What Can We Learn About Accretion Disks from Double-Peaked Balmer Line Profiles?

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Scientific paper

Double-peaked Balmer line profiles in the optical, along with Fe Kα lines in the X-rays, provide the most direct evidence for the existence of accretion disks in the vicinities of supermassive black holes in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). Using simulated disk-emission line profiles, we find that we can correctly infer the disk parameters by modeling the data with axisymmetric, externally illuminated disks, provided that precaution is taken to assure that the underlying disk emission is not coming from a non-axisymmetric disk, that the underlying stellar continuum is correctly subtracted, and the surface emissivity of the disk is restricted to theoretically motivated values. We model a carefully selected subsample of the new SDSS double-peaked sample (Strateva et al. 2003) with axisymmetric, externally illuminated disks. Using the inclinations and relative disk emission sizes inferred from 31 model fits from the SDSS Hα line sample, combined with the sample of Eracleous and Halpern 2003, we discuss evidence for the existence of coplanar obscuring material (a torus or dusty wind) and the need for external illumination of the disk, as well as the possible effects of self-gravity in shaping the observed disk line-emission.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

What Can We Learn About Accretion Disks from Double-Peaked Balmer Line Profiles? does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with What Can We Learn About Accretion Disks from Double-Peaked Balmer Line Profiles?, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and What Can We Learn About Accretion Disks from Double-Peaked Balmer Line Profiles? will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1173751

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.