The Lick AGN Monitoring Project 2016: Dynamical Modeling of Velocity-resolved Hβ Lags in Luminous Seyfert Galaxies

Author Info

• Lizvette Villafaña, University of California, Los Angeles
• Peter R. Williams, University of California, Los Angeles
• Tommaso Treu, University of California, Los Angeles
• Brendon J. Brewer, University of Auckland
• Aaron J. Barth, University of California, Irvine
• Vivian U, University of California, Riverside
• Vardha N. Bennert, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis ObispoFollow
• H. Alexander Vogler, University of California, Davis
• Hengxiao Guo, University of California, Irvine
• Misty C. Bentz, Georgia State University

Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2064-0518

Recommended Citation

Published in The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 930, Issue 1, May 3, 2022.

The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac6171.

Abstract

We have modeled the velocity-resolved reverberation response of the Hβ broad emission line in nine Seyfert 1 galaxies from the Lick Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) Monitoring Project 2016 sample, drawing inferences on the geometry and structure of the low-ionization broad-line region (BLR) and the mass of the central supermassive black hole. Overall, we find that the Hβ BLR is generally a thick disk viewed at low to moderate inclination angles. We combine our sample with prior studies and investigate line-profile shape dependence, such as log₁₀(FWHM/σ), on BLR structure and kinematics and search for any BLR luminosity-dependent trends. We find marginal evidence for an anticorrelation between the profile shape of the broad Hβ emission line and the Eddington ratio, when using the rms spectrum. However, we do not find any luminosity-dependent trends, and conclude that AGNs have diverse BLR structure and kinematics, consistent with the hypothesis of transient AGN/BLR conditions rather than systematic trends.

Disciplines

Physics

Copyright

© 2022 The Authors

Number of Pages

23