Nanodiamond dust and the energy distribution of quasars
Abstract
The spectral energy distribution of quasars shows a sharp steepening of the continuum shortward of ~ 1100 A. The steepening could be a result of dust absorption. We present a dust extinction model which considers crystalline carbon grains and compare it with SMC-like dust extinction consisting of a mixture of silicate grains with graphite or amorphous carbon grains. We show that the sharp break seen in individual quasar spectra of intermediate redshif \~ 1-2 can be reproduced by dust absorption provided the extinction curve consists of nanodiamonds, composed of terrestial cubic diamonds or of diamonds similar to the presolar nanodiamonds found in primitive meteorites.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0509735,
title = {Nanodiamond dust and the energy distribution of quasars},
author = {L. Binette and A. C. Andersen and H. Mutschke and S. Haro-Corzo},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0509735},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
In proceedings of Granada workshop on high redshift radio-galaxies, Spain 2005, to appear in Astronomishe Nachrichten