English

The $\sigma_{\rm H\beta}$-based dimensionless accretion rate and its connection with the corona for AGN

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2022-11-30 v1 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Abstract

With respect to the Hβ\rm H\beta full width at half-maximum (FWHMHβ\rm FWHM_{H\beta}), the broad Hβ\rm H\beta line dispersion (σHβ\sigma_{\rm H\beta}) was preferred as a velocity tracer to calculate the single-epoch supermassive black hole mass (MBHM_{\rm BH}) suggested by \cite{Yu2020b}. For a compiled sample of 311 broad-line active galactic nuclei (AGN) with measured hard X-ray photon index (z<0.7z<0.7), σHβ\sigma_{\rm H\beta} and the optical Fe II relative strength (RFeR_{\rm Fe}) are measured from their optical spectra, which are used to calculate σHβ\sigma_{\rm H\beta}-based virial MBHM_{\rm BH} and dimensionless accretion rate (M˙\dot{\mathscr{M}}). With respect to FWHMHβ\rm FWHM_{\rm H\beta}, it is found that the mean value of σHβ\sigma_{\rm H\beta}-based MBHM_{\rm BH} is on average larger by 0.26 dex, and the mean value of σHβ\sigma_{\rm H\beta}-based M˙\dot{\mathscr{M}} is on average smaller by 0.51 dex. It is found that there exists a non-linear relationship between the Eddington ratio (LBol/LEddL_{\rm Bol}/L_{\rm Edd}) and M˙\dot{\mathscr{M}}, i.e., LBol/LEddM˙0.56±0.01L_{\rm Bol}/L_{\rm Edd} \propto \dot{\mathscr{M}}^{0.56\pm 0.01}. This non-linear relationship comes from the accretion efficiency η\eta, which is smaller for AGN with higher M˙\dot{\mathscr{M}}. We find a strong bivariate correlation of the fraction of energy released in the corona FXF_{\rm X} with M˙\dot{\mathscr{M}} and \mbh, FXM˙0.57±0.05MBH0.54±0.06F_{\rm X} \propto \dot{\mathscr{M}}^{-0.57\pm 0.05} M_{\rm BH}^{-0.54\pm 0.06}. The flat slope of 0.57±0.05-0.57\pm 0.05 favours the shear stress tensor of the accretion disk being proportional to the geometric mean of gas pressure and total pressure. We find a strong bivariate relation of Γ\Gamma with M˙\dot{\mathscr{M}} and FXF_{\rm X}, ΓM˙0.21±0.02FX0.02±0.04\Gamma \propto \dot{\mathscr{M}}^{-0.21\pm 0.02}F_{\rm X}^{0.02\pm 0.04}. The hard X-ray spectrum becomes softer with increasing of FXF_{\rm X}, although the scatter is large.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2210.01316,
  title  = {The $\sigma_{\rm H\beta}$-based dimensionless accretion rate and its connection with the corona for AGN},
  author = {Y. Q. Chen and Y. S. Liu and W. H. Bian},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2210.01316},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

18 pages, 9 figures, ApJ, in press