English

Velocity-Resolved Reverberation Mapping of NGC 3227

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2023-10-09 v1

Abstract

We describe the results of a new reverberation mapping program focused on the nearby Seyfert galaxy NGC 3227. Photometric and spectroscopic monitoring were carried out from 2022 December to 2023 June with the Las Cumbres Observatory network of telescopes. We detected time delays in several optical broad emission lines, with Hβ\beta having the longest delay at τcent=4.00.9+0.9\tau_{\rm cent}=4.0^{+0.9}_{-0.9} days and He II having the shortest delay with τcent=0.90.8+1.1\tau_{\rm cent}=0.9^{+1.1}_{-0.8} days. We also detect velocity-resolved behavior of the Hβ\beta emission line, with different line-of-sight velocities corresponding to different observed time delays. Combining the integrated Hβ\beta time delay with the width of the variable component of the emission line and a standard scale factor suggests a black hole mass of MBH=1.10.3+0.2×107MM_{\rm BH}=1.1^{+0.2}_{-0.3} \times 10^7 M_{\odot}. Modeling of the full velocity-resolved response of the Hβ\beta emission line with the phenomenological code CARAMEL finds a similar mass of MBH=1.20.7+1.5×107MM_{\rm BH}=1.2^{+1.5}_{-0.7} \times 10^7 M_{\odot}, and suggests that the Hβ\beta-emitting broad line region (BLR) may be represented by a biconical or flared disk structure that we are viewing at an inclination angle of θi33\theta_i \approx 33^{\circ} and with gas motions that are dominated by rotation. The new photoionization-based BLR modeling tool BELMAC finds general agreement with the observations when assuming the best-fit CARAMEL results, however BELMAC prefers a thick disk geometry and kinematics that are equally comprised of rotation and inflow. Both codes infer a radially extended and flattened BLR that is not outflowing.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2310.03904,
  title  = {Velocity-Resolved Reverberation Mapping of NGC 3227},
  author = {Misty C. Bentz and Madison Markham and Sara Rosborough and Christopher A. Onken and Rachel Street and Monica Valluri and Tommaso Treu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2310.03904},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

16 pages, 9 figures, 4 tables; submitted to ApJ