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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Quasar Rain: The Broad Emission Line Region as Condensations in the Warm Accretion Disk Wind
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose that condensations form in the warm, radiation pressure driven, accretion disk wind of quasars creating the broad emission line region (BELR) clouds and uniting them with the other two manifestations of cool, 10,000 K, gas in quasar, the low ionization phase of the warm absorbers (WAs) and the clouds causing X-ray eclipses.
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Do reverberation mapping analyses provide an accurate picture of the broad-line region?
S. W. Mangham,Christian Knigge,Peter K. G. Williams,Keith Horne,A. Pancoast,James Matthews,Knox S. Long,Stuart A. Sim,Nick Higginbottom +8 more
TL;DR: In this paper, a blind test of two widely used RM methods, MEMEcho and CARAMEL, is presented, where simulated spectroscopic time series that track the H$\alpha$ emission line response to an empirical continuum light curve is used to determine the nature of the broad line region (BLR) in active galactic nuclei.
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Relation between the variations in the MgII $\lambda2798$ emission-line and the 3000 {\AA} continuum
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the relationship between the MgII emission line and the 3000 A continuum variations using a sample of 68 intermediate-redshift ($z\sim$ 0.65$-$1.50) broad-line quasars spanning a bolometric luminosity range of 44.49 to 46.31.
Journal ArticleDOI
Astronomical Distance Determination in the Space Age. Secondary distance indicators
Bozena Czerny,Rachael L. Beaton,Michał Bejger,Edward M. Cackett,Massimo Dall'Ora,R. F. L. Holanda,Joseph B. Jensen,Saurabh Jha,Elisabeta Lusso,Elisabeta Lusso,Takeo Minezaki,Guido Risaliti,Maurizio Salaris,Silvia Toonen,Yuzuru Yoshii,Yuzuru Yoshii +15 more
TL;DR: A general overview of the methods of distance determination to extragalactic sources is given in this paper, with a focus on the most recent developments in each field, and future expectations.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: MgII Lag Results from Four Years of Monitoring
Y. Homayouni,Jonathan R. Trump,Catherine J. Grier,Keith Horne,Yue Shen,W. N. Brandt,Kyle S. Dawson,Gloria Fonseca Alvarez,Paul J. Green,P. B. Hall,Juan V. Hernandez Santisteban,Luis C. Ho,Karen Kinemuchi,Christopher S. Kochanek,Jennifer I-Hsiu Li,Bradley M. Peterson,Donald P. Schneider,D. A. Starkey,Dmitry Bizyaev,Kaike Pan,Daniel Oravetz,Audrey Simmons +21 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present reverberation mapping results for the MgII 2800 A broad emission line in a sample of 193 quasars at 0.35
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