Accretion disks and the Lyman continuum polarization of QSOs

Details Accretion disks and the Lyman continuum polarization of QSOs Accretion disks and the Lyman continuum polarization of QSOs

Apr 1998

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998aipc..431..219s&link_type=abstract

Accretion processes in astrophysical systems: Some like it hot! - eigth astrophysics conference. AIP Conference Proceedings, Vo

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Quasars, Radiation Mechanisms, Polarization, Black Holes, Stellar Atmospheres, Radiative Transfer, Opacity And Line Formation

Scientific paper

Observations of QSO ``Lyman edge candidates'' have revealed an unexpected increase in polarization at rest wavelengths below about 750 Å. Blaes and Agol [1] (BA) interpreted this in terms of stellar atmosphere effects in an accretion disk around a supermassive black hole. We have computed the locally emitted continuum energy distribution and polarization from a QSO disk and the resulting observed polarized spectrum including the general relativistic transfer function. Our results confirm the atmospheric phenomenon of Blaes and Agol; but relativity adds an additional blueshift to the wavelength of the polarization rise, relative to the rest wavelength of the Lyman edge (912 Å), such that the model does not agree with the observations. We show that a good fit results from a model in which the polarization jumps sharply at the Lyman edge in the rest frame of the orbiting gas. Relativistic effects give an abrupt, blueshifted rise in polarization, in agreement with the observations. This model offers a potential method for constraining the inclination of the disk and the angular momentum of the black hole.

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