We report first results from a large project to measure black hole (BH) mass in high accretion rate active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Such objects may be different from other AGNs in being powered by slim accretion disks and showing saturated accretion luminosities, but both are not yet fully understood. The results are part of a large reverberation mapping (RM) campaign using the 2.4-m Shangri-La telescope at the Yunnan Observatory in China. The goals are to investigate the gas distribution near the BH and the properties of the central accretion disks, to measure BH mass and Eddington ratios, and to test the feasibility of using such objects as a new type of cosmological candles. The paper presents results for three objects, Mrk 335, Mrk 142 and IRAS F12397+3333 with Hβ time lags relative to the 5100Å continuum of 10.6 +1.7 −2.9 , 6.4 +0.8 −2.2 and 11.4 +2.9 −1.9 days, respectively. The corresponding BH masses are (8.3 +2.6 −3.2 ) × 10 6 M ⊙ , (3.4 +0.5 −1.2 ) × 10 6 M ⊙ and (7.5 +4.3 −4.1 ) × 10 6 M ⊙ , and the lower limits on the Eddington ratios 0.6, 2.3, and 4.6 for the minimal radiative efficiency of 0.038. Mrk 142 and IRAS F12397+333 (extinction corrected) clearly deviate from the currently known relation between Hβ lag and continuum luminosity. The three Eddington ratios are beyond the values expected in thin accretion disks and two of them are the largest measured so far among objects with RM-based BH masses. We briefly discuss implications for slim disks, BH growth and cosmology.

As one of the series of papers reporting on a large reverberation mapping campaign of super-Eddington accreting massive black holes (SEAMBHs) in active galactic nuclei (AGNs), we present the results of 10 SEAMBHs monitored spectroscopically during 2015-2017. Six of them are observed for the first time, and have generally higher 5100Å luminosities than the SEAMBHs monitored in our campaign from 2012 to 2015; the remaining four are repeat observations to check if their previous lags change. Similar to the previous SEAMBHs, the Hβ time lags of the newly observed objects are shorter than the values predicted by the canonical R Hβ -L 5100 relation of sub-Eddington AGNs, by factors of ∼ 2 − 6, depending on the accretion rate. The four previously observed objects have lags consistent with previous measurements. We provide linear regressions for the R Hβ -L 5100 relation, solely for the SEAMBH sample and for low-accretion AGNs. We find that the relative strength of Fe II and the profile of the Hβ emission line can be used as proxies of accretion rate, showing that the shortening of Hβ lags depends on accretion rates. The recent SDSS-RM discovery of shortened Hβ lags in AGNs with low accretion rates provides compelling evidence for retrograde accretion onto the black hole. These evidences show that the canonical R Hβ -L 5100 relation holds only in AGNs with moderate accretion rates. At low accretion rates, it should be revised to include the effects of black hole spin, whereas the accretion rate itself becomes a key factor in the regime of high accretion rates.

This is the second in a series of papers reporting on a large reverberation mapping (RM) campaign to measure black hole (BH) mass in high accretion rate active galactic nuclei (AGNs). The goal is to identify super-Eddington accreting massive black holes (SEAMBHs) and to use their unique properties to construct a new method for measuring cosmological distances. Based on theoretical models, the saturated bolometric luminosity of such sources is proportional to the BH mass which can be used to obtain their distance. Here we report on five new RM measurements and show that in four of the cases we can measure the BH mass and three of these sources are SEAMBHs. Together with the three sources from our earlier work, we now have six new sources of this type. We use a novel method based on a minimal radiation efficiency to identify nine additional SEAMBHs from earlier RM-based mass measurements. We use a Bayesian analysis to determine the parameters of the new distance expression, and the method uncertainties, from the observed properties of the objects in the sample. The ratio of the newly measured distances to the standard cosmological ones has a mean scatter of 0.14 dex, indicating that SEAMBHs can be use as cosmological distance probes. With their high luminosity, long period of activity and large numbers at high redshifts, SEAMBHs have a potential to extend the cosmic distance ladder beyond the range now explored by type Ia supernovae.

This paper reports results of the third-year campaign of monitoring super-Eddington accreting massive black holes (SEAMBHs) in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) between 2014 and 2015. Ten new targets were selected from the quasar sample of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), which have generally been more luminous than the SEAMBH candidates in the last two years. Hβ lags (t b H ) in five of the 10 quasars have been successfully measured in this monitoring season. We find that the lags are generally shorter, by large factors, than those of objects with same optical luminosity, in light of the well-known R Hβ -L 5100 relation. The five quasars have dimensionless accretion rates of Ṁ = 10-10 3 . Combining these with measurements of the previous SEAMBHs, we find that the reduction of Hβ lags depends tightly on accretion rates,, where t -R L is the Hβ lag from the normal R Hβ -L 5100 relation. Fitting 63 mapped AGNs, we present a new scaling relation for the broad-line region: . Implications of this new relation are briefly discussed.