Black hole mass estimates in quasars - A comparative analysis of high- and low-ionization lines

Abstract

The inter-line comparison between high- and low-ionization emission lines has yielded a wealth of information on the quasar broad line region (BLR) structure and dynamics, including perhaps the earliest unambiguous evidence in favor of a disk + wind structure in radio-quiet quasars. We carried out an analysis of the CIV 1549 and Hbeta line profiles of 28 Hamburg-ESO high luminosity quasars and of 48 low-z, low luminosity sources in order to test whether the high-ionization line CIV 1549 width could be correlated with Hbeta and be used as a virial broadening estimator. We analyze intermediate- to high-S/N, moderate resolution optical and NIR spectra covering the redshifted CIV and H$\beta$ over a broad range of luminosity log L ~ 44 - 48.5 [erg/s] and redshift (0 - 3), following an approach based on the quasar main sequence. The present analysis indicates that the line width of CIV 1549 is not immediately offering a virial broadening estimator equivalent to H$\beta$. At the same time a virialized part of the BLR appears to be preserved even at the highest luminosities. We suggest a correction to FWHM(CIV) for Eddington ratio (using the CIV blueshift as a proxy) and luminosity effects that can be applied over more than four dex in luminosity. Great care should be used in estimating high-L black hole masses from CIV 1549 line width. However, once corrected FWHM(CIV) values are used, a CIV-based scaling law can yield unbiased MBH values with respect to the ones based on H$\beta$ with sample standard deviation ~ 0.3 dex.

arXiv comment43 pages, 15 Figures, submitted to A&A

References in corpus (106)

• Composite Quasar Spectra From the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Determining Central Black Hole Masses in Distant Active Galaxies and Quasars. II. Improved Optical and UV Scaling Relationships
• An 800-million-solar-mass black hole in a significantly neutral Universe at redshift 7.5
• Dynamics of line-driven disk winds in Active Galactic Nuclei
• A Structure for Quasars
• The 2dF QSO Redshift Survey - I. The Optical QSO Luminosity Function
• The cosmological evolution of quasar black-hole masses
• The Soft X-Ray Properties of a Complete Sample of Optically Selected Quasars II. Final Results
• Dynamics of Line-Driven Disk Winds in Active Galactic Nuclei II: Effects of Disk Radiation
• Reverberation Mapping of High-Luminosity Quasars: First Results
• Measuring the black hole masses of high redshift quasars
• Unification of Luminous Type 1 Quasars through CIV Emission
• The diversity of quasars unified by accretion and orientation
• Keplerian Motion of Broad-Line Region Gas as Evidence for Supermassive Black Holes in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Reverberation Mapping Measurements of Black Hole Masses in Six Local Seyfert Galaxies
• Numerical simulations of super-critical black hole accretion flows in general relativity
• Multiwavelength Monitoring of the Dwarf Seyfert 1 Galaxy NGC 4395. I. A Reverberation-Based Measurement of the Black Hole Mass
• Eigenvector 1: An Optimal Correlation Space for Active Galactic Nuclei
• Evidence for Supermassive Black Holes in Active Galactic Nuclei from Emission-Line Reverberation
• Comparing Single-Epoch Virial Black Hole Mass Estimators for Luminous Quasars
• The origin of the Broad Line Region in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Spectral Classification of Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Eigenspectra; Redshift and Luminosity Effects
• Black Hole Growth to z = 2 - I: Improved Virial Methods for Measuring M_BH and L/L_Edd
• CIV 1549 as an Eigenvector 1 Parameter for Active Galactic Nuclei
• Double-Peaked Low-Ionization Emission Lines in Active Galactic Nuclei
• The New Generation Atlas of Quasar Spectral Energy Distributions from Radio to X-rays
• Estimating Black Hole Masses in Active Galactic Nuclei Using the MgII 2800 Emission Line
• Supermassive Black Holes with High Accretion Rates in Active Galactic Nuclei. IX 10 New Observations of Reverberation Mapping and Shortened H$\beta$ Lags
• The WISSH Quasars Project I. Powerful ionised outflows in hyper-luminous quasars
• The Structure of the Broad Line Region in AGN: I. Reconstructed Velocity-Delay Maps
• Correcting CIV-Based Virial Black Hole Masses
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: Velocity Shifts of Quasar Emission Lines
• Black Hole Mass Estimates Based on CIV are Consistent with Those Based on the Balmer Lines
• Formation of supermassive black hole seeds
• Black-Hole Mass and Growth Rate at High Redshift
• HST STIS Ultraviolet Spectral Evidence of Outflow in Extreme Narrow-line Seyfert 1 Galaxies: II. Modeling and Interpretation
• Average Quasar Spectra in the Context of Eigenvector 1
• Active galactic nuclei at z~1.5: II. Black Hole Mass estimation by means of broad emission lines
• The effect of radiation pressure on emission line profiles and black hole mass determination in active galactic nuclei
• Detailed Characterization of H_beta emission line profile in low z SDSS quasars
• Kinematic Linkage Between the Broad and Narrow Line Emitting Gas in AGN
• Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. V. Optical Spectroscopic Campaign and Emission-Line Analysis for NGC 5548
• Galaxy-Scale Outflows Driven by Active Galactic Nuclei
• CIV Emission Line Properties and Systematic Trends in Quasar Black Hole Mass Estimates
• The effect of nuclear gas distribution on the mass determination of supermassive black holes
• Average UV Quasar Spectra in the Context of Eigenvector 1: A Baldwin Effect Governed by Eddington Ratio?
• Supermassive Black Holes with High Accretion Rates in Active Galactic Nuclei. VI. Velocity-resolved Reverberation Mapping of H$\beta$ Line
• Self-shadowing Effects of Slim Accretion Disks in Active Galactic Nuclei: Diverse Appearance of the Broad-line Region
• Double-peaked profiles: ubiquitous signatures of disks in the Broad Emission Lines of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Broad Line Region Physical Conditions along the Quasar Eigenvector 1 Sequence
• Reverberation Mapping of Luminous Quasars at High-z
• Hbeta Profiles in Quasars: Evidence for an Intermediate-line Region
• Implications of infalling Fe II - emitting clouds in active galactic nuclei: anisotropic properties
• Is Mg II 2800 a Reliable Virial Broadening Estimator for Quasars?
• Rest-frame Optical Properties of Luminous 1.5<z<3.5 Quasars: the Hbeta-[OIII] Region
• Calibrating CIV-based black hole mass estimators
• The Civ line width distribution for quasars and its implications for broad-line region dynamics and virial mass estimation
• The shape of broad-line profiles in AGN
• Occurrence and Global Properties of Narrow CIV lambda 1549 Absorption Lines in Moderate-Redshift Quasars
• Accurate Redshifts and Classifications for 110 Radio-Loud AGNs
• Geometry and inclination of the broad line region in blazars
• VLT/ISAAC Spectra of the H-beta Region in Intermediate Redshift Quasars
• Detection of Rest-frame Optical Lines from X-shooter Spectroscopy of Weak Emission Line Quasars
• VLT/ISAAC Spectra of the H-beta Region in Intermediate-Redshift Quasars II. Black Hole Mass and Eddington Ratio
• The Demise of the Classical BLR in the Luminous Quasar PG1416-129
• What does Civλ1549 tell us about the physical driver of the Eigenvector Quasar Sequence?
• Interpreting broad emission-line variations I : Factors influencing the emission-line response
• Highly accreting quasars: The SDSS low-redshift catalog
• Dissecting the quasar main sequence: insight from host galaxy properties
• CIV Line-Width Anomalies: The Perils of Low S/N Spectra
• Coexistence of Gravitationally Bound and Radiation Driven CIV Emission Line Regions in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Contribution of a Disk Component to Single Peaked Broad Lines of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Low-Ionization Outflows in High Eddington Ratio Quasars
• Virial Masses of Black Holes from Single Epoch Spectra of AGN
• Low-Ionization Emission Regions in Quasars: Gas Properties Probed with Broad O I and Ca II Lines
• Physical properties of the first quasars
• GTC Spectra of z ~ 2.3 Quasars: Comparison with Local Luminosity Analogues
• The most powerful quasar outflows as revealed by the Civ λ1549 resonance line
• OI and CaII observations in intermediate redshift quasars
• CIV and CIII] reverberation mapping of the luminous quasar PG 1247+267
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: the CIV Blueshift, Its Variability, and Its Dependence Upon Quasar Properties
• PCA of the spectral energy distribution and emission line properties of red 2MASS AGN
• The Case for Optically-Thick High Velocity Broad Line Region Gas in Active Galactic Nuclei
• The Jet Power and Emission Line Correlations of Radio Loud Optically Selected Quasars
• VLT+UVES Spectroscopy of the CaII LoBAL Quasar SDSS J030000.56+004828.0
• Can we improve CIV-based single epoch black hole mass estimations?
• A New Approach to Constrain Black Hole Spins in Active Galaxies Using Optical Reverberation Mapping
• Two-Component Structure of the Hbeta Broad-Line Region in Quasars. I. Evidence from Spectral Principal Component Analysis
• A comparative analysis of virial black-hole mass estimates of moderate-luminosity active galactic nuclei using Subaru/FMOS
• The WISSH Quasars Project IV. BLR versus kpc-scale winds
• Ultraviolet Emission-Line Correlations in Hubble/COS Spectra of Active Galactic Nuclei: Single-Epoch Black Hole Masses
• The Redshifted Excess in Quasar C IV Broad Emission Lines
• Thick turbulent gas disks with magnetocentrifugal winds in active galactic nuclei - Model infrared emission and optical polarization
• The behavior of quasar C IV emission-line properties with orientation
• Gravitational Redshift of Emission Lines in the AGN Spectra
• 3C 57 as an Atypical Radio-Loud Quasar: Implications for the Radio-Loud/Radio-Quiet Dichotomy
• A new method to obtain the Broad Line Region size of high redshift quasars
• Do quasar broad-line velocity widths add any information to virial black hole mass estimates?
• Simultaneous detection and analysis of optical and ultraviolet broad emission lines in quasars at z~2.2
• Using the Properties of Broad Absorption Line Quasars to Illuminate Quasar Structure
• Strong Response of the very broad h$\beta$ Emission Line in Luminous Radio-Quite Quasar pg1416-129
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: Biases in z>1.46 Redshifts due to Quasar Diversity
• Rest-frame UV single-epoch black hole mass estimates of low-luminosity AGN at intermediate redshifts
• Near-Infrared Spectroscopy of Quasars at z~3 and Estimates of Their Supermassive Black Hole Masses
• Quasars with Anomalous Hβ Profiles I: Demographics
• Low Redshift BAL QSOs in the Eigenvector 1 Context

Cited by in corpus (28)

• JADES. The diverse population of infant Black Holes at 4<z<11: merging, tiny, poor, but mighty
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: Estimating Masses of Black Holes in Quasars with Single-Epoch Spectroscopy
• The X-shooter/ALMA Sample of Quasars in the Epoch of Reionization. II. Black Hole Masses, Eddington Ratios, and the Formation of the First Quasars
• Discovery of 24 radio-bright quasars at $4.9\le z\le 6.6$ using low-frequency radio observations
• 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
• Current and future applications of Reverberation-mapped quasars in Cosmology
• A quasar-galaxy merger at $z\sim 6.2$: black hole mass and quasar properties from the NIRSpec spectrum
• A novel black-hole mass scaling relation based on coronal gas, and its dependence with the accretion disc
• Modeling Quasar UV/Optical Variability with the Corona-heated Accretion-disk Reprocessing (CHAR) Model
• High Metal Content of Highly Accreting Quasars: Analysis of an Extended Sample
• High Eddington quasars as discovery tools: current state and challenges
• Extreme quasars as distance indicators in cosmology
• Spectroscopy and polarimetry of the gravitationally lensed quasar SDSS J1004+4112 with the 6m SAO RAS telescope
• High-redshift quasars along the Main Sequence
• The intermediate-ionization lines as virial broadening estimators for Population A quasars
• CIV emission line properties and uncertainties in black hole mass estimates of z ~ 3.5 quasars
• A powerful (and likely young) radio-loud quasar at z=5.3
• Linear Spectropolarimetric Analysis of Fairall 9 with VLT/FORS2
• Main trends of the quasar main sequence -- effect of viewing angle
• Early formation of supermassive black holes from the collapse of strongly self-interacting dark matter
• Probing the He II re-Ionization ERa via Absorbing C IV Historical Yield (HIERACHY) I: A Strong Outflow from a z~4.7 Quasar
• Unravelling the nature of the dual AGN in the galaxy pair system IRAS 05589+2828 and 2MASX J06021107+2828382
• Unveiling the monster heart: unbeamed properties of blazar 4C 71.07
• The relationship of SMBHs and host galaxies at $z<4$ in the deep optical variability-selected AGN sample in the COSMOS field
• Selection of highly-accreting quasars: Spectral properties of FeII emitters not belonging to extreme Population A
• Optical and UV properties of a radio-loud and a radio-quiet Population A quasar at high redshift
• Past, present and Future of the Scaling Relations of Galaxies and Active Galactic Nuclei
• Quasar emission lines as virial luminosity estimators