Véron 1996) with the ROSAT All-Sky Survey catalogue of X-ray sources (Voges et al. 1996). Even if not complete and biased towards relatively unabsorbed sources, this sample is considered adequate in order to obtain, for the first time, a reliable measurement of the X–ray spectral properties of high-z RQQs, over the $``$ 1.5–30 keV energy range (source frame).

## 2 ASCA data: reduction and spectral analysis

The high-z RQQs of the present sample were observed with the ASCA satellite (Tanaka, Inoue & Holt 1994) during the AO4 and AO5 phases for about 40 ks each, except for 1101$``$264 (20 ks). In the following, we’ll refer to SIS (solid-state spectrometers) data only given their better statistics compared to GIS (gas scintillation spectrometers) one.   
A simple power law plus photoelectric absorption was fitted to the data, with the column density left initially free and then fixed to the Galactic value (Table 2). No excess absorption is required by the data. Then spectral fittings with two separate absorbers, one located at z=0 and fixed to the Galactic value and one at the quasar redshift, were performed. Again there is no need of excess absorption.

Although the sources are rather faint in ASCA, the derived parameters weakly depend on the assumed background normalizations. A simple unweighted 0.5–10 keV (observer frame) spectral slopes mean gives $`<`$$`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$$`>`$=1.68$`\pm 0.09`$ ($`\sigma `$$``$0.11) and $`<`$$`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$$`>`$=1.78$`\pm 0.17`$ ($`\sigma `$$``$0.24) with $`N_\mathrm{H}`$=$`N_{\mathrm{H}_{\mathrm{gal}}}`$ and $`N_\mathrm{H}`$ free, respectively. Moreover, the lack of any intrinsic absorption makes high-z RQQs quite different with respect to high-z RLQs, since for the latter class clear indications of excess absorption have been found (Elvis et al. 1994, Cappi et al. 1997). There is no evidence of spectral flattening attributed to a reflection component and only for 1101$``$264 a Fe K$`\alpha `$ emission line has been marginally detected (E=6.51$`\pm 0.25`$ keV, EW$``$690$`\pm 560`$ eV in the source frame). Then, a co-added spectrum has been computed rescaling all the objects at z=2. The best-fit model (Fig. 1) has ben achieved with a power law ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$=1.71$`{}_{0.07}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{+0.08}`$) plus absorption again consistent with the average Galactic value (Fig. 2). Thermal models can be ruled out on the basis of the high temperatures obtained (physically difficult to be interpreted) and worse $`\chi ^2`$. The characteristic features of reprocessing gas, such as the high energy “hump” and the iron emission line, have not been revealed. Moreover, tight constraints have been obtained on both the Fe K$`\alpha `$ EW ($`<`$133 eV at z=2) and the reflection component (R$`<`$1.2, where R is the relative amount of reflection compared to the primary power law). Since this component peaks at 20–30 keV in the quasars frame, the present ASCA observations should reveal it, if really present.

## 3 Discussion

The most important result achieved from the present analysis is that all the quasars have similar slopes. The average spectral slope is $`<`$$`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$$`>`$=1.68$`\pm 0.09`$ with a dispersion $`\sigma `$$``$0.11. The flatter X–ray spectra for high-z RQQs with respect to low-z objects, imply that either we are sampling the RQQs lower tail of the photon indices distribution (Fig. 3) or the primary emission mechanism is really different at high redshift. The imprints of cold matter, both in transmission (absorption) and in reflection (Fe K$`\alpha `$ emission line and Compton “hump”), have not been found. This result may be related to the quasars accretion rate, i.e. they can be accreting close to their Eddington limit. If this is the case, in high-luminosity objects ($`L_\mathrm{X}`$$``$$`10^{46}`$ erg s<sup>-1</sup>), the disc may highly ionized and the lack of the iron line may be caused either by complete ionization of the iron atoms (Życki & Czerny 1994) or by resonant trapping of the line photons. Moreover, the high degree of ionization is likely to smooth out also the reflection component. In fact, as suggested by Nandra et al. (1997) for high-ionization environments, the Compton reflection could be seen without suffering absorption in the disc. This reduces the constrast with the underlying continuum, resulting in an apparently weak Compton “hump”. Alternatively, there may be different environmental and/or geometrical properties for RQQs with respect to Seyfert galaxies.