Novel calibrations of virial black hole mass estimators in active galaxies based on X-ray luminosity and optical/NIR emission lines

Abstract

Accurately weigh the masses of SMBH in AGN is currently possible for only a small group of local and bright broad-line AGN through reverberation mapping (RM). Statistical demographic studies can be carried out considering the empirical scaling relation between the size of the BLR and the AGN optical continuum luminosity. However, there are still biases against low-luminosity or reddened AGN, in which the rest-frame optical radiation can be severely absorbed/diluted by the host and the BLR emission lines could be hard to detect. Our purpose is to widen the applicability of virial-based SE relations to reliably measure the BH masses also for low-luminosity or intermediate/type 2 AGN that are missed by current methodology. We achieve this goal by calibrating virial relations based on unbiased quantities: the hard X-ray luminosities, in the 2-10 keV and 14-195 keV bands, that are less sensitive to galaxy contamination, and the FWHM of the most important rest-frame NIR and optical BLR emission lines. We built a sample of RM AGN having both X-ray luminosity and broad optical/NIR FWHM measurements available in order to calibrate new virial BH mass estimators. We found that the FWHM of the H$\alpha$, H$\beta$ and NIR lines (i.e. Pa$\alpha$, Pa$\beta$ and HeI$\lambda$10830) all correlate each other having negligible or small offsets. This result allowed us to derive virial BH mass estimators based on either the 2-10 keV or 14-195 keV luminosity. We took also into account the recent determination of the different virial coefficients $f$ for pseudo and classical bulges. By splitting the sample according to the bulge type and adopting separate $f$ factors we found that our virial relations predict BH masses of AGN hosted in pseudobulges $\sim$0.5 dex smaller than in classical bulges. Assuming the same average $f$ factor for both populations, a difference of $\sim$0.2 dex is still found.

11 pages, 2 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication on A&A

References in corpus (21)

• A unified model for AGN feedback in cosmological simulations of structure formation
• Structural Properties of Pseudo-Bulges, Classical Bulges and Elliptical Galaxies: an SDSS Perspective
• The Radius-Luminosity Relationship for Active Galactic Nuclei: The Effect of Host-Galaxy Starlight on Luminosity Measurements
• The Structure of Classical Bulges And Pseudobulges: The Link Between Pseudobulges And Sersic Index
• Dust covering factor, silicate emission and star formation in luminous QSOs
• CAIXA: a Catalogue of AGN In the XMM-Newton Archive I. Spectral analysis
• The black hole mass -- stellar velocity dispersion correlation: bulges versus pseudobulges
• A 0.8-2.4 microns spectral atlas of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Black Holes in Pseudobulges and Spheroidals: A Change in the Black Hole-Bulge Scaling Relations at Low Mass
• The Black Hole Mass Scale of Classical and Pseudo Bulges in Active Galaxies
• Composite Bulges: The Coexistence of Classical Bulges and Disky Pseudobulges in S0 and Spiral Galaxies
• The Near-Infrared Broad Emission Line Region of Active Galactic Nuclei -- I. The Observations
• Long-Term Profile Variability of Double Peaked Emission Lines in Active Galactic Nuclei
• The M_BH - M_star relation for X-ray obscured, red QSOs at 1.2< z <2.6
• Overmassive black holes in the $M_{\mathrm{BH}}-\sigma$ diagram do not belong to over (dry) merged galaxies
• Broad-line region structure and kinematics in the radio galaxy 3C 120
• Extending Virial Black Hole Mass Estimates to Low-Luminosity or Obscured AGN: the cases of NGC 4395 and MCG -01-24-012
• Detection of faint broad emission lines in type 2 AGN: I. Near infrared observations and spectral fitting
• The Blackhole-Dark Matter Halo Connection
• Complex central structures suggest complex evolutionary paths for barred S0 galaxies
• Exploring high-z galaxies with the E-ELT

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Active Galactic Nuclei: what's in a name?
• BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey - V. X-ray properties of the Swift/BAT 70-month AGN catalog
• BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey - IV: Near-Infrared Coronal Lines, Hidden Broad Lines, and Correlation with Hard X-ray Emission
• Black hole scaling relations of active and quiescent galaxies: Addressing selection effects and constraining virial factors
• BASS XXV: DR2 Broad-line Based Black Hole Mass Estimates and Biases from Obscuration
• LLAMA: The $M_{BH}$ - ${\sigma }_{\star }$ Relation of the most luminous local AGNs
• Broadband X-ray spectral analysis of the Seyfert 1 galaxy GRS 1734-292
• BASS XXIX: The near-infrared view of the BLR: the effects of obscuration in BLR characterisation
• The nuclear transient AT 2017gge: a tidal disruption event in a dusty and gas-rich environment and the awakening of a dormant SMBH
• BASS XXVIII: Near-infrared Data Release 2, High-Ionization and Broad Lines in Active Galactic Nuclei
• No evidence for a significant evolution of $M_{\bullet }$-$M_{\ast }$ relation in massive galaxies up to z$\sim$4
• Speed limits for radiation driven SMBH winds
• Detection of faint broad emission lines in type 2 AGN: III. On the $M_{BH}-{\sigma }_{\star }$ relation of type 2 AGN
• The Complex Gaseous and Stellar environments of the nearby dual AGN Mrk 739