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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The man behind the curtain: x-rays drive the uv through nir variability in the 2013 active galactic nucleus outburst in ngc 2617
Benjamin J. Shappee,J. L. Prieto,Dirk Grupe,Christopher S. Kochanek,Krzysztof Z. Stanek,G. De Rosa,Smita Mathur,Ying Zu,Bradley M. Peterson,Richard W. Pogge,Stefanie Komossa,Myungshin Im,Jacob Jencson,T W-S Holoien,U. Basu,John F. Beacom,D. M. Szczygiel,Joseph Brimacombe,Scott M. Adams,Abdo Campillay,Changsu Choi,Carlos Contreras,M. Dietrich,M. Dubberley,M. Elphick,S. Foale,Margherita Giustini,C. Gonzalez,E. Hawkins,D. A. Howell,D. A. Howell,Eric Hsiao,Michael Koss,Karen M. Leighly,Nidia Morrell,D. Mudd,D. Mullins,Jenna M. Nugent,J. Parrent,Mark M. Phillips,G. Pojmanski,Wayne Rosing,R. Ross,David J. Sand,Donald M. Terndrup,Stefano Valenti,Stefano Valenti,Z. Walker,Yosep Yoon +48 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors reported that NGC 2617 went through a dramatic outburst, during which its X-ray flux increased by over an order of magnitude followed by an increase of its optical/ultraviolet (UV) continuum flux.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Man Behind the Curtain: X-rays Drive the UV through NIR Variability in the 2013 AGN Outburst in NGC 2617
Benjamin J. Shappee,J. L. Prieto,Dirk Grupe,Christopher S. Kochanek,K. Z. Stanek,G. De Rosa,S. Mathur,Ying Zu,Bradley M. Peterson,R. W. Pogge,S. Komossa,Myungshin Im,J. E. Jencson,T W-S Holoien,U. Basu,John F. Beacom,D. M. Szczygiel,Joseph Brimacombe,Scott M. Adams,A. Campillay,Changsu Choi,C. Contreras,M. Dietrich,M. Dubberley,M. Elphick,S. Foale,Margherita Giustini,C. Gonzalez,E. Hawkins,D. A. Howell,Eric Hsiao,Michael Koss,Karen M. Leighly,N. I. Morrell,D. Mudd,D. Mullins,Jenna M. Nugent,J. T. Parrent,M. M. Phillips,G. Pojmanski,Wayne Rosing,R. Ross,David J. Sand,Donald M. Terndrup,S. Valenti,Z. Walker,Yosep Yoon +46 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors reported that NGC 2617 went through a dramatic outburst, during which its X-ray flux increased by over an order of magnitude followed by an increase of its optical/ultraviolet (UV) continuum flux.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Coevolution of Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes: Insights from Surveys of the Contemporary Universe
Timothy M. Heckman,Philip Best +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a picture in which the population of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) can be divided into two distinct populations: radiative-mode AGNs are associated with black holes that produce radiant energy powered by accretion at rates in excess of ∼ 1% of the Eddington limit.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Dark Energy Survey: more than dark energy - an overview
T. M. C. Abbott,F. B. Abdalla,Jelena Aleksić,S. Allam,Adam Amara,David Bacon,Eduardo Balbinot,Manda Banerji,Keith Bechtol,A. Benoit-Lévy,A. Benoit-Lévy,Gary Bernstein,E. Bertin,Jonathan Blazek,C. Bonnett,Sarah Bridle,David Brooks,Robert J. Brunner,Robert J. Brunner,E. Buckley-Geer,D. L. Burke,D. L. Burke,G. B. Caminha,Diego Capozzi,J. Carlsen,A. Carnero-Rosell,Marcella Carollo,M. Carrasco-Kind,M. Carrasco-Kind,J. Carretero,J. Carretero,Francisco J. Castander,L. Clerkin,Thomas E. Collett,Christopher J. Conselice,Martin Crocce,Carlos E. Cunha,C. B. D'Andrea,L. N. da Costa,Tamara M. Davis,Shantanu Desai,H. T. Diehl,J. P. Dietrich,Scott Dodelson,Scott Dodelson,Peter Doel,Alex Drlica-Wagner,Juan Estrada,J. Etherington,August E. Evrard,J. Fabbri,D. A. Finley,B. Flaugher,Ryan J. Foley,Pablo Fosalba,Joshua A. Frieman,Joshua A. Frieman,Juan Garcia-Bellido,Enrique Gaztanaga,D. W. Gerdes,Tommaso Giannantonio,Daniel A. Goldstein,Daniel A. Goldstein,Daniel Gruen,Daniel Gruen,Robert A. Gruendl,Robert A. Gruendl,P. Guarnieri,G. Gutierrez,William G. Hartley,K. Honscheid,Bhuvnesh Jain,David J. James,Tesla E. Jeltema,Stephanie Jouvel,Richard Kessler,A. L. King,Donnacha Kirk,Richard G. Kron,Kyler Kuehn,Nikolay Kuropatkin,Ofer Lahav,Tianjun Li,Marcos Lima,Huan Lin,Marcio A. G. Maia,Martin Makler,Marc Manera,Claudia Maraston,Jennifer L. Marshall,Paul Martini,Richard G. McMahon,Peter Melchior,Alex Merson,Christopher J. Miller,Ramon Miquel,Ramon Miquel,Joseph J. Mohr,Xan Morice-Atkinson,Krishna Naidoo,Eric H. Neilsen,Robert C. Nichol,Brian Nord,Ricardo L. C. Ogando,F. Ostrovski,Antonella Palmese,A. Papadopoulos,A. Papadopoulos,Hiranya V. Peiris,John Peoples,Will J. Percival,A. A. Plazas,S. L. Reed,Alexandre Refregier,A. K. Romer,A. Roodman,A. Roodman,Ashley J. Ross,Eduardo Rozo,Eli S. Rykoff,Eli S. Rykoff,I. Sadeh,M. Sako,C. Sánchez,E. J. Sanchez,Basilio X. Santiago,V. Scarpine,Michael Schubnell,I. Sevilla-Noarbe,Erin Sheldon,Mathew Smith,Robert Connon Smith,Marcelle Soares-Santos,Flavia Sobreira,Maayane T. Soumagnac,E. Suchyta,Mark Sullivan,M. E. C. Swanson,G. Tarle,Jon J Thaler,Daniel Thomas,Daniel Thomas,R. C. Thomas,Douglas L. Tucker,Joaquin Vieira,Joaquin Vieira,Vinu Vikram,Alistair R. Walker,Risa H. Wechsler,Risa H. Wechsler,Jochen Weller,W. C. Wester,L. Whiteway,H. Wilcox,Brian Yanny,Yanming Zhang,Joe Zuntz +156 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors presented the results of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2019 at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Journal ArticleDOI
Revisiting the Unified Model of Active Galactic Nuclei
TL;DR: A review of recent developments related to the unified model of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) can be found in this paper, where the authors focus on new ideas about the origin and properties of the central obscurer (torus) and the connection to its surroundings.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors reported the discovery and observations of the extremely luminous optical transient CSS100217:102913+404220 (CSS100217 hereafter) that reached an apparent magnitude of V ~ 16.3 approximately 45 days after maximum light.