The supermassive black hole masses of reverberation-mapped active galactic nuclei

Abstract

Using different kinds of velocity tracers derived from the broad H$\beta$ profile (in the mean or rms spectrum) and the corresponding virial factors $f$, the central supermassive black hole (SMBH) masses ($M_{\mathrm{BH}}$) are calculated for a compiled sample of 120 reverberation-mapped (RM) AGNs. For its subsample of RM AGNs with measured stellar velocity dispersion (${\sigma }_{\ast }$), the multivariate linear regression technique is used to calibrate the mean value $f$, as well as the variable FWHM-based $f$. It is found that, whether excluding the pseudo-bulges or not, $M_{\mathrm{BH}}$ from the H$\beta$ line dispersion in the mean spectrum (${\sigma }_{\mathrm{H}\beta ,\mathrm{mean}}$) has the smallest offset rms with respect to the $M_{\mathrm{BH}}-{\sigma }_{\ast }$ relation. For the total sample excluding SDSS-RM AGNs, with respect to $M_{\mathrm{BH}}$ from ${\sigma }_{\ast }$ or that from the H$\beta$ line dispersion in the rms spectrum (${\sigma }_{\mathrm{H}\beta ,\mathrm{rms}}$), it is found that we can obtain $M_{\mathrm{BH}}$ from the ${\sigma }_{\mathrm{H}\beta ,\mathrm{mean}}$ with the smallest offset rms of 0.38 dex or 0.23 dex, respectively. It implies that, with respect to the H$\beta$ FWHM, we prefer ${\sigma }_{\mathrm{H}\beta ,\mathrm{mean}}$ to calculate $M_{\mathrm{BH}}$ from the single-epoch spectrum. Using the FWHM-based $f$, we can improve $M_{\mathrm{BH}}$ calculation from FWHM(H$\beta$) and the mean $f$, with a decreased offset rms from 0.52 dex to 0.39 dex with respect to $M_{\mathrm{BH}}$ from ${\sigma }_{\ast }$ for the subsample of 36 AGNs with ${\sigma }_{\ast }$. The value of 0.39 dex is almost the same as that from ${\sigma }_{\mathrm{H}\beta ,\mathrm{mean}}$ and the mean $f$.

20 pages, 5 tables, 8 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

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