Black hole masses from reverberation measurements

Peterson, B. M.

doi:10.1017/s1743921304001358

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…This source currently lacks a reverberation mapping mass estimate (e.g. Peterson 2004) which is required before the exact QPO mechanism can be robustly identified. From the arguments above we propose the QPO observed in MS 2254.9-3712 is indeed the same as the HFQPO phenomenon observed in several BHBs.…”

Section: Qpo Identificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discovery of an ∼2-h high-frequency X-ray QPO and iron Kα reverberation in the active galaxy MS 2254.9−3712

Alston

Parker

Markeviciute³

et al. 2015

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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We report the discovery of a ∼ 1.5 × 10 −4 Hz (∼ 2 hr) X-ray quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) in the active galaxy MS 2254.9-3712, using a ∼ 70 ks XMM-Newton observation. The QPO is significantly detected (∼ 3.3σ ) in the 1.2 − 5.0 keV band only, connecting its origin with the primary X-ray power-law continuum. We detect a highly coherent soft lag between the 0.3 − 0.7 keV and 1.2 − 5.0 keV energy bands at the QPO frequency and at a frequency band in a 3:2 ratio, strongly suggesting the presence of a QPO harmonic. An iron Kα reverberation lag is found at the harmonic frequency, indicating the reflecting material subtends some angle to the primary continuum, which is modulated by the QPO mechanism. Frequency resolved spectroscopy reveals the QPO and harmonic to have a hard energy dependence. These properties of the QPO variability, together with the current black hole mass estimate, M BH ∼ 4 × 10 6 M ⊙ , are consistent with the QPO originating from the same process as the high frequency QPO phenomenon observed in black hole X-ray binaries. Principle component analysis reveals the spectral variability in MS 2254.9-3712 is similar to that of the active galaxy RE J1034+396, a source which also displays an X-ray QPO. This suggests a distinct spectral variability pattern for accreting black holes when in a state where QPOs are present.

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Section: Qpo Identificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discovery of an ∼2-h high-frequency X-ray QPO and iron Kα reverberation in the active galaxy MS 2254.9−3712

Alston

Parker

Markeviciute³

et al. 2015

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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“…So far, about 100 black-hole masses have been measured using spectroscopic reverberation mapping techniques (Kaspi et al 2000;Bentz et al 2009a,b;Denney et al 2010;Bentz et al 2013;Barth et al 2015;Grier et al 2012;Shen et al 2015b;Du et al 2015Du et al , 2016aGrier et al 2017), which require long-term spectroscopic observations to recover their lags. Since BLR radii can span up to several hundred light days (Peterson 2004;Bentz et al 2014;Fausnaugh et al 2017;Williams et al 2018) light curve observations need to take place over several months or years to match features in the continuum to the echoes from the BLR, with 3 times the observed-frame lag being the recommended baseline (Shen et al 2015a). Cosmological time dilation increases the time-scale of observed variability and so high-redshift QSOs require much longer observational campaigns than low-redshift QSOs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The variability of the BLR emission line can be captured within a redshifted narrow-band (or broad-band) photometric filter through the careful separation of the underlying, driving continuum (Haas et al 2011;Chelouche & Daniel 2012;Pozo Nuez et al 2012;Zu et al 2016). This can be done either by modelling the variability using a stochastic time-series model such as the Damped Random Walk (Zu et al 2011(Zu et al , 2013(Zu et al , 2016 or by more empirical measures such as cross-correlation analysis, which are model-independent (White & Peterson 1994;Rybicki & Kleyna 1994;Peterson 2004;Chelouche & Daniel 2012;Shen et al 2015a;Fausnaugh et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The performance of photometric reverberation mapping at high redshift and the reliability of damped random walk models

Read

Smith

Jarvis

et al. 2019

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Accurate methods for reverberation mapping using photometry are highly sought after since they are inherently less resource intensive than spectroscopic techniques. However, the effectiveness of photometric reverberation mapping for estimating black hole masses is sparsely investigated at redshifts higher than z ≈ 0.04. Furthermore, photometric methods frequently assume a Damped Random Walk (DRW) model, which may not be universally applicable. We perform photometric reverberation mapping using the Javelin photometric DRW model for the QSO SDSSJ144645.44+625304.0 at z = 0.351 and estimate the Hβ lag of 65 +6 −1 days and black-hole mass of 10 8.22 +0.13 −0.15 M . An analysis of the reliability of photometric reverberation mapping, conducted using many thousands of simulated CARMA process light-curves, shows that we can recover the input lag to within 6 per cent on average given our target's observed signal-to-noise of > 20 and average cadence of 14 days (even when DRW is not applicable). Furthermore, we use our suite of simulated light curves to deconvolve aliases and artefacts from our QSO's posterior probability distribution, increasing the signal-to-noise on the lag by a factor of ∼ 2.2. We exceed the signal-to-noise of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project (SDSS-RM) campaign with a quarter of the observing time per object, resulting in a ∼ 200 per cent increase in SNR efficiency over SDSS-RM.

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Deep absorption in SDSS J110511.15+530806.5

Marculewicz

Nikołajuk

Różáńska

2022

A&A

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Aims. We study the origin of the anomalous deep absorption in a spectrum of the SDSS J110511.15+530806.5 distant quasar (z=1.929) obtained by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey in Data Release 7 of the optical catalog. We aim to estimate the velocity of absorbing material, and we show that this material considerably affects our measurements of the black hole (BH) mass in massive quasars with the use of common virial mass estimators. Methods. The spectral shape of the quasar was modeled assuming that the accretion disk emission is influenced by a hot corona, warm skin, and absorbing material located close to the nucleus. The whole analysis was undertaken with XSPEC models and tools. The overall spectral shape was represented with the AGNSED model, while the deep absorption is well described by two Gaussians. Results. The observed spectrum and the fitting procedure allowed us to estimate the BH mass in the quasar as 3.52 ± 0.01 × 10 9 M⊙, the nonzero BH spin is a * = 0.32 ± 0.04, and the accretion rate is ṁ = 0.274 ± 0.001. The velocities of the detected absorbers lie in the range of 6330-108135 km s −1 . When we consider that absorption is caused by the C iv ion, one absorber is folding toward the nucleus with a velocity of 73887 km s −1 . We derived a BI index of about 20300 km s −1 and a mass outflow rate up to 38.5% of the source accretion rate. Conclusions. The high absorption observed in SDSS J110511.15+530806.5 is evidence of fast winds that place the source in the group of objects on the border with UFO (ultra-fast outflows), strong broad absorption line (BAL), and fast failed radiatively accelerated dusty outflow (FRADO). This absorption affects the BH mass measurement by two orders of magnitude as compared to virial mass estimation.

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Black hole masses from reverberation measurements

Cited by 6 publications

References 11 publications

Discovery of an ∼2-h high-frequency X-ray QPO and iron Kα reverberation in the active galaxy MS 2254.9−3712

Discovery of an ∼2-h high-frequency X-ray QPO and iron Kα reverberation in the active galaxy MS 2254.9−3712

The performance of photometric reverberation mapping at high redshift and the reliability of damped random walk models

Deep absorption in SDSS J110511.15+530806.5

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