Correcting the Contamination of Second-order Spectra: Improving Hα Measurements in Reverberation Mapping Campaigns

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Main Authors: Xi, Wen-Zhe, Lu, Kai-Xing, Feng, Hai-Cheng, Li, Sha-Sha, Bai, Jin-Ming, Zhou, Rui-Lei, Liu, Hong-Tao, Wang, Jian-Guo
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Xi, Wen-Zhe
Lu, Kai-Xing
Feng, Hai-Cheng
Li, Sha-Sha
Bai, Jin-Ming
Zhou, Rui-Lei
Liu, Hong-Tao
Wang, Jian-Guo
author_facet Xi, Wen-Zhe
Lu, Kai-Xing
Feng, Hai-Cheng
Li, Sha-Sha
Bai, Jin-Ming
Zhou, Rui-Lei
Liu, Hong-Tao
Wang, Jian-Guo
contents Long-term spectroscopic monitoring campaigns on active galactic nuclei (AGNs) provide a wealth of information about its interior structure and kinematics. However, a number of the observations suffer from the contamination of second-order spectra (SOS) which will introduce some undesirable uncertainties at the red side of the spectra. In this paper, we test the effect of SOS and propose a method to correct it in the time domain spectroscopic data using the simultaneously observed comparison stars. Based on the reverberation mapping (RM) data of NGC 5548 in 2019, one of the most intensively monitored AGNs by the Lijiang 2.4 m telescope, we find that the scientific object, comparison star, and spectrophotometric standard star can jointly introduce up to similar to 30% SOS for Grism 14. This irregular but smooth SOS significantly affects the flux density and profile of the emission line, while having little effect on the light curve. After applying our method to each spectrum, we find that the SOS can be corrected effectively. The deviation between corrected and intrinsic spectra is similar to 2%, and the impact of SOS on time lag is very minor. This method makes it possible to obtain the H alpha RM measurements from archival data provided that the spectral shape of the AGN under investigation does not have a large change.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2401_11970
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Correcting the Contamination of Second-order Spectra: Improving Hα Measurements in Reverberation Mapping Campaigns
Xi, Wen-Zhe
Lu, Kai-Xing
Feng, Hai-Cheng
Li, Sha-Sha
Bai, Jin-Ming
Zhou, Rui-Lei
Liu, Hong-Tao
Wang, Jian-Guo
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Long-term spectroscopic monitoring campaigns on active galactic nuclei (AGNs) provide a wealth of information about its interior structure and kinematics. However, a number of the observations suffer from the contamination of second-order spectra (SOS) which will introduce some undesirable uncertainties at the red side of the spectra. In this paper, we test the effect of SOS and propose a method to correct it in the time domain spectroscopic data using the simultaneously observed comparison stars. Based on the reverberation mapping (RM) data of NGC 5548 in 2019, one of the most intensively monitored AGNs by the Lijiang 2.4 m telescope, we find that the scientific object, comparison star, and spectrophotometric standard star can jointly introduce up to similar to 30% SOS for Grism 14. This irregular but smooth SOS significantly affects the flux density and profile of the emission line, while having little effect on the light curve. After applying our method to each spectrum, we find that the SOS can be corrected effectively. The deviation between corrected and intrinsic spectra is similar to 2%, and the impact of SOS on time lag is very minor. This method makes it possible to obtain the H alpha RM measurements from archival data provided that the spectral shape of the AGN under investigation does not have a large change.
title Correcting the Contamination of Second-order Spectra: Improving Hα Measurements in Reverberation Mapping Campaigns
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.11970