Work

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

Year: 1999

Type: article

Abstract: Emission-line variability data on NGC 5548 argue strongly for the existence of a mass of order 7 × 10 7 M ☉ 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 ∝ r -1/2 correlation and are consistent with a single value for the mass.

Source: The Astrophysical Journal

DOI: 10.1086/312190

Authors: Bradley M. Peterson, Amri Wandel

Institutions: The Ohio State University, University of California, Los Angeles, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Language: English

Topic: Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena

Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Ohio State University

OpenAlex ID: W2049399829

FWCI: 10.58

Cites: 23

Cited by: 361

Related to: 10