Continuum energy distribution of quasars - Shapes and origins

Citations Over TimeTop 10% of 1989 papers

Abstract

Continuum observations from ~0.3 nm to 6 cm (10^9.7^-10^18^ Hz) are presented for 109 bright quasars from the Palomar-Green (PG) survey. Two-thirds of the quasars have been detected in the infrared at wavelengths between 10 and 100 microns. All of the PG quasars appear to emit the bulk of their luminosity (typically more than 90%) between 3 nm and 300 microns (10^12^-10^17^ Hz). The total luminosity at wavelengths longer than 1 micron is typically 20%-40% of that at wavelengths shortward of 1 micron. The gross shape of the energy distributions between 3 nm and 300 microns is remarkably similar for all the quasars except the flat-spectrum radio-loud quasars like 3C 273 and can plausibly be fitted by two broad components of thermal emission. In this interpretation the emission in the spectral range ~ 10 nm to 0.3 microns, the "big blue bump," is dominated by 10,000-100,000 K thermal emission from an accretion disk. The emission between 2 microns and 1 mm, the "infrared bump," is made up of reradiation from dust in a distorted disk extending from 0.1 pc to more than 1 kpc. The fairly small range in the relative sizes of the bumps suggests that the covering factor in most of the PG quasars is similar. There is no obvious connection between the strengths of the blue and infrared peaks and whether or not the quasar is radio quiet or radio loud. The mass of infrared emitting dust is estimated to be ~0.01 M_sun_ at 2 microns and ~10^5^ M_sun_ at 60 microns. The radiation from 0.5 microns is thermal emission from the portion of the disk between 0.1 and 1 pc, illuminated primarily by the clouds of the broad-line region. The radiation from 5 microns to 1 mm is reradiation from a warped disk at distances greater than 1 pc from the central source, which is heated directly by radiation from the central source. Optically thin atomic emission (free-free and partially thermalized lines and bound-free) from gas within 1 pc of the central source, whose dust has sublimated, probably contributes to the flux from 0.5 to 2 microns. We believe that there is no convincing evidence for energetically significant nonthermal radiation in the wavelength range 3 nm to 300 microns in the continua of the radio-quiet and steep-spectrum radio-loud PG quasars.

Related Papers

• → The emission-line regions in broad absorption line quasars(1986)49 cited
• → A quasar with ultrastrong, ultraviolet Fe II emission(1996)41 cited
• → Ovi and Heii emission lines in the spectra of quasars(1977)9 cited
• → Variability of emission lines in quasar spectra(1986)2 cited
• SDSS J094533.99+100950.1 - the Rosetta stone for weak emission line quasars?(2009)