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
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Velocity-resolved Reverberation Mapping of Five Bright Seyfert 1 Galaxies
G. De Rosa,G. De Rosa,Michael Fausnaugh,Catherine J. Grier,Catherine J. Grier,Bradley M. Peterson,Bradley M. Peterson,Kelly D. Denney,Keith Horne,Misty C. Bentz,Stefano Ciroi,E. Dalla Bontà,E. Dalla Bontà,Michael D. Joner,Shai Kaspi,Shai Kaspi,Christopher S. Kochanek,Richard W. Pogge,S. G. Sergeev,Marianne Vestergaard,Marianne Vestergaard,Scott M. Adams,Scott M. Adams,Joseph M. Antognini,Joseph M. Antognini,C. Araya Salvo,Eve Armstrong,Eve Armstrong,Jaehan Bae,Jaehan Bae,Aaron J. Barth,Thomas G. Beatty,Thomas G. Beatty,A. Bhattacharjee,A. Bhattacharjee,G. A. Borman,Todd Boroson,M. C. Bottorff,J. E. Brown,J. S. Brown,Michael S. Brotherton,Carl T. Coker,Carl T. Coker,Christian Clanton,Christian Clanton,Valentina Cracco,Steven M. Crawford,Kevin V. Croxall,Sarah Eftekharzadeh,Mike Eracleous,S. L. Fiorenza,A. Frassati,Keith Hawkins,Keith Hawkins,Calen B. Henderson,Calen B. Henderson,Thomas W.-S. Holoien,T. Hutchison,T. Hutchison,J. Kellar,E. Kilerci-Eser,E. Kilerci-Eser,Stacy Y. Kim,A. L. King,G. La Mura,C. D. Laney,C. D. Laney,Miao Li,Cassandra Lochhaas,Zhiyuan Ma,F. MacInnis,E. R. Manne-Nicholas,M. Mason,S. M. McGraw,S. M. McGraw,K. Mogren,C. Montouri,Joseph Moody,Ana M. Mosquera,D. Mudd,D. Mudd,R. Musso,S. V. Nazarov,M. L. Nguyen,P. Ochner,D. N. Okhmat,Christopher A. Onken,B. Ou-Yang,A. Pancoast,Liuyi Pei,Liuyi Pei,Matthew T. Penny,Radosław Poleski,E. Portaluri,E. Portaluri,J. L. Prieto,Adrian M. Price-Whelan,Adrian M. Price-Whelan,N. G. Pulatova,S. Rafter,Rachael M. Roettenbacher,Rachael M. Roettenbacher,Encarni Romero-Colmenero,Jessie C. Runnoe,Jessie C. Runnoe,J. S. Schimoia,Benjamin J. Shappee,Benjamin J. Shappee,N. Sherf,G. V. Simonian,Alessandro Siviero,D. M. Skowron,D. M. Skowron,Jan Skowron,Jan Skowron,Garrett Somers,Garrett Somers,M. Spencer,D. A. Starkey,Daniel J. Stevens,R. Stoll,E. Tamajo,Jamie Tayar,J. van Saders,J. van Saders,Stefano Valenti,Steven Villanueva,Carolin Villforth,Carolin Villforth,Y. Weiss,Hartmut Winkler,J. Zastrow,Wei Zhu,Ying Zu,Ying Zu +134 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present the first results from a reverberation-mapping campaign undertaken during the first half of 2012, with additional data on one active galactic nucleus (AGN) (NGC 3227) from a 2014 campaign.
Journal ArticleDOI
BROAD Hβ EMISSION-LINE VARIABILITY IN A SAMPLE OF 102 LOCAL ACTIVE GALAXIES
Jordan N. Runco,Maren Cosens,Vardha N. Bennert,Bryan Scott,S. Komossa,Matthew A. Malkan,Mariana S. Lazarova,Matthew W. Auger,Tommaso Treu,Daeseong Park +9 more
TL;DR: Runco et al. as discussed by the authors studied profile changes of the broad Hbeta emission line within the 3-9 year time-frame between the two sets of spectra, and discussed potential causes for these changing-look AGNs.
Journal ArticleDOI
Extending the Calibration of C iv-based Single-epoch Black Hole Mass Estimators for Active Galactic Nuclei
Daeseong Park,Daeseong Park,Daeseong Park,Aaron J. Barth,Jong-Hak Woo,Matthew A. Malkan,Tommaso Treu,Tommaso Treu,Vardha N. Bennert,Roberto J. Assef,A. Pancoast +10 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide an updated calibration of the CIV broad emission line-based single-epoch (SE) black hole (BH) mass estimators for active galactic nuclei (AGNs) using new data for six reverberation-mapped AGNs at redshift $z=0.005-0.234$ with BH masses (bolometric luminosities) in the range $10^{6.5-9.5}-10^{7.9$).
Journal ArticleDOI
Virial Black Hole Mass Estimates for 280,000 AGNs from the SDSS Broad-Band Photometry and Single Epoch Spectra
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used the SDSS Quasar Data Release 12 (DR12Q) to calculate the monochromatic luminosities at 5100, 3000, and 1350 AA, derived from the broad-band extinction-corrected sDSS magnitudes, and then estimated the active galactic nuclei (AGNs) black hole masses using the broad line region radius and the FWHM of the MgII and CIV emission lines.
Journal ArticleDOI
Quantifying the diffuse continuum contribution of BLR Clouds to AGN Continuum Inter-band Delays
D. Lawther,M. R. Goad,Kirk T. Korista,O. A. Ulrich,Marianne Vestergaard,Marianne Vestergaard +5 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the contribution of the diffuse continuum to the measured continuum flux and inter-band delays, accounting for the observed variability behaviour of the ionizing nuclear continuum, and they showed that the contribution must be taken into account in order to correctly infer AGN accretion disk sizes based on interband continuum delays.
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