Quasars in Regions of Rich Clusters of Galaxies

Certain characteristics of quasars observed in the regions of three rich clusters of galaxies are investigated. It is shown that the luminosity functions constructed for samples of quasars from the regions of the Virgo and Fornax clusters are similar to each other and show a very sharp maximum at a stellar magnitude of 18^m.0-18^m.3. The maximum of the luminosity function for quasars from the region of the Coma cluster (A 1656) is shifted toward fainter magnitudes and lies at 21^m. This effect is explained by the affiliation of the majority of the quasars to the respective clusters. It is shown that the absolute stellar magnitude of these quasars is –13^m, which corresponds to the luminosity of dwarf galaxies of low luminosity. It is suggested that the local quasars are formed in two ways: by ejection from galactic nuclei and in quasar associations without a parent galaxy, directly from protostellar matter.