The Effect of Radiation Pressure on Virial Black Hole Mass Estimates and the Case of Narrow‐Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies

Marconi, A.; Axon, D. J.; Maiolino, R.; Nagao, Tohru; Pastorini, Guia; Pietrini, P.; Robinson, Andrew; Torricelli, G.

doi:10.1086/529360

Cited by 276 publications

(368 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…Masses estimated from line widths assume the BLR clouds are virialized. However, the effective gravity experienced by the clouds will be reduced due to radiation pressure from the central source, leading to an underestimate for masses of NLS1s (Marconi et al 2008). Inclination is also another uncertainty, as the BLR velocity field is not completely virialized, but contains a clear equatorial component (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Complex narrow-line Seyfert 1s: high spin or high inclination?

Gardner

Done

2015

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Complex narrow line Seyfert 1s (NLS1s), such as 1H0707-495, differ from simple NLS1s like PG1244+026 by showing stronger broad spectral features at Fe K and larger amplitude flux variability. These are correlated: the strongest Fe K features are seen during deep dips in the light curves of complex NLS1s. There are two competing explanations for these features, one where a compact X-ray source on the spin axis of a highly spinning black hole approaches the horizon and the consequent strong relativistic effects focus the intrinsic flux onto the inner edge of a thin disc, giving a dim, reflection dominated spectrum. The other is that the deep dips are caused by complex absorption by clumps close to the hard X-ray source. The reflection dominated model is able to reproduce the very short 30s soft lag from reverberation seen in the complex NLS1 1H0707-495. However, it does not explain the characteristic switch to hard lags on longer timescales. Instead, a full model of propagating fluctuations coupled to reverberation can explain the switch in the simple NLS1 PG1244+026 using a low spin black hole. However PG1244+026 has a longer reverberation lag of ∼ 200s.Here we extend the successful propagation-reverberation model for the simple NLS1 PG1244+026 to include the effect of absorption from clumps in a turbulent region above the disk. The resulting occultations of the inner accretion flow can introduce additional hard lags when relativistic effects are taken into account. This dilutes the soft lag from reverberation and shifts it to higher frequencies, making a smooth transition between the 200s lags seen in simple NLS1s to the 30s lags in complex NLS1s. These two classes of NLS1 could then be determined by inclination angle with respect to a clumpy, probably turbulent, failed wind structure on the disc.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Complex narrow-line Seyfert 1s: high spin or high inclination?

Gardner

Done

2015

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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“…Shen et al 2011), due to the systematics involved in the calibration and usage (e.g. Marconi et al 2008;Kelly et al 2009). We assume that there is no significant evolution of the MBH-M bulge relation at z ≈ 1 from the local relation and thus use MBH ∼ 0.0014M bulge .…”

Section: Stellar and Black Hole Massmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observational evidence that positive and negative AGN feedback depends on galaxy mass and jet power

Kalfountzou

Stevens

Jarvis

et al. 2017

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Several studies support the existence of a link between the AGN and star formation activity. Radio jets have been argued to be an ideal mechanism for direct interaction between the AGN and the host galaxy. A drawback of previous surveys of AGN is that they are fundamentally limited by the degeneracy between redshift and luminosity in flux-density limited samples. To overcome this limitation, we present far-infrared Herschel observations of 74 radio-loud quasars (RLQs), 72 radio-quiet quasars (RQQs) and 27 radio galaxies (RGs), selected at 0.9 < z < 1.1 which span over two decades in optical luminosity. By decoupling luminosity from evolutionary effects, we investigate how the star formation rate (SFR) depends on AGN luminosity, radio-loudness and orientation. We find that: 1) the SFR shows a weak correlation with the bolometric luminosity for all AGN sub-samples, 2) the RLQs show a SFR excess of about a factor of 1.4 compared to the RQQs, matched in terms of black hole mass and bolometric luminosity, suggesting that either positive radio-jet feedback or radio AGN triggering are linked to star-formation triggering and 3) RGs have lower SFRs by a factor of 2.5 than the RLQ sub-sample with the same BH mass and bolometric luminosity. We suggest that there is some jet power threshold at which radio-jet feedback switches from enhancing star formation (by compressing gas) to suppressing it (by ejecting gas). This threshold depends on both galaxy mass and jet power.

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“…In the case of reverberation mapping, the photoionized BLR gas is deep within the potential well of the black hole where its motion is expected to be dominated by gravity in the absence of strong radiation pressure. While the effect of radiation pressure is still debatable for lines such as C IV, these conditions are most likely to be satisfied for Hβ (e.g., Marconi et al 2008;Netzer 2009;Netzer & Marziani 2010) which is expected to arise from gas that is well-shielded from the central ionizing source. The Dopplerbroadened width of the Hβ emission line is therefore a measure of the line-of-sight velocity of the gas within the BLR.…”

Section: Black Hole Massesmentioning

confidence: 99%

AGN Reverberation Mapping

Bentz

2016

Astronomy at High Angular Resolution

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Reverberation mapping is now a well-established technique for investigating spatially-unresolved structures in the nuclei of distant galaxies with activelyaccreting supermassive black holes. Structural parameters for the broad emissionline region, with angular sizes of microarcseconds, can be constrained through the substitution of time resolution for spatial resolution. Many reverberation experiments over the last 30 years have led to a practical understanding of the requirements necessary for a successful program. With reverberation measurements now in hand for 60 active galaxies, and more on the horizon, we are able to directly constrain black hole masses, derive scaling relationships that allow large numbers of black hole mass estimates throughout the observable Universe, and begin investigating the detailed geometry and kinematics of the broad line region. Reverberation mapping is therefore one of the few techniques available that will allow a deeper understanding of the physical mechanisms involved in AGN feeding and feedback at very small scales, as well as constraints on the growth and evolution of black holes across cosmic time. In this contribution, I will briefly review the background, implementation, and major results derived from this high angular resolution technique.

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The Effect of Radiation Pressure on Virial Black Hole Mass Estimates and the Case of Narrow‐Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies

Cited by 276 publications

References 70 publications

Complex narrow-line Seyfert 1s: high spin or high inclination?

Complex narrow-line Seyfert 1s: high spin or high inclination?

Observational evidence that positive and negative AGN feedback depends on galaxy mass and jet power

AGN Reverberation Mapping

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