The orientation dependence of quasar spectral energy distributions
  We investigate the orientation dependence of the spectral energy
distributions in a sample of radio-loud quasars. Selected specifically to study
orientation issues, the sample contains 52 sources with redshifts in the range
0.16<z<1.4 and measurements of radio core dominance, a radio orientation
indicator. Measured properties include monochromatic luminosities at a range of
wavelengths between the infrared and X-rays, integrated infrared luminosity,
spectral slopes, and the covering fraction of the obscuring circumnuclear dust.
We estimate dust covering fraction assuming that the accretion disk emits
anisotropically and discuss the shortcomings and technical difficulties of this
calculation. Luminosities are found to depend on orientation, with face-on
sources factors of a 2-3 brighter than more edge-on sources, depending on
wavelength. The degree of anisotropy varies very little with wavelength such
that the overall shape of the spectral energy distribution does not vary
significantly with orientation. In the infrared, we do not observe a decrease
in anisotropy with increasing wavelength. The spectral slopes and estimates of
covering fraction are not significantly orientation dependent. We construct
composite spectral energy distributions as a function of radio core dominance
and find that these illustrate the results determined from the measured
properties.
