Fundamental differences in the properties of red and blue quasars:
  measuring the reddening and accretion properties with X-shooter
  We have recently found fundamental differences in the radio properties of red
quasars when compared to typical blue quasars. In this paper we use X-shooter
data, providing spectral coverage from $\sim 3000-25000$ Ang, of a sample of 40
red and blue luminous quasars at $1.45<z<1.65$ to explore the connections
between the radio, emission-line, and accretion-disc properties. We fit various
dust-extinction curves to the data and find that dust reddening can fully
explain the observed colours for the majority of the red quasars in our sample,
with moderate extinctions ranging from Av$\sim 0.06-0.7$ mags. We confront our
spectra with a simple thin accretion-disc model and find this can describe the
continua of both the blue and red quasars, once corrected for dust extinction;
we also find no significant differences in the accretion properties. We detect
ionized outflows in a number of red and blue quasars, but do not find any
significant evidence that they are more prevalent in the red quasar population.
Overall our findings imply that the radio emission is more closely connected to
circumnuclear/ISM opacity rather than accretion disc or outflow differences.
