Abstract The average ultraviolet continuum slope in quasars steepens smoothly to higher frequencies. The slope just beyond Lyα is 1.15. The observations indicate that the intrinsic slope of the ionizing continuum is at least this steep. A simple argument by Natzer /1/ based on the broad-emission-line energy budget appears to imply an ionizing slope of 0.7. However, realistic photoionization models reveal that the key assumption in Netzer's method—that one Lyα photon is produced for every ionizing photon—is freqently not satisfied. Because of this uncertainty, the emission line energy budget is rather insensitive to the far-ultraviolet slope. The average line spectrum is in fact consistent with the 1.1 slope indicated by the observations.
Observational and theoretical estimates of the intrinsic slope of the ionizing continuum in quasars
Advances in Space Research ; 8 , 2-3 ; 49-52
01.01.1988
4 pages
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
Millimeter-Wave Continuum Observation of High-z Radio Quasars
Online Contents | 1999
|On the Observational Evidence for Accreting Black Holes in Quasars
British Library Conference Proceedings | 1997
|Millimeter-Wave Continuum Observation of High-z Radio Quasars
British Library Conference Proceedings | 1999
|Recent Developments in Estimates of Cancer Risk from Ionizing Radiation
SAE Technical Papers | 1990
|