Toward an Understanding of the Baldwin Effect

Abstract

After a short review of the quasar problem and what we can hope to learn from their emission line spectra, I discuss the current body of knowledge concerning quasar emission lines and their relationships to the local and ionizing continua. I propose a hypothesis that the Baldwin effect is due to a characteristic relationship between the continuum spectral energy distribution, the gas metallicity (Z), and the quasar luminosity. I suggest that such a relationship might arise naturally from a scenario involving massive galaxy formation and evolution driving the birth and evolution of the quasar central engines in terms of four fundamental parameters: M_bh, Mdot Mdot/M_bh, and Z.