Line Shifts, Broad-Line Region Inflow, and the Feeding of AGNs

Details Line Shifts, Broad-Line Region Inflow, and the Feeding of AGNs Line Shifts, Broad-Line Region Inflow, and the Feeding of AGNs

2008-05-28

arxiv.org/abs/0805.4258v3

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

8 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Astrophysical Journal

Scientific paper

Velocity-resolved reverberation mapping and spectropolarimetry require broad line regions of AGNs to have an inflow velocity on the order of a quarter of the velocity dispersion along the line of sight. We use the STOKES radiative transfer code to show that electron and Rayleigh scattering off the BLR and torus naturally explains both the blueshifted profiles of high-ionization lines compared with low-ionization lines and the rest frame of the host galaxy, and the relative amplitudes of blueshifts between different lines. This resolves the long-standing conflict between the inflow implied by velocity-resolved reverberation mapping, and the outflow implied if the blueshifting is interpreted as the result of obscuration. The net inflow of the BLR can only be explained if there is a significant source of viscosity, and this is likely to be viscosity due to the magneto-rotational instability. The mass accretion rate implied by the BLR density and inflow velocity is similar to the accretion rate needed to power the AGN. We suggest that the BLR and outer accretion disk are essentially one and the same. Modelling shows that the amount of blueshifting of the high-ionization lines is proportional to the mass-accretion rate. This predicts that high-accretion-rate AGNs will show greater blueshifts of high-ionization lines, as is observed. We point out that the scattering can lead to systematically too high black hole mass estimates from the C IV line for some AGNs. Similarities between NLR and BLR blueshiftings, and suggest that NLR blueshiftings could also due to infall and scattering.

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