Disentangling the optical AGN and Host-galaxy luminosity with a probabilistic Flux Variation Gradient
arXiv:2109.03619 · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202141710
Abstract
We present a novel Probabilistic Flux Variation Gradient (PFVG) approach to to separate the contributions of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and host galaxies in the context of photometric reverberation mapping (PRM) of AGN. We explored the ability of recovering the fractional contribution in a model-independent way using the entire set of light curves obtained through different filters and photometric apertures simultaneously. The method is based on the observed bluer when brighter phenomenon that is attributed to the superimposition of a two-component structure; the red host galaxy, which is constant in time, and the varying blue AGN. We describe the PFVG mathematical formalism and demonstrate its performance using simulated light curves and available PRM observations. The new probabilistic approach is able to recover host-galaxy fluxes to within 1% precision as long as the light curves do not show a significant contribution from time delays. This represents a significant improvement with respect to previous applications of the traditional FVG method to PRM data. The proposed PFVG provides an efficient and accurate way to separate the AGN and host-galaxy luminosities in PRM monitoring data. The method will be especially helpful in the case of large upcoming photometric survey telescopes such as the public optical/near-infrared Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. Finally, we have made the algorithms freely available as part of our Julia PFVG package.
arXiv commentAccepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics
References in corpus (36)
- Cosmology and Fundamental Physics with the Euclid Satellite
- LSST Science Book, Version 2.0
- The Low-Luminosity End of the Radius-Luminosity Relationship for Active Galactic Nuclei
- Are the Variations in Quasar Optical Flux Driven by Thermal Fluctuations?
- The Radius-Luminosity Relationship for Active Galactic Nuclei: The Effect of Host-Galaxy Starlight on Luminosity Measurements II. The Full Sample of Reverberation-Mapped AGNs
- Reverberation Measurements of the Inner Radius of the Dust Torus in Nearby Seyfert 1 Galaxies
- Testing thermal reprocessing in AGN accretion discs
- Reverberation Measurements of the Inner Radius of the Dust Torus in 17 Seyfert Galaxies
- AGN Host Galaxy Morphologies in COSMOS
- Reverberation Mapping Results for Five Seyfert 1 Galaxies
- Anatomy of the AGN in NGC 5548: I. A global model for the broadband spectral energy distribution
- Morphologies of z~0.7 AGN Host Galaxies in CANDELS: No trend of merger incidence with AGN luminosity
- Hubble Space Telescope Imaging of the Circumnuclear Environments of the CfA Seyfert Galaxies: Nuclear Spirals and Fueling
- A new cosmological distance measure using AGN
- X-ray/UV/optical variability of NGC 4593 with Swift: Reprocessing of X-rays by an extended reprocessor
- Unveiling the first black holes with JWST: multi-wavelength spectral predictions
- Optical variability of AGN in the PTF/iPTF survey
- Quantifying the impact of variable BLR diffuse continuum contributions on measured continuum inter-band delays
- Intensive disc-reverberation mapping of Fairall 9: 1st year of Swift & LCO monitoring
- Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project VI: reverberating Disk Models for NGC 5548
- Supermassive black holes with high accretion rates in active galactic nuclei. XI. Accretion disk reverberation mapping of Mrk 142
- Long-term IR Photometry of Seyferts
- Long-Term Optical Continuum Color Variability of Nearby Active Galactic Nuclei
- Multiwavelength campaign on Mrk 509. I. Variability and spectral energy distribution
- AGN-Host Galaxy Connection: Morphology and Colours of X-ray Selected AGN at z < 2
- Photometric reverberation mapping of 3C120
- Low redshift quasars in the SDSS Stripe 82. The host galaxies
- Spitzer Space Telescope Measurements of Dust Reverberation Lags in the Seyfert 1 Galaxy NGC 6418
- The broad-line region and dust torus size of the Seyfert 1 galaxy PGC50427
- Dust reverberation-mapping of the Seyfert 1 galaxy WPVS48
- Size and disk-like shape of the broad-line region of ESO399-IG20
- Methods of Reverberation Mapping. I. Time-lag Determination by Measures of Randomness
- Simultaneous H alpha and dust reverberation mapping of 3C120: Testing the bowl-shaped torus geometry
- Low redshift quasars in the SDSS Stripe 82. Host galaxy colors and close environment
- Automatized photometric monitoring of active galactic nuclei with the 46 cm telescope of the Wise observatory
- The stability of the optical flux variation gradient for 3C120