The size of the continuum emission region and its scaling relations with active galactic nucleus luminosity and the broad-line region size
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| Formato: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866915183967862784 |
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| author | Mandal, Amit Kumar Woo, Jong-Hak Wang, Shu |
| author_facet | Mandal, Amit Kumar Woo, Jong-Hak Wang, Shu |
| contents | We present a continuum lag analysis for a sample of 37 relatively high-luminosity active galactic nuclei (AGNs) from the Seoul National University AGN Monitoring Project (SAMP), utilizing the light curve data in $B$ and $V$ bands from SAMP and in $g,r,i$ bands from the Zwicky Transient Facility. We find that the inter-band lags ($τ$) increase with wavelength (i.e., $τ\propto λ^{\sim 4/3}$) as prescribed by the standard disk model (SSD), suggesting consistency with the "lamp-post" reprocessing model. We report that the size of the continuum emitting region (CER) normalized at 2500 Å ($R_{2500}$) is a factor of $\sim$5 (i.e, $0.69\pm0.04$ dex) larger than predicted by SSD. By combining our new measurements with the re-measurements of the literature sample, we report a correlation between $R_{2500}$ and AGN continuum luminosity as $R_{2500} \, \propto \, L_{5100}^{0.58\pm0.03}$, which suggests that the observed continuum could be composed of both the disk emission and the diffuse emission from the broad line region (BLR). The size of CER shows a tight relation with the size of H$β$ BLR with a sublinear slope (i.e., $R_{\text{BLR}} \, \propto \, R_{\text{2500}}^{0.87\pm0.07}$) and a scatter of 0.29 dex. This empirical relation offers a promising method for estimating single-epoch black hole masses, once established over a large dynamic range of AGN luminosity. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_19184 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | The size of the continuum emission region and its scaling relations with active galactic nucleus luminosity and the broad-line region size Mandal, Amit Kumar Woo, Jong-Hak Wang, Shu Astrophysics of Galaxies Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics We present a continuum lag analysis for a sample of 37 relatively high-luminosity active galactic nuclei (AGNs) from the Seoul National University AGN Monitoring Project (SAMP), utilizing the light curve data in $B$ and $V$ bands from SAMP and in $g,r,i$ bands from the Zwicky Transient Facility. We find that the inter-band lags ($τ$) increase with wavelength (i.e., $τ\propto λ^{\sim 4/3}$) as prescribed by the standard disk model (SSD), suggesting consistency with the "lamp-post" reprocessing model. We report that the size of the continuum emitting region (CER) normalized at 2500 Å ($R_{2500}$) is a factor of $\sim$5 (i.e, $0.69\pm0.04$ dex) larger than predicted by SSD. By combining our new measurements with the re-measurements of the literature sample, we report a correlation between $R_{2500}$ and AGN continuum luminosity as $R_{2500} \, \propto \, L_{5100}^{0.58\pm0.03}$, which suggests that the observed continuum could be composed of both the disk emission and the diffuse emission from the broad line region (BLR). The size of CER shows a tight relation with the size of H$β$ BLR with a sublinear slope (i.e., $R_{\text{BLR}} \, \propto \, R_{\text{2500}}^{0.87\pm0.07}$) and a scatter of 0.29 dex. This empirical relation offers a promising method for estimating single-epoch black hole masses, once established over a large dynamic range of AGN luminosity. |
| title | The size of the continuum emission region and its scaling relations with active galactic nucleus luminosity and the broad-line region size |
| topic | Astrophysics of Galaxies Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.19184 |