Physics
Scientific paper
Jan 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21743007d&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #217, #430.07; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011
Physics
Scientific paper
To measure the mass of central super-massive black holes in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) which is a fundamental parameter to understand the physics of AGN and is of great interest to follow the evolution of galaxies, the study of AGN variability has been established as a powerful tool to achieve those goals. The delayed response of broad emission line fluxes in the optical and in the ultraviolet wavelength domain to variations of the continuum strength provides, in combination with the velocity of the line emitting gas, a direct measurement of the size of the line-emitting region and hence of the black hole mass. We will present results of an optical monitoring campaign for 3C390.3 using the 2.4m Hiltner Telescope at MDM Observatory. We measured g-band flux variations, as well as the variability of the broad Ha6563, Hb4861, Hg4340, HeI5876, and HeII4686 emission line fluxes and of the optical continuum flux F(5100). Applying reverberation mapping analysis we find that the emission line variations are delayed with respect to the variable continuum by t = 40 days to 50 days. The lack of delay between the response to the blue and red parts of the profiles supports orbital motion as dominant motion of the gas. Applying the virial theorem we find a mass of Mbh = 2x 10^8 Msol for the SMBH of 3C390.3. Combining this with the information of the inclination of the line emitting disk-like structure yields a black hole mass which is consistent with mass estimates based on stellar dynamics.
This work has been supported by the NSF through grant AST-0605066.
Dietrich Matthias
Grier Catherine
Peterson Bradley. M.
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