Orientation effects on the near-infrared broad band emission of quasars
  We recently proposed the equivalent width (EW) of the narrow [OIII]5007{\AA}
emission line as an orientation indicator for active galactic nuclei. We tested
this method on about $12,300$ optically selected broad line quasars from the
SDSS 7th Data Release at redshift $z < 0.8$ and with full width at half-maximum
values of broad emission lines (H$\alpha$, H$\beta$, and MgII) larger than
$2000$ km/s. We now examine their spectral energy distributions (SEDs) using
broad band photometry from the near-infrared to the ultraviolet to look for
variations in the overall shape as a function of the EW[OIII]. We find that
quasars with low EW[OIII] values (close to face-on position) have flatter
near-infrared SEDs with respect to sources with high EW[OIII] values (almost
edge-on). Moreover, quasars with high EW[OIII] values show a factor of $\sim 2$
lower emission in the UV to quasars with low EW[OIII] values. Our findings
indicate that the torus is clumpy and, on average, co-axial with the accretion
disc and broad line region, in agreement with the most recent theoretical
models for the obscuring torus.
