Self-shadowing Effects of Slim Accretion Disks in Active Galactic Nuclei: Diverse Appearance of the Broad-line Region

Abstract

Supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) undergo a wide range of accretion rates, which lead to diversity of appearance. We consider the effects of anisotropic radiation from accretion disks on the broad-line region (BLR), from the Shakura-Sunyaev regime to slim disks with super-Eddington accretion rates. The geometrically thick funnel of the inner region of slim disks produces strong self-shadowing effects that lead to very strong anisotropy of the radiation field. We demonstrate that the degree of anisotropy of the radiation fields grows with increasing accretion rate. As a result of this anisotropy, BLR clouds receive different spectral energy distributions depending on their location relative to the disk, resulting in diverse observational appearance of the BLR. We show that the self-shadowing of the inner parts of the disk naturally produces two dynamically distinct regions of the BLR, depending on accretion rate. These two regions manifest themselves as kinematically distinct components of the broad H$\beta$ line profile with different line widths and fluxes, which jointly account for the Lorentzian profile generally observed in narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies. In the time domain, these two components are expected reverberate with different time lags with respect to the varying ionizing continuum, depending on the accretion rate and the viewing angle of the observer. The diverse appearance of the BLR due to the anisotropic ionizing energy source can be tested by reverberation mapping of H$\beta$ and other broad emission lines (e.g., \feii), providing a new tool to diagnose the structure and dynamics of the BLR. Other observational consequences of our model are also explored.

arXiv commentemulatapj style, 15 pages, 6 figures, in press

References in corpus (76)

• Reverberation Measurements for 17 Quasars and the Size-Mass-Luminosity Relations in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Composite Quasar Spectra From the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Nuclear Activity in Nearby Galaxies
• Dust Masses, PAH Abundances, and Starlight Intensities in the SINGS Galaxy Sample
• The Low-Luminosity End of the Radius-Luminosity Relationship for Active Galactic Nuclei
• Central Masses and Broad-Line Region Sizes of Active Galactic Nuclei: I. Comparing the Photoionization and Reverberation Techniques
• The Rest-Frame Extreme Ultraviolet Spectral Properties of QSOs
• Black Hole Mass and Eddington Ratio as Drivers for the Observable Properties of Radio-Loud and Radio-Quiet QSOs
• A Composite HST Spectrum of Quasars
• Reverberation Measurements of the Inner Radius of the Dust Torus in Nearby Seyfert 1 Galaxies
• Super-critical Accretion Flows around Black Holes: Two-dimensional, Radiation-pressure-dominated Disks with Photon-trapping
• A Global Three Dimensional Radiation Magneto-hydrodynamic Simulation of Super-Eddington Accretion Disks
• Elemental Abundances in QSOs: Star Formation and Galactic Nuclear Evolution at High Redshifts
• The diversity of quasars unified by accretion and orientation
• Quasar feedback and the origin of radio emission in radio-quiet quasars
• Reverberation Mapping Measurements of Black Hole Masses in Six Local Seyfert Galaxies
• A Comprehensive Study of 2 000 Narrow Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: I. The Sample
• Locally Optimally Emitting Clouds and the Origin of Quasar Emission Lines
• Numerical simulations of super-critical black hole accretion flows in general relativity
• Three-Dimensional General Relativistic Radiation Magnetohydrodynamical Simulation of Super-Eddington Accretion, using a new code HARMRAD with M1 Closure
• Determining Inclinations of Active Galactic Nuclei Via Their Narrow-Line Region Kinematics - I. Observational Results
• The Hard X-ray Spectrum as a Probe for Black-Hole Growth in Radio-Quiet Active Galactic Nuclei
• The Simultaneous Optical-to-X-ray Spectral Energy Distribution of Soft X-ray Selected AGN observed by Swift
• Slim Disk Model for Soft X-Ray Excess and Variability of Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies
• Supermassive black holes with high accretion rates in active galactic nuclei: I. First results from a new reverberation mapping campaign
• Reverberation Measurements of the Inner Radius of the Dust Torus in 17 Seyfert Galaxies
• A statistical relation between the X-ray spectral index and Eddington ratio of active galactic nuclei in deep surveys
• The Structure of the Broad Line Region in AGN: I. Reconstructed Velocity-Delay Maps
• A Hubble Space Telescope Survey of Extended [OIII]5007A Emission in a Far-Infrared Selected Sample of Seyfert Galaxies: Results
• Diverse Broad Line Region Kinematic Signatures From Reverberation Mapping
• Quasar Outflows and AGN Feedback in the Far UV: HST/COS Observations of QSO HE0238-1904
• Blueshifted [O III] Emission: Indications of a Dynamic NLR
• Hot Disk Corona and Magnetic Turbulence in Radio-Quiet Active Galactic Nuclei: Observational Constraints
• The Lick AGN Monitoring Project 2011: Fe II Reverberation from the Outer Broad-Line Region
• A Systematic Analysis of Fe II Emission in Quasars: Evidence for Inflow to the Central Black Hole
• HST-COS Observations of AGN. I. Ultraviolet Composite Spectra of the Ionizing Continuum and Emission Lines
• Geometric and Dynamical Models of Reverberation Mapping Data
• Large--Scale Outflows in Galaxies
• Universal spectral shape of high accretion rate AGN
• Supermassive black holes with high accretion rates in active galactic nuclei: II. the most luminous standard candles in the Universe
• Size and properties of the narrow-line region in Seyfert-2 galaxies from spatially-resolved optical spectroscopy
• The Intrinsically X-ray Weak Quasar PHL 1811. II. Optical and UV Spectra and Analysis
• The Fragmentation of Pre-enriched Primordial Objects
• Dust-free quasars in the early Universe
• Super-Eddington accreting massive black holes as long-lived cosmological standards
• The Observational Appearance of Slim Accretion Disks
• Extreme Slim Accretion Disks and Narrow Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies: the Nature of the soft X-ray Hump
• An accretion disc-corona model for X-ray spectra of active galactic nuclei
• A Bayesian Approach to Estimate the Size and Structure of the Broad-line Region in Active Galactic Nuclei Using Reverberation Mapping Data
• Observational Constraints on the Dependence of Radio-Quiet Quasar X-ray Emission on Black Hole Mass and Accretion Rate
• A Population of X-ray Weak Quasars: PHL 1811 Analogs at High Redshift
• Hbeta Profiles in Quasars: Evidence for an Intermediate-line Region
• Implications of infalling Fe II - emitting clouds in active galactic nuclei: anisotropic properties
• Cold Accretion Disks and Lineless Quasars
• X-ray and Multiwavelength Insights into the Nature of Weak Emission-Line Quasars at Low Redshift
• Properties of dusty tori in AGN: I. The Case of SWIRE/SDSS Quasars
• Are AGN Broad Emission Lines Formed by Discrete Clouds? --- Analysis of Keck High Resolution Spectroscopy of NGC 4151
• Two Different Accretion Classes in Seyfert 1 Galaxies and QSOs
• The shocked outflow in NGC 4051 - momentum-driven feedback, UFO's and warm absorbers
• X-ray Properties of Intermediate-Mass Black Holes in Active Galaxies. II. X-ray-Bright Accretion and Possible Evidence for Slim Disks
• On how much X-ray and UV radiation processes are coupled in accretion disks: AGN case
• Studying the relationship between X-ray emission and accretion in AGNs using the XMM-Newton Bright Serendipitous Survey
• Multiwavelength Observations of Radio-quiet Quasars with Weak Emission Lines
• The Seyfert AGN RX J0136.9-3510 and the Spectral State of Super Eddington Accretion Flows
• Two dimensional numerical simulations of Supercritical Accretion Flows revisited
• Hot-Dust-Poor Quasars in Mid-Infrared and Optically Selected Samples
• Slim Disks with Transition Regions and Applications to Microquasars and Narrow Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies
• Star formation in self-gravitating disks in active galactic nuclei. II. Episodic formation of broad line regions
• A large sample of Kohonen-selected SDSS quasars with weak emission lines: selection effects and statistical properties
• Geometrical Effect of Supercritical Accretion Flows: Observational Implications of Galactic Black-Hole Candidates and Ultraluminous X-ray Sources
• Two-Component Structure of the Hbeta Broad-Line Region in Quasars. I. Evidence from Spectral Principal Component Analysis
• New Method for Exploring Super-Eddington AGNs by Near-infrared Observations
• The origin of optical emission from super-Eddington accreting Active Galactic Nuclei: the case of Ton S 180
• On the Virialization of Disk Winds: Implications for the Black Hole Mass Estimates in AGN
• Emergent Spectra From Disks Surrounding Kerr Black Holes: Effect of Photon Trapping and Disk Self-Shadowing
• Vertical Structure and Coronal Power of Accretion Disks Powered by MRI Turbulence

Cited by in corpus (73)

• Revisiting the Unified Model of Active Galactic Nuclei
• The Pan-STARRS1 distant z>5.6 quasar survey: more than 100 quasars within the first Gyr of the universe
• Supermassive Black Holes with High Accretion Rates in Active Galactic Nuclei. IV. H$\beta$ Time Lags and Implications for Super-Eddington Accretion
• Supermassive Black Holes with High Accretion Rates in Active Galactic Nuclei. IX 10 New Observations of Reverberation Mapping and Shortened H$\beta$ Lags
• The Radius-Luminosity Relationship Depends on Optical Spectra in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Supermassive Black Holes with High Accretion Rates in Active Galactic Nuclei. V. A New Size-Luminosity Scaling Relation for the Broad-Line Region
• X-ray Insights into the Nature of PHL 1811 Analogs and Weak Emission-Line Quasars: Unification with a Geometrically Thick Accretion Disk?
• Supermassive black holes with high accretion rates in active galactic nuclei. XI. Accretion disk reverberation mapping of Mrk 142
• Supermassive Black Holes with High Accretion Rates in Active Galactic Nuclei. VIII. Structure of the Broad-Line Region and Mass of the Central Black Hole in Mrk 142
• Modelling of the quasar main sequence in the optical plane
• Star formation black hole growth and dusty tori in the most luminous AGNs at z=2-3.5
• Failed radiatively Accelerated Dusty Outflow model of the Broad Line Region in Active Galactic Nuclei. I. Analytical solution
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: The H$\beta$ Radius-Luminosity Relation
• Can reverberation-measured quasars be used for cosmology?
• On the Observational Difference Between the Accretion Disk-Corona Connections among Super- and Sub-Eddington Accreting Active Galactic Nuclei
• The Infrared Emission and Opening Angle of the Torus in Quasars
• What does Civλ1549 tell us about the physical driver of the Eigenvector Quasar Sequence?
• Modelling the spectral energy distribution of super-Eddington quasars
• Highly accreting quasars: The SDSS low-redshift catalog
• Dissecting the quasar main sequence: insight from host galaxy properties
• A parallax distance to 3C 273 through spectroastrometry and reverberation mapping
• Size matters: are we witnessing super-Eddington accretion in high-redshift black holes from JWST?
• The Complete Ultraviolet Spectrum of the Archetypal "Wind-Dominated" Quasar Mrk~231: Absorption and Emission from a High-Speed Dusty Nuclear Outflow
• Super- and sub-Eddington accreting massive black holes: A comparison of slim and thin accretion discs through study of the spectral energy distribution
• Disk Outflows and High-Luminosity True Type 2 AGN
• The dust origin of the Broad Line Region and the model consequences for AGN unification scheme
• Time-delay measurement of MgII broad line response for the highly-accreting quasar HE 0413-4031: Implications for the MgII-based radius-luminosity relation
• The picture of BLR in 2.5-D FRADO: Dynamics & Geometry
• The CaFe Project: Optical Fe II and Near-Infrared Ca II triplet emission in active galaxies -- simulated EWs, the co-dependence of cloud sizes and metal content
• Black hole mass estimates in quasars - A comparative analysis of high- and low-ionization lines
• Reverberation Mapping Measurements of Black Hole Masses and Broad-Line Region Kinematics in Mrk 817 and NGC 7469
• Current and future applications of Reverberation-mapped quasars in Cosmology
• Reverberation mapping of narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy I Zwicky 1: black hole mass
• Evidence for Two Distinct Broad-Line Regions from Reverberation Mapping of PG 0026+129
• Rapid Black Hole Growth at the Dawn of the Universe: A Super-Eddington Quasar at z=6.6
• An Extreme X-ray Variability Event of a Weak-Line Quasar
• Sensitive Chandra coverage of a representative sample of weak-line quasars: revealing the full range of X-ray properties
• Spectral Classification and Ionized Gas Outflows in $z\sim 2$ WISE-Selected Hot Dust-Obscured Galaxies
• Interpretation of Departure from the Broad Line Region Scaling in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Radiation pressure on dust explains the Low Ionized Broad Emission Lines in Active Galactic Nuclei
• The CaFe Project: Optical Fe II and Near-Infrared Ca II triplet emission in active galaxies: (I) Photoionization modelling
• Scatter Analysis Along the Multidimensional Radius-Luminosity Relations for Reverberation-Mapped Mg II Sources
• Broad line region and black hole mass of PKS 1510-089 from spectroscopic reverberation mapping
• SDSS J075101.42+291419.1: A Super-Eddington Accreting Quasar with Extreme X-ray Variability
• Supermassive black holes with high accretion rates in active galactic nuclei. VII. Reconstruction of velocity-delay maps by maximum entropy method
• Reaching the Peak of the quasar spectral energy distribution - II. Exploring the accretion disc, dusty torus and host galaxy
• A global solution to a slim accretion disk with radiation-driven outflows
• An extended size-luminosity relation for the reverberation-mapped AGNs: the role of the accretion rate
• The Blueshift Of Civ Broad Emission Line In Qsos
• High Eddington quasars as discovery tools: current state and challenges
• Testing Super-Eddington Accretion onto a Supermassive Black Hole: Reverberation Mapping of PG 1119+120
• Extreme quasars as distance indicators in cosmology
• AGN STORM 2. VII. A Frequency-resolved Map of the Accretion Disk in Mrk 817: Simultaneous X-ray Reverberation and UVOIR Disk Reprocessing Time Lags
• The Seoul National University AGN monitoring project. II. BLR size and black hole mass of two AGNs
• Properties of the narrow line Seyfert 1 galaxies revisited
• The physical driver of the optical Eigenvector 1 in Quasar Main Sequence
• An X-ray fading, UV brightening QSO at $z\approx 6$
• Spectropolarimetry and spectral decomposition of high-accreting Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies
• Unveiling the quasar main sequence: illuminating the complexity of active galactic nuclei and their evolution
• Temperature Profiles of Accretion Disks in Luminous Active Galactic Nuclei derived from Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Variability
• Spectral variability studies in Active Galactic Nuclei: Exploring continuum and emission line regions in the age of LSST and JWST
• H$\beta$ line shape and radius-luminosity relation in 2.5D FRADO
• The quasar main sequence and its potential for cosmology
• Rarefied Broad-Line Regions in Active Galactic Nuclei: Anomalous Responses in Reverberation Mapping and Implications for Weak Emission-Line Quasars
• Accretion rates of stellar-mass compact objects embedded in AGN discs
• Shedding the envelope: JWST reveals a kiloparsec-scale [OIII]-weak Balmer shell around a z=7.64 quasar
• Balmer line shifts in quasars
• The X-ray weakness of Little Red Dots and JWST-selected AGN: comparison with local AGN in different accretion regimes
• Investigating the origin of radio emission in candidate super-Eddington accreting black holes
• XMM-Newton spectrum of the radio-loud quasar 3C 215: slim accretion disk or SMBH binary?
• Reverberation Mapping of Two Luminous Quasars: the Broad-line Region Structure and Black Hole Mass
• Extreme variability quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Dark Energy Survey
• A quasar shedding its dust cocoon at redshift 2