A 250 GHz survey of high-redshift quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

We present observations at 250 GHz (1.2 mm), 43 GHz, and 1.4 GHz of a sample of 41 QSOs at z > 3.7 found in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We detect 16 sources with a 250 GHz flux density greater than 1.4 mJy. The combination of centimeter and millimeter wavelength observations indicates that the 250 GHz emission is most likely thermal dust emission. Assuming a dust temperature of 50 K, the implied dust masses for the 16 detected sources are in the range 1.5-5.9 x 10(8) M-circle dot, and the dust emitting regions are likely to be larger than 1 kpc in extent. The radio-through-optical spectral energy distributions for these sources are within the broad range defined by lower redshift, lower optical luminosity QSOs. We consider possible dust heating mechanisms, including UV emission from the active galactic nucleus (AGN) and a starburst concurrent with the AGN, with implied star formation rates between 500 and 2000 M-circle dot yr(-1).