Estimating Black Hole Masses in Active Galaxies Using the Halpha Emission Line

It has been established that virial masses for black holes in low-redshift active galaxies can be estimated from measurements of the optical continuum strength and the width of the broad Hbeta line. Under various circumstances, however, both of these quantities can be challenging to measure or can be subject to large systematic uncertainties. To mitigate these difficulties, we present a new method for estimating black hole masses. From analysis of a new sample of broad-line active galactic nuclei, we find that Halpha luminosity scales almost linearly with optical continuum luminosity and that a strong correlation exists between Halpha and Hbeta line widths. These two empirical correlations allow us to translate the standard virial mass system to a new one based solely on observations of the broad Halpha emission line.Comment: to appear in Apj; 8 pages; 5 figures; uses emulateapj5.st

Black-Hole Mass and Growth Rate at High Redshift

We present new H and K bands spectroscopy of 15 high luminosity active galactic nuclei (AGNs) at redshifts 2.3-3.4 obtained on Gemini South. We combined the data with spectra of additional 29 high-luminosity sources to obtain a sample with 10^{45.2}<\lambda L_{\lambda}(5100A)<10^{47.3} ergs/sec and black hole (BH) mass range, using reverberation mapping relationships based on the H_beta method, of 10^{8.8}-10^{10.7} M_sun. We do not find a correlation of L/L_Edd with M_BH but find a correlation with \lambda L_{\lambda}(5100A) which might be due to selection effects. The L/L_Edd distribution is broad and covers the range ~0.07-1.6, similar to what is observed in lower redshift, lower luminosity AGNs. We suggest that this consistently measured and calibrated sample gives the best representation of L/L_Edd at those redshifts and note potential discrepancies with recent theoretical and observational studies. The lower accretion rates are not in accord with growth scenarios for BHs at such redshifts and the growth times of many of the sources are longer than the age of the universe at the corresponding epochs. This suggests earlier episodes of faster growth at z>~3 for those sources. The use of the C IV method gives considerably different results and a larger scatter; this method seems to be a poor M_BH and L/L_Edd estimator at very high luminosity.Comment: 8 pages (emulateapj), 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

Locating Star-Forming Regions in Quasar Host Galaxies

We present a study of the morphology and intensity of star formation in the host galaxies of eight Palomar-Green quasars using observations with the Hubble Space Telescope. Our observations are motivated by recent evidence for a close relationship between black hole growth and the stellar mass evolution in its host galaxy. We use narrow-band [O II] $\lambda$3727, H$\beta$, [O III] $\lambda$5007 and Pa$\alpha$ images, taken with the WFPC2 and NICMOS instruments, to map the morphology of line-emitting regions, and, after extinction corrections, diagnose the excitation mechanism and infer star-formation rates. Significant challenges in this type of work are the separation of the quasar light from the stellar continuum and the quasar-excited gas from the star-forming regions. To this end, we present a novel technique for image decomposition and subtraction of quasar light. Our primary result is the detection of extended line-emitting regions with sizes ranging from 0.5 to 5 kpc and distributed symmetrically around the nucleus, powered primarily by star formation. We determine star-formation rates of order a few tens of M$_\odot$/yr. The host galaxies of our target quasars have stellar masses of order $10^{11}$ M$_\odot$ and specific star formation rates on a par with those of M82 and luminous infrared galaxies. As such they fall at the upper envelope or just above the star-formation mass sequence in the specific star formation vs stellar mass diagram. We see a clear trend of increasing star formation rate with quasar luminosity, reinforcing the link between the growth of the stellar mass of the host and the black hole mass found by other authors.Comment: Accepted for publication in M.N.R.A.

Structural and vibrational properties of two-dimensional MnxOy\rm Mn_xO_y nanolayers on Pd(100)

Using different experimental techniques combined with density functional based theoretical methods we have explored the formation of interface-stabilized manganese oxide structures grown on Pd(100) at (sub)monolayer coverage. Amongst the multitude of phases experimentally observed we focus our attention on four structures which can be classified into two distinct regimes, characterized by different building blocks. Two oxygen-rich phases are described in terms of MnO(111)-like O-Mn-O trilayers, whereas the other two have a lower oxygen content and are based on a MnO(100)-like monolayer structure. The excellent agreement between calculated and experimental scanning tunneling microscopy images and vibrational electron energy loss spectra allows for a detailed atomic description of the explored models.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figure

A view of the narrow-line region in the infrared: active galactic nuclei with resolved fine-structure lines in the Spitzer archive

We queried the Spitzer archive for high-resolution observations with the Infrared Spectrograph of optically selected active galactic nuclei (AGN) for the purpose of identifying sources with resolved fine-structure lines that would enable studies of the narrow-line region (NLR) at mid-infrared wavelengths. By combining 298 Spitzer spectra with 6 Infrared Space Observatory spectra, we present kinematic information of the NLR for 81 z<=0.3 AGN. We used the [NeV], [OIV], [NeIII], and [SIV] lines, whose fluxes correlate well with each other, to probe gas photoionized by the AGN. We found that the widths of the lines are, on average, increasing with the ionization potential of the species that emit them. No correlation of the line width with the critical density of the corresponding transition was found. The velocity dispersion of the gas, sigma, is systematically higher than that of the stars, sigma_*, in the AGN host galaxy, and it scales with the mass of the central black hole, M_BH. Further correlations between the line widths and luminosities L, and between L and M_BH, are suggestive of a three dimensional plane connecting log(M_BH) to a linear combination of log(sigma) and log(L). Such a plane can be understood within the context of gas motions that are driven by AGN feedback mechanisms, or virialized gas motions with a power-law dependence of the NLR radius on the AGN luminosity. The M_BH estimates obtained for 35 type 2 AGN from this plane are consistent with those obtained from the M_BH-sigma_* relation.Comment: ApJ, revised to match the print versio

XMM-Newton RGS observation of the warm absorber in Mrk 279

The Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 279 was observed by XMM-Newton in November 2005 in three consecutive orbits, showing significant short-scale variability (average soft band variation in flux ~20%). The source is known to host a two-component warm absorber with distinct ionisation states from a previous Chandra observation. We aim to study the warm absorber in Mrk 279 and investigate any possible response to the short-term variations of the ionising flux, and to assess whether it has varied on a long-term time scale with respect to the Chandra observation. We find no significant changes in the warm absorber on neither short time scales (~2 days) nor at longer time scales (two and a half years), as the variations in the ionic column densities of the most relevant elements are below the 90% confidence level. The variations could still be present but are statistically undetected given the signal-to-noise ratio of the data. Starting from reasonable standard assumptions we estimate the location of the absorbing gas, which is likely to be associated with the putative dusty torus rather than with the Broad Line Region if the outflowing gas is moving at the escape velocity or larger.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, 6 tables. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

A New H I Survey of Active Galaxies

We have conducted a new Arecibo survey for H I emission for 113 galaxies with broad-line (type 1) active galactic nuclei (AGNs) out to recession velocities as high as 35,000 km/s. The primary aim of the study is to obtain sensitive H I spectra for a well-defined, uniformly selected sample of active galaxies that have estimates of their black hole masses in order to investigate correlations between H I properties and the characteristics of the AGNs. H I emission was detected in 66 out of the 101 (65%) objects with spectra uncorrupted by radio frequency interference, among which 45 (68%) have line profiles with adequate signal-to-noise ratio and sufficiently reliable inclination corrections to yield robust deprojected rotational velocities. This paper presents the basic survey products, including an atlas of H I spectra, measurements of H I flux, line width, profile asymmetry, optical images, optical spectroscopic parameters, as well as a summary of a number of derived properties pertaining to the host galaxies. To enlarge our primary sample, we also assemble all previously published H I measurements of type 1 AGNs for which can can estimate black hole masses, which total an additional 53 objects. The final comprehensive compilation of 154 broad-line active galaxies, by far the largest sample ever studied, forms the basis of our companion paper, which uses the H I database to explore a number of properties of the AGN host galaxies.Comment: To appear in ApJS; 31 pages. Preprint will full-resolution figures can be downloaded from http://www.ociw.edu/~lho/preprints/ms1.pd

Supermassive Black Holes with High Accretion Rates in Active Galactic Nuclei. III. Detection of Fe II Reverberation in Nine Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies

This is the third in a series of papers reporting on a large reverberation-mapping campaign aimed to study the properties of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with high accretion rates. We present new results on the variability of the optical Fe II emission lines in 10 AGNs observed by the Yunnan Observatory 2.4m telescope during 2012--2013. We detect statistically significant time lags, relative to the AGN continuum, in nine of the sources. This accurate measurement is achieved by using a sophisticated spectral fitting scheme that allows for apparent flux variations of the host galaxy, and several narrow lines, due to the changing observing conditions. Six of the newly detected lags are indistinguishable from the Hbeta lags measured in the same sources. Two are significantly longer and one is slightly shorter. Combining with Fe II lags reported in previous studies, we find a Fe II radius--luminosity relationship similar to the one for Hbeta, although our sample by itself shows no clear correlation. The results support the idea that Fe II emission lines originate in photoionized gas which, for the majority of the newly reported objects, is indistinguishable from the Hbeta-emitting gas. We also present a tentative correlation between the lag and intensity of Fe II and Hbeta and comment on its possible origin.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa