The dust-eliminated shape of quasar spectra in the near-infrared: a hidden part of the big blue bump

The near-infrared shape of the big blue bump component in quasar spectra has till now been essentially unknown. It usually cannot be observed directly, due to the strong hot dust emission that dominates quasar spectra longward of similar to 1 mu m. However, this is quite an important part of the spectrum theoretically. At least bare-disc models provide quite a robust prediction for the overall continuum shape in the near-infrared. Self-gravity should become important in the outer, near-infrared-emitting regions of the putative disc, possibly leaving a signature of disc truncation in the near-infrared. We propose here that this important part of the spectrum can be revealed for the first time by observing polarized flux from normal quasars. At least in some polarized quasars, the emission lines are all unpolarized and so the polarized flux should originate interior to the broad-line region, and therefore also interior to the dust-emitting region. This can then be used to eliminate the dust emission. We present the results of near-infrared polarimetry for three such quasars (Ton202, 4C 37.43 and B2 1208+32). The data for Ton202 have the highest signal-to-noise ratio, and the near-infrared polarized flux in this case is measured to have quite a blue shape, F-nu proportional to nu(+0.42 +/- 0.29), intriguingly consistent with the simple multitemperature blackbody, bare-disc prediction of nu(+1/3). All these data, although still with quite low signal-to-noise ratio for the other two objects, demonstrate the unique potential of the technique with future better data. We also present similar data for other quasars and radio galaxies, and briefly discuss the nature of the polarization.