  The near-infrared shape of the big blue bump component in quasar spectra has
been essentially unknown. It usually cannot be observed directly, due to the
strong hot dust emission which dominates quasar spectra longward of ~1micron.
However this is quite an important part of the spectrum theoretically. At least
bare disk 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 disk, possibly leaving a
signature of disk 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 such three quasars
(Ton202, 4C37.43, B2 1208+32). The data for Ton202 have the highest S/N, and
the near-infrared polarized flux in this case is measured to have quite a blue
shape, nu^+0.42+-0.29 in F_nu, intriguingly consistent with the simple
multi-temperature black body, bare disk prediction of nu^+1/3. All these data,
although still with quite low S/N 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.
