The Structure of the Broad-Line Region in Active Galactic Nuclei. I. Reconstructed Velocity-Delay Maps

Grier, C. J.; Peterson, B. M.; Horne, K.; Bentz, Misty C.; Pogge, Richard W.; Denney, K. D.; Rosa, Gisella De; Martini, Paul; Kochanek, C. S.; Zu, Ying; Shappee, B. J.; Siverd, Robert J.; Beatty, Thomas G.; Сергеев, С. Г.; Kaspi, S.; Salvo, C. Araya; Bird, Jonathan C.; Bord, D. J.; Borman, G. A.; Chen, Xiao; Chen, Chien-Ting; Cohen, S.; Dietrich, M.; Doroshenko, V. T.; Efimov, Yu. S.; Free, N.; Ginsburg, Idan; Henderson, Calen B.; King, A. L.; Mogren, K.; Molina, Mallory; Mosquera, A. M.; Назаров, С. В.; Okhmat, D. N.; Pejcha, Ondřej; Rafter, Stephen E.; Shields, J. C.; Skowron, J.; Szczygiel, D.; Valluri, Monica; Saders, Jennifer L. van

doi:10.1088/0004-637x/764/1/47

Cited by 198 publications

(222 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…An asymmetric response such as this could be produced by either rotating gas with enhanced emission in one location (such as a hot spot or warp), or by infalling gas, or some combination of these simplistic models. Similar asymmetries are also seen in the deconvolved responses of a handful of additional AGNs (Grier et al, 2013b).…”

Section: Blr Geometry and Kinematicssupporting

confidence: 63%

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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Section: Blr Geometry and Kinematicssupporting

confidence: 63%

AGN Reverberation Mapping

Bentz

2016

Astronomy at High Angular Resolution

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“…The source 3C 120 has been monitored spectroscopically -assisted by BB photometry -in 2008/2009 by Kollatschny et al (2014 and in 2010/2011 similarly by Grier et al (2012Grier et al ( , 2013. The data by G+2013 are very well sampled, but catch only rather smooth variations in the light curves.…”

Section: Data and Model Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling photometric reverberation data: a disk-like broad-line region and a potentially larger black hole mass for 3C 120

Núñez

Haas

Ramolla

et al. 2014

A&A

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We consider photometric reverberation mapping, where the nuclear continuum variations are monitored via a broad-band filter and the echo of emission line clouds of the broad-line region (BLR) is measured with a suitable narrow-band (NB) filter. We investigate how an incomplete emission-line coverage by the NB filter influences the determination of the BLR size. This includes two basic cases: 1) a symmetric cut of the blue and red part of the line wings; and 2) the filter positioned asymmetrically to the line centre so that essentially a complete half of the emission line is contained in the NB filter. Under the assumption that the BLR is dominated by circular Keplerian orbits, we find that symmetric cutting of line wings may lead to overestimating the BLR size by less than 5%. The case of asymmetric half-line coverage, similar as for our data of the Seyfert 1 galaxy 3C 120, yields a BLR size with a bias of less than 1%. Our results suggest that any BLR size bias due to a narrow-band line cut in photometric reverberation mapping is small and in most cases negligible. We used well-sampled photometric reverberation mapping light curves with sharp variation features in both the continuum and the Hβ light curves to determine the geometry type of the Hβ BLR for 3C 120. Modelling of the light curve, under the assumption that the BLR is essentially virialised, argues against a spherical geometry and favours a nearly face-on disk-like geometry with an inclination i = 10 • ± 4 • and an extension from 22 to 28 light days. The low inclination may lead to a larger black hole mass M BH than that derived when using the average geometry scaling factor f = 5.5. We discuss deviations of Seyfert 1 galaxies from the M BH -σ * relation.

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“…Such work has culminated in the measurement of black hole masses for a wide range of AGN (e.g. Grier et al 2012 and see Peterson & Bentz 2006 for a review) and is now leading to the measurement of the detailed structure of the BLR, identifying its inclination to the observer as well as whether the gas is simply orbiting, outflowing, inflowing or some combination of all three (Bentz et al 2010;Pancoast et al 2011Pancoast et al , 2013Grier et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

X-ray reverberation around accreting black holes

Uttley

Cackett

Fabian³

et al. 2014

Astron Astrophys Rev

461

606

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Luminous accreting stellar mass and supermassive black holes produce power-law continuum X-ray emission from a compact central corona. Reverberation time lags occur due to light travel time-delays between changes in the direct coronal emission and corresponding variations in its reflection from the accretion flow. Reverberation is detectable using light curves made in different X-ray energy bands, since the direct and reflected components have different spectral shapes. Larger, lower frequency, lags are also seen and are identified with propagation of fluctuations through the accretion flow and associated corona. We review the evidence for X-ray reverberation in active galactic nuclei and black hole X-ray binaries, showing how it can be best measured and how it may be modelled. The timescales and energy-dependence of the high frequency reverberation lags show that much of the signal is originating from very close to the black hole in some objects, within a few gravitational radii of the event horizon. We consider how these signals can be studied in the future to carry out X-ray reverberation mapping of the regions closest to black holes.

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The Structure of the Broad-Line Region in Active Galactic Nuclei. I. Reconstructed Velocity-Delay Maps

Cited by 198 publications

References 46 publications

AGN Reverberation Mapping

AGN Reverberation Mapping

Modelling photometric reverberation data: a disk-like broad-line region and a potentially larger black hole mass for 3C 120

X-ray reverberation around accreting black holes

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