High-redshift quasars found in Sloan Digital Sky Survey commissioning data

We present photometric and spectroscopic observations of 15 high-redshift quasars (z > 3.6) discovered from similar to 140 deg(2) of five-color (u', g', r', i', and z') imaging data taken by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) during its commissioning phase. The quasars are selected by their distinctive colors in SDSS multicolor space. Four of the quasars have redshifts higher than 4.6 (z = 4.63, 4.75, 4.90, and 5.00, the latter being the highest redshift quasar yet known). In addition, two previously known z > 4 objects were recovered from the data. The quasars all have i{*}