Testing super-eddington accretion on to a supermassive black hole: reverberation mapping of PG 1119+120

We measure the black hole mass and investigate the accretion flow around the local (z = 0.0502) quasar PG 1119+120. Spectroscopic monitoring with Calar Alto provides H β lags and linewidths from which we estimate a black hole mass of log (M•/M⊙) = 7.0, uncertain by ∼0.4 dex. High cadence photometric...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Donnan, Fergus R., Hernández Santisteban, Juan V., Horne, Keith, Hu, Chen, Du, Pu, Li, Yan-Rong, Xiao, Ming, Ho, Luis C., Aceituno, Jesús, Wang, Jian-Min, Guo, Wei-Jian, Yang, Sen, Jiang, Bo-Wei, Yao, Zhu-Heng
Tipo de documento: artigo
Estado:Versão publicada
Data de publicação:2023
País:España
Recursos:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositório:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/333137
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/333137
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:Accretion
Accretion discs
Galaxies: active
Galaxies: individual: PG 1119+120
Descrição
Resumo:We measure the black hole mass and investigate the accretion flow around the local (z = 0.0502) quasar PG 1119+120. Spectroscopic monitoring with Calar Alto provides H β lags and linewidths from which we estimate a black hole mass of log (M•/M⊙) = 7.0, uncertain by ∼0.4 dex. High cadence photometric monitoring over 2 yr with the Las Cumbres Observatory provides light curves in seven optical bands suitable for intensive continuum reverberation mapping. We identify variability on two time-scales. Slower variations on a 100-d time-scale exhibit excess flux and increased lag in the u′ band and are thus attributable to diffuse bound-free continuum emission from the broad-line region. Faster variations that we attribute to accretion disc reprocessing lack a u′-band excess and have flux and delay spectra consistent with either τ ∝ λ4/3, as expected for a temperature structure of T(R) ∝ R−3/4 for a thin accretion disc, or τ ∝ λ2 expected for a slim disc. Decomposing the flux into variable (disc) and constant (host galaxy) components, we find the disc SED to be flatter than expected with fν∼const⁠. Modelling the SED predicts an Eddington ratio of λEdd > 1, where the flat spectrum can be reproduced by a slim disc with little dust extinction or a thin disc that requires more dust extinction. While this accretion is super-Eddington, the geometry is still unclear; however, a slim disc is expected due to the high radiation pressure at these accretion rates, and is entirely consistent with our observations. © 2023 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society.