Near-infrared spectroscopy of extreme BAL QSOs from the QUBRICS bright
  quasar survey
  We report on the spectral confirmation of 18 QSO candidates from the "QUasars
as BRIght beacons for Cosmology in the Southern hemisphere'' survey (QUBRICS),
previously observed in the optical band, for which we acquired new
spectroscopic data in the near-infrared band with the Folded-port InfraRed
Echellette spectrograph (FIRE) at the Magellan Baade telescope. In most cases,
further observations were prompted by the peculiar nature of the targets, whose
optical spectra displayed unexpected absorption features. All candidates have
been confirmed as bona fide QSOs, with average emission redshift $z\simeq 2.1$.
The analysis of the emission and absorption features in the spectra, performed
with Astrocook and QSFit, reveals that the large majority of these objects are
broad-absorption line (BAL) QSOs, with almost half of them displaying strong Fe
II absorption (typical of the so-called FeLoBAL QSOs). The detection of such a
large fraction of rare objects (which are estimated to account for less than
one percent of the general QSO population) is interpreted as an unexpected (yet
favourable) consequence of the particular candidate selection procedure adopted
within the QUBRICS survey. The measured properties of FeLoBAL QSOs observed so
far provide no evidence that they are a manifestation of a particular stage in
AGN evolution. In this paper we present an explorative analysis of the
individual QSOs, to serve as a basis for a further, more detailed
investigation.
