The Low-luminosity End of the Radius-Luminosity Relationship for Active Galactic Nuclei
Misty C. Bentz,Kelly D. Denney,Catherine J. Grier,Aaron J. Barth,Bradley M. Peterson,Marianne Vestergaard,Marianne Vestergaard,Vardha N. Bennert,Gabriela Canalizo,Gisella De Rosa,Alexei V. Filippenko,Elinor L. Gates,Jenny E. Greene,Weidong Li,Matthew A. Malkan,Richard W. Pogge,Daniel Stern,Tommaso Treu,Jong-Hak Woo +18 more
TLDR
In this article, the authors present an updated and revised analysis of the relationship between the H{beta} broadline region (BLR) radius and the luminosity of the active galactic nucleus (AGN).Abstract:
We present an updated and revised analysis of the relationship between the H{beta} broad-line region (BLR) radius and the luminosity of the active galactic nucleus (AGN). Specifically, we have carried out two-dimensional surface brightness decompositions of the host galaxies of nine new AGNs imaged with the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3. The surface brightness decompositions allow us to create ''AGN-free'' images of the galaxies, from which we measure the starlight contribution to the optical luminosity measured through the ground-based spectroscopic aperture. We also incorporate 20 new reverberation-mapping measurements of the H{beta} time lag, which is assumed to yield the average H{beta} BLR radius. The final sample includes 41 AGNs covering four orders of magnitude in luminosity. The additions and updates incorporated here primarily affect the low-luminosity end of the R{sub BLR}-L relationship. The best fit to the relationship using a Bayesian analysis finds a slope of {alpha}= 0.533{sup +0.035}{sub -0.033}, consistent with previous work and with simple photoionization arguments. Only two AGNs appear to be outliers from the relationship, but both of them have monitoring light curves that raise doubt regarding the accuracy of their reported time lags. The scatter around the relationship is found to be 0.19more » {+-} 0.02 dex, but would be decreased to 0.13 dex by the removal of these two suspect measurements. A large fraction of the remaining scatter in the relationship is likely due to the inaccurate distances to the AGN host galaxies. Our results help support the possibility that the R{sub BLR}-L relationship could potentially be used to turn the BLRs of AGNs into standardizable candles. This would allow the cosmological expansion of the universe to be probed by a separate population of objects, and over a larger range of redshifts.« lessread more
Citations
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Spectroscopy of broad absorption line quasars at 3 ≲ Z ≲ 5-I: Evidence for quasar winds shaping broad/narrow emission line regions
Weimin Yi,Weimin Yi,Weimin Yi,Wenwen Zuo,Jinyi Yang,Feige Wang,John D Timlin,Catherine J. Grier,Xue-Bing Wu,Xiaohui Fan,Jin-Ming Bai +10 more
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Measurement of the Supermassive Black Hole Masses in Two Active Galactic Nuclei by the Photometric Reverberation Mapping Method
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present the results of long-term photometric monitoring of two active galactic nuclei, 2MASX J08535955+7700543 and VII Zw 244, being investigated by the reverberation mapping method in medium-band filters.
Journal ArticleDOI
The CaFe Project: Optical Fe II and Near-infrared Ca II Triplet Emission in Active Galaxies. II. The Driver(s) of the Ca II and Fe II and Its Potential Use as a Chemical Clock
Mary Loli Martínez-Aldama,Swayamtrupta Panda,Bozena Czerny,Murilo Marinello,Paola Marziani,Deborah Dultzin +5 more
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Testing Einstein's Equivalence Principle and Its Cosmological Evolution from Quasar Gravitational Redshifts
E. Mediavilla,J. Jiménez-Vicente +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, a new test of EEP based on the gravitational redshift induced by the central super massive black hole of quasars in the surrounding accretion disk was proposed.
Journal ArticleDOI
A persistent double nuclear structure in 3C 84
Junghwan Oh,Junghwan Oh,Junghwan Oh,Jeffrey A. Hodgson,Jeffrey A. Hodgson,Sascha Trippe,Thomas P. Krichbaum,Minchul Kam,G. F. Paraschos,Jae-Young Kim,Jae-Young Kim,Bindu Rani,Bindu Rani,Bong Won Sohn,Sang-Sung Lee,Rocco Lico,Rocco Lico,Elisabetta Liuzzo,Michael Bremer,Anton Zensus +19 more
TL;DR: In this paper, an upper bound on the viewing angle to the inner jet region of the radio source at the center of the Perseus Cluster was found, with a typical angular resolution of $50$as.
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