On the Long Time Spectral Variability of NGC 5548

Abstract

We have investigated the long term variability of the intensities of the broad-line region emission lines in the UV spectra of Seyfert I galaxy NGC 5548 from 1973-1996. We have obtained the following results: 1) a high level correlation between the intensities of emission lines as well as between intensities of emission lines and continuum fluxes was discovered. With increasing wavelength the correlation in both cases becomes weaker, 2) the relationship between the intensity of emission lines and the flux radiation in the continuum can be expressed by a power law function with coefficients of α ≈ 0.8 − 1.1 for different lines. When the difference between the wavelengths of spectral lines and the continuum is increased, the value of the power function decreases, and 3) it was found that the magnitude of the variability of the line intensities are weaker than the range of variability of the continuum fluxes. The magnitude of the variability of the line intensities and the continuum fluxes increase at longer wavelengths.