Balmer Emission Line Profiles and the Complex Properties of Broad Line Regions in Active Galactic Nuclei

Abstract

In this work we analyze a sample of AGN spectra, selected from the 6th Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, exploiting a generalized technique of line profile analysis, designed to take into account the whole profiles of their broad emission lines. We find that the line profile broadening functions result from a complex structure, but we may be able to infer some constraints about the role of the geometrical factor, thus improving our ability to estimate AGN properties and their relation with the host galaxy. Our results suggest that flattening and inclination within the structure of the Broad Line Region (BLR) must be taken into account. We detect low inclinations of the BLR motion plane with respect to our line of sight, typically i < 20 degrees, with a geometrical effect which generally decreases as the line profile becomes broader.

13 pages, 11 figures, updated reference list. ApJ accepted

References in corpus (19)

• The Sixth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Systematic Effects in Measurement of Black Hole Masses by Emission-Line Reverberation of Active Galactic Nuclei: Eddington Ratio and Inclination
• Reverberation Mapping of High-Luminosity Quasars: First Results
• The Radius-Luminosity Relationship for Active Galactic Nuclei: The Effect of Host-Galaxy Starlight on Luminosity Measurements
• A Fundamental Relation Between Compact Stellar Nuclei, Supermassive Black Holes, and Their Host Galaxies
• The effect of radiation pressure on virial black hole mass estimates and the case of Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies
• The Hard X-ray Spectral Slope as an Accretion-Rate Indicator in Radio-Quiet Active Galactic Nuclei
• Comparing and calibrating black hole mass estimators for distant active galactic nuclei
• Are the black hole masses in Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies actually small?
• Circumnuclear Gas in Seyfert 1 Galaxies: Morphology, Kinematics, and Direct Measurement of Black Hole Masses
• Observational Constraints on the Dependence of Radio-Quiet Quasar X-ray Emission on Black Hole Mass and Accretion Rate
• Optical emission line properties of Narrow Line Seyfert 1s and comparison AGN
• Orientation dependency of broad-line widths in quasars and consequences for black-hole mass estimation
• On the geometry of broad emission region in quasars
• VLT/ISAAC Spectra of the H-beta Region in Intermediate-Redshift Quasars II. Black Hole Mass and Eddington Ratio
• Virial Masses of Black Holes from Single Epoch Spectra of AGN
• ATCA and Spitzer Observations of the Binary Protostellar Systems CG30 and BHR71
• Low-Ionization Emission Regions in Quasars: Gas Properties Probed with Broad O I and Ca II Lines
• The BH mass of nearby QSOs: a comparison of the bulge luminosity and virial methods

Cited by in corpus (17)

• What broad emission lines tell us about how active galactic nuclei work
• Double-peaked profiles: ubiquitous signatures of disks in the Broad Emission Lines of Active Galactic Nuclei
• PS18kh: A New Tidal Disruption Event with a Non-Axisymmetric Accretion Disk
• Broad Line Region Physical Conditions along the Quasar Eigenvector 1 Sequence
• Kiloparsec-scale Radio Structures in Narrow-line Seyfert 1 Galaxies
• Geometry and inclination of the broad line region in blazars
• Parent population of flat-spectrum radio-loud narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies
• BASS XXIV: The BASS DR2 Spectroscopic Line Measurements and AGN Demographics
• Contribution of a Disk Component to Single Peaked Broad Lines of Active Galactic Nuclei
• The analysis of the hydrogen broad Balmer line ratios: possible implications to the physical properties of the BLR of AGN
• Spectral optical monitoring of a double-peaked emission line AGN Arp 102B: I. Variability of spectral lines and continuum
• Stellar population properties for a sample of hard X-ray AGNs
• Statistical analysis of AlIII 1860 and CIII] 1909 emission lines as virial black hole mass estimators in quasars
• SALT long-slit spectroscopy of HE 0435-4312: fast displacement in the Mg II emission line
• Hydrogen Balmer Emission Lines and the Complex Broad Line Region Structure
• The optical emission lines of type 1 X-ray bright Active Galactic Nuclei
• Models of Optical Emission Lines To Investigate Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies in Spectroscopic Databases