One Millimeter Continuum Observations of High Redshift Quasars

Abstract

Upper limits to the one-millimeter continuum flux densities of the high redshift quasars 82 1225 + 31, Ton 490, and PHL 957 are presented. The upper limit to the power observed from these quasars at I mm is, on average, ½ the observed power in the continuum at Lɑ. These observations are used to constrain the temperature of a hypothètical dust shell which reddens the quasar line and continuum emission by an extinction optical depth sufficient to account for the anomalously low Lɑ/Hɑ emission line ratio observed in each of these quasars. For the quasars studied, dust shell temperatures between 25 K and 50 to 95 K are prohibited by the present data. A dust shell at a temperature within this span reradiating all the power absorbed from the quasar ultraviolet continuum would produce a one-millimeter flux density greater than the measured upper limit. The average radius of the model dust shell cannot be between 70 kpc and 1 Mpc.

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