Evidence of the Link between Broad Emission Line Regions and Accretion Disks in Active Galactic Nuclei

Details Evidence of the Link between Broad Emission Line Regions and Accretion Disks in Active Galactic Nuclei Evidence of the Link between Broad Emission Line Regions and Accretion Disks in Active Galactic Nuclei

Feb 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007chjaa...7...63x&link_type=abstract

Chinese Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 7, Issue 1, pp. 63-70 (2007).

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

3

Scientific paper

There is observational evidence that broad-line regions (BLRs) exist in most active galactic nuclei (AGNs), but their origin is still unclear. One scenario is that the BLRs originate from winds accelerated from the hot coronae of the disks, and the winds are suppressed when the black hole is accreting at low rates. This model predicts a relation between dot m (dot m = dot M/dot MEdd) and the FWHM of broad emission lines. We estimate the central black hole masses for a sample of bright AGNs by using their broad Hβ line-widths and optical luminosities. The dimensionless accretion rates dot m = dot M/dot MEdd are derived from the optical continuum luminosities by using two different models: using an empirical relation between the bolometric luminosity Lbol and the optical luminosity (dot m = Lbol/LEdd, a fixed radiative efficiency is adopted); and calculating the optical spectra of accretion disks as a function of dot m. We find a significant correlation between the derived dot m and the observed line width of Hβ, FWHMproptodot m-0.37, which almost overlaps the disk-corona model calculations, if the viscosity αapprox0.1-0.2 is adopted. Our results provide strong evidence for the physical link between the BLRs and accretion disks in AGNs.

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