Polarization in lines - a new method for measuring black hole masses in active galaxies

Abstract

Measuring of the masses of galactic supermassive black holes (SMBHs) is an important task, since they correlate with the host galaxy properties and play an important role in evolution of galaxies. Here we present a new method for measuring of SMBH masses using the polarization of the broad lines emitted from active galactic nuclei (AGNs). We performed spectropolarometric observations of 9 AGNs and find that this method gives measured masses which are in a good agreement with reverberation measurements. An advantage of this method is that it can be used to measure the masses of SMBHs in a consistent way at different cosmological epochs.

arXiv commentApJL accepted

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• Reverberation mapping of narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy I Zwicky 1: black hole mass
• Monitoring AGNs with Hβ Asymmetry. II. Reverberation Mapping of Three Seyfert Galaxies Historically Displaying Hβ Profiles with Changing Asymmetry: Mrk 79, NGC 3227, and Mrk 841
• Spectroscopy and polarimetry of the gravitationally lensed quasar SDSS J1004+4112 with the 6m SAO RAS telescope
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• Polarimetric Reverberation Mapping in Medium-Band Filters
• Balmer line shifts in quasars
• Determination of the Physical Parameters of AGNs in Seyfert 1 Galaxies LEDA 3095839 and VII Zw 244 Based on Spectropolarimetric Observations
• Probing AGN with spectropolarimetry: accretion disk and SMBH parameters
• Comparison between the influence of outflows and supermassive binary black holes in active galactic nuclei on the polarization angle profiles
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