The Black Hole to Bulge Mass Relation in Active Galactic Nuclei

The masses of the central black holes in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) can be estimated using the broad emission-lines as a probe of the virial mass. Using reverberation mapping to determine the size of the Broad Line Region (BLR) and the width of the variable component of the line profile H$\beta$ line it is possible to find quite accurate virial mass estimates for AGNs with adequate data. Compiling a sample of AGNs with reliable central masses and bulge magnitudes we find an average black-hole-to-bulge mass ratio of 0.0003, a factor of 20 less than the value found for normal galaxies and for bright quasars. This lower ratio is more consistent with the back hole mass density predicted from quasar light, and is similar to the central black hole/bulge mass ratio in our Galaxy. We argue that the black hole/bulge mass ratio actually has a significantly larger range than indicated by mssive black holes detected in normal galaxies (using stellar dynamics) and in bright quasars, which may be biased towards large black holes. We derive a scenario of black hole growth that explains the observed distribution.Comment: 12 pages LaTeX, including 2 revised figures, revised table. Revised version to be published in the Astrophysical Journal (Letters) Ap.J.Lett. 51

Keplerian Motion of Broad-Line Region Gas as Evidence for Supermassive Black Holes in Active Galactic Nuclei

Emission-line variability data on NGC 5548 argue strongly for the existence of a mass of order 7 x 10^7 solar masses within the inner few light days of the nucleus in the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548. The time-delayed response of the emission lines to continuum variations is used to infer the size of the line-emitting region, and these determinations are combined with measurements of the Doppler widths of the variable line components to estimate a virial mass. The data for several different emission lines spanning an order of magnitude in distance from the central source show the expected V proportional to r^{-1/2} correlation and are consistent with a single value for the mass.Comment: 9 pages, 2 Figures. accepted by ApJ Letter

Supermassive Black Holes in Active Galactic Nuclei. I. The Consistency of Black Hole Masses in Quiescent and Active Galaxies

We report the first results of a program to measure accurate stellar velocity dispersions in the bulges of the host galaxies of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) for which accurate black hole (BH) masses have been determined via reverberation mapping. We find good agreement between BH masses obtained from reverberation mapping, and from the M(BH) - sigma relation as defined by quiescent galaxies, indicating a common relationship between active and quiescent black holes and their large-scale environments.Comment: Submitted to ApJ

Hybrid binomial Langevin-multiple mapping conditioning modeling of a reacting mixing layer

A novel, stochastic, hybrid binomial Langevin-multiple mapping conditioning (MMC) model—that utilizes the strengths of each component—has been developed for inhomogeneous flows. The implementation has the advantage of naturally incorporating velocity-scalar interactions through the binomial Langevin model and using this joint probability density function (PDF) to define a reference variable for the MMC part of the model. The approach has the advantage that the difficulties encountered with the binomial Langevin model in modeling scalars with nonelementary bounds are removed. The formulation of the closure leads to locality in scalar space and permits the use of simple approaches (e.g., the modified Curl’s model) for transport in the reference space. The overall closure was evaluated through application to a chemically reacting mixing layer. The results show encouraging comparisons with experimental data for the first two moments of the PDF and plausible results for higher moments at a relatively modest computational cost

Evidence for Supermassive Black Holes in Active Galactic Nuclei from Emission-Line Reverberation

Emission-line variability data for Seyfert 1 galaxies provide strong evidence for the existence of supermassive black holes in the nuclei of these galaxies, and that the line-emitting gas is moving in the gravitational potential of that black hole. The time-delayed response of the emission lines to continuum variations is used to infer the size of the line-emitting region, which is then combined with measurements of the Doppler widths of the variable line components to estimate a virial mass. In the case of the best-studied galaxy, NGC 5548, various emission lines spanning an order of magnitude in distance from the central source show the expected velocity proportional to inverse square root of the distance correlation between distance and line width, and are thus consistent with a single value for the mass. Two other Seyfert galaxies, NGC 7469 and 3C 390.3, show a similar relationship. We compute the ratio of luminosity to mass for these three objects and the narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 4051 and find that that the gravitational force on the line-emitting gas is much stronger than radiation pressure. These results strongly support the paradigm of gravitationally bound broad emission-line region clouds.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letter

Recent applications of the Tübingen-Vienna Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics code

Here, we present the latest improvements and applications of the Tübingen-Vienna Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) code. By the use of modern graphics processing units (GPUs), we have increased the performance of astrophysical simulations in the field of hydrodynamics and solid mechanics by porting an OpenMP code to the GPU with CUDA™. Recently, we have added a porosity module and a soil module to our existing framework. The code is freely available upon request

Cosmic ray production in supernova remnants including reacceleration: the secondary to primary ratio

We study the production of cosmic rays (CRs) in supernova remnants (SNRs), including the reacceleration of background galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) - thus refining the early considerations by Blandford & Ostriker (1980) and Wandel et al. (1987) - and the effects of the nuclear spallation inside the sources (the SNRs). This combines for the first time nuclear spallation inside CR sources and in the diffuse interstellar medium, as well as reacceleration, with the injection and subsequent acceleration of suprathermal particles from the postshock thermal pool. Selfconsistent CR spectra are calculated on the basis of the nonlinear kinetic model. It is shown that GCR reacceleration and CR spallation produce a measurable effect at high energies, especially in the secondary to primary (s/p) ratio, making its energy-dependence substantially flatter than predicted by the standard model. Quantitatively, the effect depends strongly upon the density of the surrounding circumstellar matter. GCR reacceleration dominates secondary CR production for a low circumstellar density. It increases the expected s/p ratio substantially and flattens its spectrum to an almost energy-independent form for energies larger than 100 GeV/n if the supernovae explode on average into a hot dilute medium with hydrogen number density $N_H=0.003$cm$^{-3}$. The contribution of CR spallation inside SNRs to the s/p ratio increases with increasing circumstellar density and becomes dominant for N_H\gsim 1 cm$^{-3}$, leading at high energies to a flat s/p ratio which is only by a factor of three lower than in the case of the hot medium. Measurements of the boron to carbon ratio at energies above 100 GeV/n could be used in comparison with the values predicted here as a consistency test for the supernova origin of the GCRs.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Evidence for Orbital Motion of Material Close to the Central Black Hole of Mrk 766

Time-resolved X-ray spectroscopy has been obtained for the narrow line Seyfert galaxy Mrk766 from XMM-Newton observations. We present analysis in the energy-time plane of EPIC pn data in the 4-8 keV band with energy resolution R~50. A component of Fe Ka emission detected in the maps shows a variation of photon energy with time that appears both to be statistically significant and to be consistent with sinusoidal variation. We investigate the interpretation that there exists a component of line emission from matter in a Keplerian orbit around a supermassive black hole. The orbit has a period ~165 ks and a line-of-sight velocity ~13,500 km/s. This yields a lower limit for the central mass of M > 4.9x10^5 solar masses within a radius of 3.6 x 10^13 cm (2.4 A.U.). The orbit parameters are consistent with higher black hole masses, but the lack of any substantial gravitational redshift of the orbit implies an upper limit to the black hole mass of 4.5x10^7 solar masses.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures (some colour). Accepted for publication in A&A. Only minor changes since V1 (including reordering of Figs 1a & b

On black hole masses, radio-loudness and bulge luminosities of Seyfert galaxies

We estimated black hole masses for 9 Seyfert 1 and 13 Seyfert 2 galaxies in the Palomar and CfA bright Seyfert samples using the tight correlation between black hole mass and bulge velocity dispersion. Combining other 13 Seyfert 1s and 2 Seyfert 2s in these samples but with black hole masses measured recently by reverberation mapping and stellar/gas dynamics, we studied the correlations of black hole masses with radio loudness and bulge luminosities for a sample of 37 Seyfert galaxies. We found that if radio-loudness is measured using the optical and radio luminosities of the nuclear components, the black hole masses of radio-loud Seyfert 1s tend to increase with the radio-loudness. The black hole masses of all Seyfert galaxies increase with the radio power, but Seyfert galaxies have larger radio powers than nearby galaxies with the same black hole masses. In addition, the correlation between black hole masses and bulge V-band luminosities for Seyfert galaxies is consistent with that found for quasars and normal galaxies. The combined sample of 37 Seyfert galaxies, 15 quasars and 30 normal galaxies suggests a possible universal nonlinear relation between black hole and bulge masses, $M(BH) \propto M(bulge)^{1.74\pm0.14}$, which is slightly steeper than that found recently by Laor (2001) for a smaller sample. This nonlinear relation is supported by a larger sample including 65 Seyfert galaxies. The different M(BH)/M(bulge) ratio for galaxies with different bulge luminosities or different black hole masses may be explained by this relation. These results are consistent with some theoretical implications and are important for understanding the nature of radio emissions and the formation and evolution of supermassive black holes and galaxies.Comment: 10 pages, A&A accepte