The Lick AGN Monitoring Project 2011: Dynamical Modeling of the Broad-line Region in Mrk 50
Creators
Abstract
We present dynamical modeling of the broad-line region (BLR) in the Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 50 using reverberation mapping data taken as part of the Lick AGN Monitoring Project (LAMP) 2011. We model the reverberation mapping data directly, constraining the geometry and kinematics of the BLR, as well as deriving a black hole mass estimate that does not depend on a normalizing factor or virial coefficient. We find that the geometry of the BLR in Mrk 50 is a nearly face-on thick disk, with a mean radius of 9.6^(+1.2)_(–0.9) light days, a width of the BLR of 6.9^(+1.2)_(–1.1) light days, and a disk opening angle of 25 ± 10 deg above the plane. We also constrain the inclination angle to be 9^(+7)_(–5) deg, close to face-on. Finally, the black hole mass of Mrk 50 is inferred to be log_(10)(M_(BH)/M_☉) = 7.57^(+0.44)_(–0.27). By comparison to the virial black hole mass estimate from traditional reverberation mapping analysis, we find the normalizing constant (virial coefficient) to be log_(10) f = 0.78^(+0.44)_(–0.27), consistent with the commonly adopted mean value of 0.74 based on aligning the M_(BH)-σ* relation for active galactic nuclei and quiescent galaxies. While our dynamical model includes the possibility of a net inflow or outflow in the BLR, we cannot distinguish between these two scenarios.
Additional Information
© 2012 American Astronomical Society. Received 2011 October 26; accepted 2012 May 11; published 2012 July 5. We thank the Lick Observatory staff for their exceptional support during our observing campaign. In addition, we thank Brandon Kelly for suggesting changes to our code that yielded significant improvements. The referee also provided valuable feedback that enabled us to improve the paper. The Lick AGN Monitoring Project 2011 is supported by NSF grants AST-1107812, 1107865, 1108665, and 1108835. The West Mountain Observatory is supported by NSF grant AST-0618209. A.P. acknowledges support from the NSF through the Graduate Research Fellowship Program. B.J.B. and T.T. acknowledge support from the Packard Foundation through a Packard Fellowship to T.T. A.D. acknowledges support from the Southern California Center for Galaxy Evolution, a multi-campus research program funded by the University of California Office of Research. A.V.F. and his group at UC Berkeley acknowledge generous financial assistance from Gary & Cynthia Bengier, the Richard & Rhoda Goldman Fund, NASA/Swift grants NNX10AI21G and GO-7100028, the TABASGO Foundation, and NSF grant AST-0908886. S.H. acknowledges support by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) in the framework of a research fellowship ("Auslandsstipendium"). The work of D.S. and R.A. was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with NASA. J.H.W. acknowledges support by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2010-0021558).Attached Files
Published - Pancoast2012p19057Astrophys_J.pdf
Files
Pancoast2012p19057Astrophys_J.pdf
Additional details
Identifiers
- Eprint ID
- 32950
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20120806-140646579
Funding
- NSF
- AST-1107812
- NSF
- AST-1107865
- NSF
- AST-1108665
- NSF
- AST-1108835
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program
- Packard Foundation Packard Fellowship
- Southern California Center for Galaxy Evolution
- Gary and Cynthia Bengier
- Richard and Rhoda Goldman fund
- NASA Swift Grant
- NNX10AI21G
- NASA Swift Grant
- GO-7100028
- TABASGO Foundation
- NSF
- AST-0908886
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
- National Research Foundation of Korea
- 2010-0021558
Dates
- Created
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2012-08-06Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field