Constraints on Disks Models of The Big Blue Bump from UV/Optical/IR Observations

Abstract

Optical/UV observations provide many constraints on accretion disk models of AGN which aren't always appreciated by modelers of the X-ray emission (or sometimes even of the optical/UV emission). The spectral behavior at the Ly edge, the polarization, the continuum slopes and breaks, and the variability timescales and phasing all conflict with simple models and strongly constrain the more Baroque ones. Partial-covering absorbers and microlensing data suggest that the radiation is not released simply according to where the potential drop (modified by standard viscous transport) takes place. On the other hand, the orientation-based unified model is in accord with the K-αinclination distributions for the AGN spectral classes, basing the latter on the limited existing data and theoretical understanding.