Nitrogen-enriched quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey First Data Release

The quasar Q0353-383 has long been known to have extremely strong nitrogen intercombination lines at 1486 and 1750 Angstrom, implying an anomalously high nitrogen abundance of similar to 15 times solar. A search for similar nitrogen-rich quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey First Data Release (SDSS DR1) catalog has yielded 20 candidates, including four with nitrogen emission as strong or stronger than that seen in Q0353-383. Our results indicate that only about one in 1700 of quasars have nitrogen abundances similar to Q0353-383, while up to one in 130 may be in the process of extreme nitrogen enrichment.