Linear Polarization of a Double Peaked Broad Emission Line in Active Galactic Nuclei

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

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Galaxies: Active, Galaxies: Nuclei, Quasars: Emission Lines, Radiative Transfer, Polarization

Scientific paper

A small number of active galactic nuclei are known to exhibit prominent double peak emission profiles that are well-fitted by a relativistic accretion disk model. We develop a Monte Carlo code to compute the linear polarization of a double peaked broad emission line arising from Thomson scattering. A Keplerian accretion disk is adopted for the double peak emission line region and the Schwarzschild geometry is assumed in the emission region. Far from the accretion disk where flat Minkowski geometry is appropriate, we place an azimuthally symmetric scattering region in the shape of a spherical shell sliced with Δμ = 0.1. Adopting a Monte Carlo method we generate line photons in the accretion disk in arbitraray directions in the local rest frame and follow the null geodesic paths of the photons until they hits the scattering region. The profile of the polarized flux is mainly determined by the relative location of the scattering region with respect to the emission source. When the scattering region is in the polar direction, the linear degree of polarization also shows a double peak structure. Under a favorable condition we show that up to 0.6% of linear degree of polarization may be obtained. We conclude that spectropolarimetry can be a powerful probe to reveal much information regarding the accretion disk geometry of these active galactic nuclei.

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