THE RADIUS–LUMINOSITY RELATIONSHIP FOR ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI: THE EFFECT OF HOST-GALAXY STARLIGHT ON LUMINOSITY MEASUREMENTS. II. THE FULL SAMPLE OF REVERBERATION-MAPPED AGNs

By M. Bentz, B. Peterson, H. Netzer, R. Pogge, M. Vestergaard. 2008

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We present high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope images of all 35 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with optical reverberation-mapping results, which we have modeled to create a nucleus-free image of each AGN host galaxy. From the nucleus-free images, we determine the host-galaxy contribution to ground-based spectroscopic luminosity measurements at 5100 Å. After correcting the luminosities of the AGNs for the contribution from starlight, we re-examine the Hβ RBLR–L relationship. Our best fit for the relationship gives a power-law slope of 0.52 with a range of 0.45–0.59 allowed by the uncertainties. This is consistent with our previous findings, and thus still consistent with the naive assumption that all AGNs are simply luminosity-scaled versions of each other. We discuss various consistency checks relating to the galaxy modeling and starlight contributions, as well as possible systematic errors in the current set of reverberation measurements from which we determine the form of the RBLR–L relationship.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/59a93092039e246dec22bb801fa9411a3dc5f491

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The Sloan Digital Sky Survey quasar catalog: ninth data release (2012, background): “Statistical errors are of the order of 15%, and variability can account for another 15% (see e.g. Bentz et al. 2009; Wilhite et al. 2006).”
THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN: X-RAYS DRIVE THE UV THROUGH NIR VARIABILITY IN THE 2013 ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS OUTBURST IN NGC 2617 (2013, background): “Reverberation mapping studies ofthe Hβ emission line in local AGN indicate that there is a tight correlation between the AGN continuum linosity at 5100 Å andRBLR (Kaspi et al. 2005; Bentz et al. 2009, 2013; Zu et al. 2011).”
Measuring the Masses of Supermassive Black Holes (2014, methodology): “More recent large-scale campaigns have been undertaken by the Lick AGN Monitoring Program (LAMP), described by Bentz et al. (2009c), Barth et al. (2011a), and Barth et al. (2011b), by a consortium of astronomers primarily in eastern Europe, Mexico, and Germany (e.g., Shapovalova et al. 2010;…”
THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY QUASAR CATALOG. V. SEVENTH DATA RELEASE (2010, background): “…in the catalog are less susceptible to host galaxy contamination than are fixed-aperture measurements, the nucleus of the host galaxy can still contribute appreciably to this measurement for the lowest luminosity entries in the catalog (e.g., Hao et al. 2005; Bentz et al. 2006; Croom et al. 2009).”
Broad-line Balmer decrements in blue active galactic nuclei (2007, background): “L relation by Bentz et al. (2006) corrected for host galaxy starlight contamination.”
The Hard X-Ray Spectrum as a Probe for Black Hole Growth in Radio-Quiet Active Galactic Nuclei (2008, background): “In addition, Bentz et al. (2006, 2007) have recently suggested that subtraction of host-galaxy starlight from the AGN optical continuum may result in a somewhat flatter slope (e.g., α = 0.54 compared withα = 0.69 in K05) for the BELR sizeluminosity relation across the entire K05 luminosity range.”
STELLAR VELOCITY DISPERSION MEASUREMENTS IN HIGH-LUMINOSITY QUASAR HOSTS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE AGN BLACK HOLE MASS SCALE (2013, methodology): “We classified the galaxies using the host-galaxy decompositions from Bentz et al. (2009a) (see their Table 4).”
THE LICK AGN MONITORING PROJECT: THE MBH–σ* RELATION FOR REVERBERATION-MAPPED ACTIVE GALAXIES (2010, methodology): “Thus we in- ferred the AGN luminosity from the measured time lag using the size-luminosity relation (Bentz et al. 2009a).”
ESTIMATING BLACK HOLE MASSES IN ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI USING THE Mg ii λ2800 EMISSION LINE (2009, result): “L relation (Bentz et al. 2006, 2009).”
Simultaneous X-ray/optical/UV snapshots of active galactic nuclei from XMM–Newton: spectral energy distributions for the reverberation mapped sample (2008, background): “Marconi et al. (2008) calculate λLλ(5100Å) more accurately by subtracting the host galaxy following the approach of Bentz et al. (2006), and find a similar average value for the whole sample, MnewBH /M old BH ∼ 1.25 (obtained via private communication with the author).”
The blazar sequence: a new perspective (2008, background): “…10 light days = (2.23 ± 0.21) [ λLλ(5100 Å) 1044 erg s−1 ]0.69±0.05 , (1) where Lλ(5100 Å) is the monochromatic luminosity calculated at 5100 Å. (ii) Bentz et al. (2006) pointed out a source of uncertainty in this relation associated with the flux of the host galaxy, contributing more at low…”
THE LICK AGN MONITORING PROJECT: BROAD-LINE REGION RADII AND BLACK HOLE MASSES FROM REVERBERATION MAPPING OF Hβ (2009, methodology): “To date, successful reverberation-mapping studies have been carried out for approximately 36 active galaxies (compiled by Peterson et al. 2004, 2005 with additions by Bentz et al. 2006b; Denney et al. 2006; Bentz et al. 2007; Grier et al. 2008, and Denney et al. 2009).”
Hot graphite dust and the infrared spectral energy distribution of active galactic nuclei (2011, methodology): “This radius is based on an up-todate version of the Kaspi et al. (2005) relation taking into account the modifications of Bentz et al. (2009):RBLR(Hβ ) = 0.35× ( L5100/1046ergs−1 )0.62 pc. Fig.”
REVERBERATION MEASUREMENTS OF THE INNER RADIUS OF THE DUST TORUS IN 17 SEYFERT GALAXIES (2014, methodology): “…3C 273 for the data, the regression equation for the correlation of the dust reverberation radius and optical luminosity was converted from the result given in Section 4, and that for the correlation of the BLR reverberation radius and the optical luminosity was obtained from Bentz et al. (2009a).”
THE SIZES OF THE X-RAY AND OPTICAL EMISSION REGIONS OF RXJ 1131–1231 (2009, background): “…Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 5 Department of Physics, United States Naval Academy, 572C Holloway Road, Annapolis, MD 21402 6 Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, 3910 15th Avenue, Seattle WA 98105 7 Using the Bentz et al. (2006) mass normalizations.”
Black Hole Growth to z = 2 - I: Improved Virial Methods for Measuring M_BH and L/L_Edd (2012, background): “(2) This is an updated version of the correlation found by Kaspi et al. (2005), taking into account the improved measurements present d in Bentz et al. (2009), but fitting the RM measurements of only the sources withL5100 >∼ 1044ergs−1, typical of the luminosities of high-redshift sources.”
Accretion and star formation rates in low‐redshift type II active galactic nuclei (2009, background): “…is based on the known relationship between the luminosity of the non-stellar continuum at some wavelength (e.g. 5100Å) and the mean broad line region (BLR) size derived from reverberation mapping (RM; e.g. Kaspi et al. 2000; Kaspi et al. 2005; Vestergaard and Peterson 2006; Bentz et al. 2009).”
The Effect of Radiation Pressure on Virial Black Hole Mass Estimates and the Case of Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies (2008, methodology): “The radiusluminosity relation discovered by Kaspi et al. (2000) shows that continuum luminosity can be used as a proxy forRBLR (Kaspi et al. 2000, 2005; Bentz et al. 2006b).”