Published September 1, 2012 | Version v1
Journal article

BROADBAND PHOTOMETRIC REVERBERATION MAPPING OF NGC 4395

  • 1. Physics Department, the Technion, Haifa 32000 (Israel)
  • 2. Physics Department, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa (Israel)

Description

We present results of broadband photometric reverberation mapping (RM) to measure the radius of the broad-line region, and subsequently the black hole mass (MBH), in the nearby, low-luminosity active galactic nuclei NGC 4395. Using the Wise Observatory's 1 m telescope equipped with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey g', r', and i' broadband filters, we monitored NGC 4395 for nine consecutive nights and obtained three light curves each with over 250 data points. The g' and r' bands include time variable contributions from Hβ and Hα, respectively, plus continuum. The i' band is free of broad lines and covers exclusively continuum. We show that by looking for a peak in the difference between the cross-correlation and the auto-correlation functions for all combinations of filters, we can get a reliable estimate of the time lag necessary to compute MBH. We measure the time lag for Hα to be 3.6 ± 0.8 hr, comparable to previous studies using the line-resolved spectroscopic RM method. We argue that this lag implies a black hole mass of MBH = (4.9 ± 2.6) × 104 M☉.

Availability note (English)

Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/756/1/73

Additional details

Identifiers

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Astrophysical Journal
Journal Volume
756
Journal Issue
1
Journal Page Range
[8 p.]
ISSN
0004-637X
CODEN
ASJOAB

INIS

Country of Publication
United States
Country of Input or Organization
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
INIS RN
44050706
Subject category
S79: ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY;
Descriptors DEI
ASTRONOMY; ASTROPHYSICS; BLACK HOLES; CORRELATION FUNCTIONS; CORRELATIONS; DIAGRAMS; GALAXIES; GALAXY NUCLEI; LUMINOSITY; MASS; QUASARS; TELESCOPES; VISIBLE RADIATION
Descriptors DEC
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES; ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION; FUNCTIONS; INFORMATION; OPTICAL PROPERTIES; PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; PHYSICS; RADIATIONS