We investigate the relationship between the linewidths of broad Mg II λ2800 and Hβ in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) to refine them as tools to estimate black hole (BH) masses. We perform a detailed spectral analysis of a large sample of AGNs at intermediate redshifts selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, along with a smaller sample of archival ultraviolet spectra for nearby sources monitored with reverberation mapping (RM). Careful attention is devoted to accurate spectral decomposition, especially in the treatment of narrow-line blending and Fe II contamination. We show that, contrary to popular belief, the velocity width of Mg II tends to be smaller than that of Hβ, suggesting that the two species are not cospatial in the broad-line region. Using these findings and recently updated BH mass measurements from RM, we present a new calibration of the empirical prescriptions for estimating virial BH masses for AGNs using the broad Mg II and Hβ lines. We show that the BH masses derived from our new formalisms show subtle but important differences compared to some of the mass estimators currently used in the literature.

Quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) detected in the X-ray radiation of black hole X-ray binaries (BHXBs) is thought to originate from dynamical processes in the close vicinity of the black holes (BHs), and thus carries important physical information therein. Such a feature is extremely rare in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with supermassive BHs. Here we report on the detection of a possible X-ray QPO signal with a period of 3800 s at a confidence level > 99.99% in the narrowline Seyfert 1 galaxy (NLS1) 1H 0707-495 in one data set in 0.2-10 keV taken with XMM-Newton. The statistical significance is higher than that of most previously reported QPOs in AGNs. The QPO is highly coherent (quality factor Q = ν/∆ν 15) with a high rms fractional variability (∼ 15%). A comprehensive analysis of the optical spectra of this AGN is also performed, yielding a central BH mass 5.2 × 10 6 M ⊙ from the broad emission lines based on the scaling relation. The QPO follows closely the known frequency-BH mass relation, which spans from stellar-mass to supermassive BHs. The absence of the QPO in other observations of the object suggests it a transient phenomenon. We suggest that the (high-frequency) QPOs tend to occur in highly accreting BH systems, from BHXBs to supermassive BHs. Future precise estimation of the BH mass may be used to infer the BH spin from the QPO frequency.

We present a statistical analysis of the variability of broad absorption lines (BALs) in quasars using the large multi-epoch spectroscopic dataset of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 12 (SDSS DR12). We divide the sample into two groups according to the pattern of the variation of C iv BAL with respect to that of continuum: the equivalent widths (EW) of the BAL decreases (increases) when the continuum brightens (dims) as group T1; and the variation of EW and continuum in the opposite relation as group T2. We find that T2 has significantly (P T < 10 −6 , Students T Test) higher EW ratios (R) of Si iv to C iv BAL than T1. Our result agrees with the prediction of photoionization models that C +3 column density increases (decreases) if there is a (or no) C +3 ionization front while R decreases with the incident continuum. We show that BAL variabilities in at least 80% quasars are driven by the variation of ionizing continuum while other models that predict uncorrelated BAL and continuum variability contribute less than 20%. Considering large uncertainty in the continuum flux calibration, the latter fraction may be much smaller. When the sample is binned into different time interval between the two observations, we find significant difference in the distribution of R between T1 and T2 in all time-bins down to a ∆T < 6 days, suggesting that BAL outflow in a fraction of quasars has a recombination time scale of only a few days.

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The rest-frame UV spectra of three recent tidal disruption events (TDEs), ASASSN-14li, PTF15af and iPTF16fnl display strong nitrogen emission lines but weak or undetectable carbon lines. In these three objects, the upper limits of the C iii] λ1908/N iii] λ1750 ratio are about two orders of magnitude lower than those of quasars, suggesting a high abundance ratio of [N/C]. With detailed photoionization simulations, we demonstrate that C 2+ and N 2+ are formed in the same zone, so the Ciii]/N iii] ratio depends only moderately on the physical conditions in the gas and weakly on the shape of the ionizing continuum. There are smaller than 0.5 dex variations in the line ratio over wide ranges of gas densities and ionization parameters at a given metallicity. This allows a robust estimate of the relative abundance ratio nitrogen to carbon. We derive a relative abundance ratio of [N/C]> 1.5 for ASASSN-14li, and even higher for PTF15af and iPTF16fnl. This suggests that the broad line region in those TDE sources is made of nitrogen-enhanced core material that falls back at later times. Based on stellar evolution models, the lower limit of the disrupted star should be larger than 0.6M ⊙ . The chemical abundance of the line emitting gas gives a convincing evidence that the flares origin from stellar tidal disruptions. The coincidence of the weakness of the X-ray emission with the strong broad absorption lines in PTF15af, iPTF16fnl and the strong X-ray emission without such lines in ASASSN-li14 are in analogy to quasars with and without broad absorption lines.

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Correlations of the outflow strength of quasars, as measured by the blueshift and asymmetry index (BAI) of the C iv line, with intensities and ratios of broad emission lines, based on composite quasar spectra built from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, are investigated. We find that most of the line ratios of other ions to C iv increase prominently with BAI. These behaviors can be well understood in the context of increasing metallicity with BAI. The strength of the dominant coolant, C iv line, decreases, and weak collisionally excited lines increase with gas metallicity as a result of the competition between different line coolants. Using Si iv + O iv]/C iv as an indicator of gas metallicity, we present, for the first time, a strong correlation between the metallicity and the outflow strength of quasars over a wide range of 1.7-6.9 times solar abundance. Our result implies that metallicity plays an important role in the formation of quasar outflows, likely by affecting outflow acceleration. This effect may have a profound impact on galaxy evolution via momentum feedback and chemical enrichment.

We have performed a statistical study of the properties of the broad band continuum of Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s) by collecting ratio, infrared, optical and X-ray continuum data from various databases and compared the results with control samples of Broad Line Seyfert 1 galaxies (BLS1s). We find that the fraction (∼ 6%) of Radio Loud (RL) NLS1s is significantly less than that of BLS1s (∼ 13%), which is caused by the lack of radio-very-loud sources in the former. The rarity of RL NLS1s, especially radio-very-loud ones, is consistent with the scenario of small black hole and high accretion rate for NLS1s. Six new radio loud NLS1s are found and five RL NLS1 candidates are presented. In comparison with the BLS1s, the NLS1s tend to have stronger far infrared emission, cooler infrared colors and redder B − K color, which suggests that NLS1s are hosted by dust-richer nuclei. The NLS1s also show steeper soft X-ray spectrum and large soft X-ray to optical flux ratio, while a significant fraction show flat soft X-ray spectra. At least two factors can account for this, absorption and spectral variability. We also perform a correlation analysis between various broad band data. It is found that most correlations identified for NLS1s are also valid for radio quiet BLS1s: (1) the optical colors are anti-correlated with X-ray spectral index; (2) higher optical, Xray and NIR luminosity objects show bluer optical colors and red H − K color; (3) higher luminosity objects show warmer IRAS color; (4) the radio loudness correlates with B − K and X-ray to optical flux ratio. Radio loud objects behave somewhat differently in a few correlations.