AAS 207th Meeting, 8-12 January 2006
Session 37 AGN Jets and Radio Galaxies
Oral, Monday, 10:00-11:30am, January 9, 2006, Virginia

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[37.08] An Optical Orientation Indicator for Radio-Loud and Radio-Quiet Quasars

H. Landt, M. Elvis (SAO), P. Padovani (ESO)

The first radio quasars were detected half a century ago, but we still seem far away from an observationally-substantiated theory of the production of relativistic jets. It is possible that a unified theory for radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars has been elusive since we compared their emission properties without disentangling orientation effects first. Here we present an orientation indicator valid for all quasars which is based on such a simple and common observation as the optical spectrum. Therefore, it can be readily applied to large samples in order to study their intrinsic nuclear emission properties and to search for differences between the two types of quasars, which is relevant for an understanding of the jet production mechanism.

H.L. acknowledges financial support from the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina.


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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #4
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