We present a new redshift survey , the 2dF Quasar Dark Energy Survey pilot ( 2QDESp ) , which consists of { \approx } 10000 quasars from { \approx } 150 deg ^ { 2 } of the southern sky , based on VST-ATLAS imaging and 2dF/AAOmega spectroscopy .
Combining our optical photometry with the WISE ( W1 , W2 ) bands we can select essentially contamination free quasar samples with 0.8 { < } z { < } 2.5 and g { < } 20.5 .
At fainter magnitudes , optical UVX selection is still required to reach our g { \approx } 22.5 limit .
Using both these techniques we observed quasar redshifts at sky densities up to 90 deg ^ { -2 } .
By comparing 2QDESp with other surveys ( SDSS , 2QZ and 2SLAQ ) we find that quasar clustering is approximately luminosity independent , with results for all four surveys consistent with a correlation scale of r _ { 0 } { = } 6.1 { \pm } 0.1 \ > h ^ { -1 } Mpc , despite their decade range in luminosity .
We find a significant redshift dependence of clustering , particularly when BOSS data with r _ { 0 } { = } 7.3 { \pm } 0.1 \ > h ^ { -1 } Mpc are included at z { \approx } 2.4 .
All quasars remain consistent with having a single host halo mass of { \approx } 2 { \pm } 1 { \times } 10 ^ { 12 } \ > h ^ { -1 } M _ { \odot } .
This result implies that either quasars do not radiate at a fixed fraction of the Eddington luminosity or AGN black hole and dark matter halo masses are weakly correlated .
No significant evidence is found to support fainter , X-ray selected quasars at low redshift having larger halo masses as predicted by the ‘ hot halo ’ mode AGN model of ( ) .
Finally , although the combined quasar sample reaches an effective volume as large as that of the original SDSS LRG sample , we do not detect the BAO feature in these data .