posted on 2019-08-12, 13:30authored byS Raimundo, A Pancoast, M Vestergaard, M Goad, A Barth
We show that individual (single-epoch) spectra of AGN can constrain some of the
geometry and dynamics of the AGN broad line region. Studies of the cosmic influence of supermassive black holes are limited by the current large uncertainties in the
determination of black hole masses. One dominant limitation is the unknown geometry, dynamics and line-of-sight inclination of the broad line region, used to probe
the central black hole mass. Recent progress has been made to constrain the spatial
and kinematic structure of the broad line region using dynamical modelling of AGN
monitoring data and an underlying physical model for the broad line region. In this
work we test the ability of a modified version of this dynamical modelling code to
constrain the broad line region structure using single-epoch spectra. We test our modelling code on single-epoch spectra of nearby Arp 151 by comparing our results with
those obtained with monitoring data of this same object. We find that a significant
fraction of the broad line region parameters can indeed be adequately constrained,
with uncertainties that are comparable to, or at most a factor of ∼ a few higher than
those obtained from modelling of monitoring data. Considering the wealth of available
single-epoch spectroscopic observations, this method is promising for establishing the
overall AGN population trends in the geometry and dynamics of the broad line region.
This method can be applied to spectra of AGN at low and high redshift making it
valuable for studies of cosmological black hole and AGN evolution.
Funding
The authors acknowledge financial support from the Independent Research Fund Denmark via
grant no. DFF-4002-00275 (PI: Vestergaard). AP is supported by NASA through Einstein Postdoctoral Fellowship
grant number PF5-160141 awarded by the Chandra X-ray
Center, which is operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for NASA under contract NAS8-03060. Research by A.J.B. is supported by NSF grant AST-1412693.
History
Citation
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 489, Issue 2, October 2019, Pages 1899–1918, https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz2243
Author affiliation
/Organisation/COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING/Department of Physics and Astronomy
Version
VoR (Version of Record)
Published in
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume
789
Issue
2
Pagination
1899-1918
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP), Royal Astronomical Society
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