AGN Continuum Reverberation Mapping Based on Zwicky Transient Facility Light Curves

Abstract

We perform a systematic survey of active galactic nucleus (AGN) continuum lags using $\sim$3 day cadence $gri$-band light curves from the Zwicky Transient Facility. We select a sample of 94 type 1 AGN at $z<0.8$ with significant and consistent inter-band lags based on the interpolated cross-correlation function method and the Bayesian method JAVELIN. Within the framework of the lamp-post reprocessing model, our findings are: 1) The continuum emission (CE) sizes inferred from the data are larger than the disk sizes predicted by the standard thin disk model; 2) For a subset of the sample, the CE size exceeds the theoretical limit of the self-gravity radius (12 lt-days) for geometrically thin disks; 3) The CE size scales with continuum luminosity as $R_{\mathrm{CE}}\propto L^{0.48\pm 0.04}$ with a scatter of 0.2 dex, analogous to the well-known radius-luminosity relation of broad H$\beta$. These findings suggest a significant contribution of diffuse continuum emission from the broad-line region (BLR) to AGN continuum lags. We find that the $R_{\mathrm{CE}}-L$ relation can be explained by a photoionization model that assumes $\sim$23% of the total flux comes from the diffuse BLR emission. In addition, the ratio of the CE size and model-predicted disk size anti-correlates with the continuum luminosity, indicative of a potential non-disk BLR lag contribution evolving with luminosity. Finally, a robust positive correlation between CE size and black hole mass is detected.

arXiv comment26 pages, 12 figures, 4 tables. Accepted by ApJ

References in corpus (90)

• The Astropy Project: Building an inclusive, open-science project and status of the v2.0 core package
• LSST: from Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products
• The Zwicky Transient Facility: System Overview, Performance, and First Results
• The Man Behind the Curtain: X-rays Drive the UV through NIR Variability in the 2013 AGN Outburst in NGC 2617
• Central Masses and Broad-Line Region Sizes of Active Galactic Nuclei. II. A Homogeneous Analysis of a Large Reverberation-Mapping Database
• Advection-Dominated Accretion: Underfed Black Holes and Neutron Stars
• Hot Accretion Flows Around Black Holes
• Some Aspects of Measurement Error in Linear Regression of Astronomical Data
• Determining Central Black Hole Masses in Distant Active Galaxies and Quasars. II. Improved Optical and UV Scaling Relationships
• The Zwicky Transient Facility: Data Processing, Products, and Archive
• Spectral Energy Distributions and Multiwavelength Selection of Type 1 Quasars
• The Low-Luminosity End of the Radius-Luminosity Relationship for Active Galactic Nuclei
• Estimating Black Hole Masses in Active Galaxies Using the Halpha Emission Line
• Are the Variations in Quasar Optical Flux Driven by Thermal Fluctuations?
• Modeling the Time Variability of SDSS Stripe 82 Quasars as a Damped Random Walk
• Foundations of Black Hole Accretion Disk Theory
• Supermassive Black Holes in Active Galactic Nuclei. II. Calibration of the M-sigma Relationship for AGNs
• On Uncertainties in Cross-Correlation Lags and the Reality of Wavelength-Dependent Continuum Lags in Active Galactic Nuclei
• X-ray Spectral Variability and Rapid Variability of the Soft X-ray Spectrum Seyfert 1 Galaxies Ark 564 and Ton S180
• The Quasar Accretion Disk Size - Black Hole Mass Relation
• The Quasar Accretion Disk Size -- Black Hole Mass Relation
• Quantifying Quasar Variability As Part of a General Approach To Classifying Continuously Varying Sources
• The AGN Black Hole Mass Database
• An Alternative Approach To Measuring Reverberation Lags in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Locally Optimally Emitting Clouds and the Origin of Quasar Emission Lines
• Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. III. Optical Continuum Emission and Broad-Band Time Delays in NGC 5548
• A Description of Quasar Variability Measured Using Repeated SDSS and POSS Imaging
• Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. II. Swift and HST Reverberation Mapping of the Accretion Disk of NGC 5548
• Testing thermal reprocessing in AGN accretion discs
• Flexible and Scalable Methods for Quantifying Stochastic Variability in the Era of Massive Time-Domain Astronomical Data Sets
• Kepler Observations of Rapid Optical Variability in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Supermassive Black Holes with High Accretion Rates in Active Galactic Nuclei. IV. H$\beta$ Time Lags and Implications for Super-Eddington Accretion
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: H$\alpha$ and H$\beta$ Reverberation Measurements From First-year Spectroscopy and Photometry
• Reverberation mapping of Active Galactic Nuclei: from X-ray corona to dusty torus
• Spectral properties of quasars from Sloan Digital Sky Survey data release 14: The catalog
• Quasar Accretion Disks Are Strongly Inhomogeneous
• The Lick AGN Monitoring Project 2011: Spectroscopic Campaign and Emission-Line Light Curves
• Broad-line Balmer Decrements in Blue Active Galactic Nuclei
• The First Swift Intensive AGN Accretion Disk Reverberation Mapping Survey
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: Sample Characterization
• Swift monitoring of NGC 5548: X-ray reprocessing and short term UV/optical variability
• Accretion disk reverberation with Hubble Space Telescope observations of NGC 4593: evidence for diffuse continuum lags
• The Variable Diffuse Continuum Emission of Broad Line Clouds
• Swift monitoring of NGC 4151: Evidence for a Second X-ray/UV Reprocessing
• Geometric and Dynamical Models of Reverberation Mapping Data
• Are the Variability Properties of the Kepler AGN Light Curves Consistent with a Damped Random Walk?
• The origin of the UV/optical lags in NGC 5548
• Line driven winds and the UV turnover in AGN accretion discs
• Microlensing Makes Lensed Quasar Time Delays Significantly Time Variable
• 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
• On the Gas Content and Efficiency of AGN Feedback in Low-redshift Quasars
• Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project VI: reverberating Disk Models for NGC 5548
• Quantifying the Diffuse Continuum Contribution of BLR Clouds to AGN Continuum Inter-band Delays
• Supermassive black holes with high accretion rates in active galactic nuclei. XI. Accretion disk reverberation mapping of Mrk 142
• A comprehensive and uniform sample of broad-line active galactic nuclei from the SDSS DR7
• Quasar Accretion Disk Sizes From Continuum Reverberation Mapping From the Dark Energy Survey
• Modeling the UV/optical continuum time-lags in AGN
• Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Project. IV. Anomalous behavior of the broad ultraviolet emission lines in NGC 5548
• The Effects of Disc Winds on the Spectrum and Black Hole Growth Rate of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Detection of Time Lags Between Quasar Continuum Emission Bands based on Pan-STARRS Light-curves
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: Accretion-Disk Sizes from Continuum Lags
• Continuum Reverberation Mapping of the Accretion Disks in Two Seyfert 1 Galaxies
• Corona-Heated Accretion-disk Reprocessing (CHAR): A Physical Model to Decipher the Melody of AGN UV/optical Twinkling
• Multiwavelength Monitoring of the Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxy Akn 564. II. Ultraviolet Continuum and Emission-line Variability
• The case for cases B and C: intrinsic hydrogen line ratios of the broad-line region of active galactic nuclei, reddenings, and accretion disc sizes
• On the multi-wavelength variability of Mrk 110: Two components acting at different timescales
• Quasar Accretion Disk Sizes from Continuum Reverberation Mapping in the DES Standard Star Fields
• Eddington ratio governs the equivalent width of MgII emission line in active galactic nuclei
• Accretion Disk Sizes from Continuum Reverberation Mapping of AGN Selected from the ZTF Survey
• EUCLIA - Exploring the UV/optical continuum lag in active galactic nuclei. I. a model without light echoing
• A High Signal-to-Noise UV Spectrum of NGC 7469: New Support for Reprocessing of Continuum Radiation
• Non-Blackbody Disks Can Help Explain Inferred AGN Accretion Disk Sizes
• The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) Quasar Survey: the 4th and 5th Data Release
• On Reverberation Mapping Lag Uncertainties
• How far is quasar UV/optical variability from damped random walk at low frequency?
• Winds Can "Blow Up" AGN Accretion Disk Sizes
• Frequency-resolved lags in UV/optical continuum reverberation mapping
• Accretion Disk Size Measurements of Active Galactic Nuclei Monitored by the Zwicky Transient Facility
• The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fibre Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) Quasar Survey: Quasar Properties from Data Release Two and Three
• The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope Quasar Survey: Quasar Properties from First Data Release
• Using AGN lightcurves to map accretion disc temperature fluctuations
• The LSST era of supermassive black holes accretion-disk reverberation mapping
• Reconciling the Quasar Microlensing Disc Size Problem with a Wind Model of Active Galactic Nucleus
• The luminosity-dependent contribution from the broad line region to the wavelength-dependent lags in Mrk 110
• Faint AGNs Favor Unexpectedly Long Inter-band Time Lags
• X-ray, UV and optical time delays in the bright Seyfert galaxy Ark 120 with co-ordinated Swift and ground-based observations
• Constraints on accretion disk size in the massive type 1 quasar PG 2308+098 from optical continuum reverberation lags
• The Paschen Jump as a Diagnostic of the Diffuse Nebular Continuum Emission in Active Galactic Nuclei
• AGN Light Echoes and the Accretion Disc Self-Gravity Limit

Cited by in corpus (16)

• pAGN: the one-stop solution for AGN disc modeling
• Estimating AGN Black Hole Masses via Continuum Reverberation Mapping in the Era of LSST
• Continuum optical-UV and X-ray variability of AGN: current results and future challenges
• Resolving the Vicinity of Supermassive Black Holes with Gravitational Microlensing
• Temperature Fluctuations in Quasar Accretion Discs from Spectroscopic Monitoring Data
• Optical Continuum Reverberation Mapping of a Candidate IMBH in a Nearby Seyfert 1 Galaxy
• Temperature Profiles of Accretion Disks in Luminous Active Galactic Nuclei derived from Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Variability
• X-ray reverberation modelling of the continuum, optical/UV time-lags in quasars
• Application of the FRADO model of BLR formation to the Seyfert galaxy NGC 5548 and the first step toward determining the Hubble constant
• Spectral variability studies in Active Galactic Nuclei: Exploring continuum and emission line regions in the age of LSST and JWST
• Accretion disc reverberation mapping of the quasar 3C 273
• Scalable and Robust Multiband Modeling of AGN Light Curves in Rubin-LSST
• HALO I: Photometric continuum reverberation mapping of Fairall 9
• Amoeba: An AGN Model of Optical Emissions Beyond steady-state Accretion discs
• Flares in the Changing Look AGN Mrk 590. II: Deep X-ray observations reveal a Comptonizing inner accretion flow
• The UV/optical Continuum Reverberation Mapping of Eight Active Galactic Nuclei with Swift: Further Evidence for the Outer Component