The Lick AGN Monitoring Project: Broad-Line Region Radii and Black Hole Masses from Reverberation Mapping of Hbeta Export

@article{citeulike:5347546, abstract = {We have recently completed a 64-night spectroscopic monitoring campaign at the Lick Observatory 3-m Shane telescope with the aim of measuring the masses of the black holes in 12 nearby (z \< 0.05) Seyfert 1 galaxies with expected masses in the range \~{}10^6-10^7 M\_sun and also the well-studied nearby active galactic nucleus (AGN) NGC 5548. Nine of the objects in the sample (including NGC 5548) showed optical variability of sufficient strength during the monitoring campaign to allow for a time lag to be measured between the continuum fluctuations and the response to these fluctuations in the broad Hbeta emission. We present here the light curves for the objects in this sample and the subsequent Hbeta time lags for the nine objects where these measurements were possible. The Hbeta lag time is directly related to the size of the broad-line region, and by combining the lag time with the measured width of the Hbeta emission line in the variable part of the spectrum, we determine the virial mass of the central supermassive black hole in these nine AGNs. The absolute calibration of the black hole masses is based on the normalization derived by Onken et al. We also examine the time lag response as a function of velocity across the Hbeta line profile for six of the AGNs. The analysis of four leads to ambiguous results with relatively flat time lags as a function of velocity. However, SBS 1116+583A exhibits a symmetric time lag response around the line center reminiscent of simple models for circularly orbiting broad-line region (BLR) clouds, and Arp 151 shows an asymmetric profile that is most easily explained by a simple gravitational infall model. Further investigation will be necessary to fully understand the constraints placed on physical models of the BLR by the velocity-resolved response in these objects.}, archivePrefix = {arXiv}, author = {Bentz, Misty C. and Walsh, Jonelle L. and Barth, Aaron J. and Baliber, Nairn and Bennert, Nicola and Canalizo, Gabriela and Filippenko, Alexei V. and Ganeshalingam, Mohan and Gates, Elinor L. and Greene, Jenny E. and Hidas, Marton G. and Hiner, Kyle D. and Lee, Nicholas and Li, Weidong and Malkan, Matthew A. and Minezaki, Takeo and Sakata, Yu and Serduke, Frank J. D. and Silverman, Jeffrey M. and Steele, Thea N. and Stern, Daniel and Street, Rachel A. and Thornton, Carol E. and Treu, Tommaso and Wang, Xiaofeng and Woo, Jong-Hak and Yoshii, Yuzuru}, citeulike-article-id = {5347546}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://arxiv.org/abs/0908.0003}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://arxiv.org/pdf/0908.0003}, day = {31}, eprint = {0908.0003}, keywords = {bh, masses}, month = {Jul}, posted-at = {2009-08-04 08:29:17}, priority = {2}, title = {The Lick AGN Monitoring Project: Broad-Line Region Radii and Black Hole Masses from Reverberation Mapping of Hbeta}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/0908.0003}, year = {2009} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:5347546 L3 - citeulike-article-id:5347546 N2 - We have recently completed a 64-night spectroscopic monitoring campaign at the Lick Observatory 3-m Shane telescope with the aim of measuring the masses of the black holes in 12 nearby (z < 0.05) Seyfert 1 galaxies with expected masses in the range ~10^6-10^7 M_sun and also the well-studied nearby active galactic nucleus (AGN) NGC 5548. Nine of the objects in the sample (including NGC 5548) showed optical variability of sufficient strength during the monitoring campaign to allow for a time lag to be measured between the continuum fluctuations and the response to these fluctuations in the broad Hbeta emission. We present here the light curves for the objects in this sample and the subsequent Hbeta time lags for the nine objects where these measurements were possible. The Hbeta lag time is directly related to the size of the broad-line region, and by combining the lag time with the measured width of the Hbeta emission line in the variable part of the spectrum, we determine the virial mass of the central supermassive black hole in these nine AGNs. The absolute calibration of the black hole masses is based on the normalization derived by Onken et al. We also examine the time lag response as a function of velocity across the Hbeta line profile for six of the AGNs. The analysis of four leads to ambiguous results with relatively flat time lags as a function of velocity. However, SBS 1116+583A exhibits a symmetric time lag response around the line center reminiscent of simple models for circularly orbiting broad-line region (BLR) clouds, and Arp 151 shows an asymmetric profile that is most easily explained by a simple gravitational infall model. Further investigation will be necessary to fully understand the constraints placed on physical models of the BLR by the velocity-resolved response in these objects. TI - The Lick AGN Monitoring Project: Broad-Line Region Radii and Black Hole Masses from Reverberation Mapping of Hbeta KW - bh KW - masses AU - Bentz, Misty AU - Walsh, Jonelle AU - Barth, Aaron AU - Baliber, Nairn AU - Bennert, Nicola AU - Canalizo, Gabriela AU - Filippenko, Alexei AU - Ganeshalingam, Mohan AU - Gates, Elinor AU - Greene, Jenny AU - Hidas, Marton AU - Hiner, Kyle AU - Lee, Nicholas AU - Li, Weidong AU - Malkan, Matthew AU - Minezaki, Takeo AU - Sakata, Yu AU - Serduke, Frank AU - Silverman, Jeffrey AU - Steele, Thea AU - Stern, Daniel AU - Street, Rachel AU - Thornton, Carol AU - Treu, Tommaso AU - Wang, Xiaofeng AU - Woo, Jong-Hak AU - Yoshii, Yuzuru PY - 2009/Jul/31/ UR - http://arxiv.org/abs/0908.0003 ER -