Estimating Black Hole Masses in Active Galaxies Using the Halpha Emission Line

Details Estimating Black Hole Masses in Active Galaxies Using the Halpha Emission Line Estimating Black Hole Masses in Active Galaxies Using the Halpha Emission Line

2005-08-15

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0508335v1

Astrophys.J.630:122-129,2005

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

to appear in Apj; 8 pages; 5 figures; uses emulateapj5.sty

Scientific paper

10.1086/431897

It has been established that virial masses for black holes in low-redshift active galaxies can be estimated from measurements of the optical continuum strength and the width of the broad Hbeta line. Under various circumstances, however, both of these quantities can be challenging to measure or can be subject to large systematic uncertainties. To mitigate these difficulties, we present a new method for estimating black hole masses. From analysis of a new sample of broad-line active galactic nuclei, we find that Halpha luminosity scales almost linearly with optical continuum luminosity and that a strong correlation exists between Halpha and Hbeta line widths. These two empirical correlations allow us to translate the standard virial mass system to a new one based solely on observations of the broad Halpha emission line.

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