The origin of optical emission from super-Eddington accreting Active Galactic Nuclei: the case of Ton S 180

Abstract

Self-gravitating accretion discs have only been studied in a few nearby objects using maser spots at the parsec-scale. We find a new spectral window for observing the self-gravitating accretion disc in super-Eddington accreting Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs). This window is determined by calculating the outermost radius (rsg) of a non self-gravitating disc and the corresponding emission wavelength (lsg) as a function of various disc parameters. We find that lsg reaches ~ 4000 AA for alpha=0.1, when Mdot > 70 (M_BH / 10^7 M_Sun)^-1 L_Edd/c^2 (where alpha, Mdot, M_BH and L_Edd are, respectively, the viscosity parameter, gas accretion rate onto the central black hole (BH), the BH mass and the Eddington luminosity). Moreover, lsg is as small as 1500 AA for alpha = 0.001, which is the smallest alpha case in this study. Therefore, the window for observing the self-gravitating part of an AGN accretion disc is from 2 micron to lsg. Incidentally, rsg can be less than the photon trapping radius for Mdot >~ 10^3.3 L_Edd/c^2. Namely, a self-gravitating, optically-thick, advection-dominated accretion disc is expected to appear in the extremely high accretion rate regime. Next, we demonstrate that the Mid-Infrared to X-ray spectrum of a bright, well-studied Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 galaxy, Ton S 180, is indeed well fitted by the spectrum arising from the following three components: an inner slim disc (with a corona), an outer, self-gravitating non-Keplerian disc and a dusty torus. The total mass, BH mass plus the entire disc mass, is found to be about (1.4 - 8.0) M_BH. If the surface density varies with radius r in proportion to r^-0.6, the total mass is consistent with the central mass estimated by H_beta and [O III] widths.

8 pages (including 5 figures), Latex, Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics

References in corpus (13)

• Reverberation Measurements for 17 Quasars and the Size-Mass-Luminosity Relations in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Central Masses and Broad-Line Region Sizes of Active Galactic Nuclei: I. Comparing the Photoionization and Reverberation Techniques
• Slim Disk Model for Soft X-Ray Excess and Variability of Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies
• Systematic Errors in the Estimation of Black Hole Masses by Reverberation Mapping
• Non-Keplerian rotation in the nucleus of NGC 1068: evidence for a massive accretion disk?
• Comptonization in Super-Eddington Accretion Flow and Growth Timescale of Supermassive Black Holes
• Black hole mass and velocity dispersion of narrow line region in active galactic nuclei and narrow line Seyfert 1 galaxies
• Are quasars accreting at super-Eddington rates?
• Extreme Slim Accretion Disks and Narrow Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies: the Nature of the soft X-ray Hump
• Origin of non-keplerian motions of masers in NGC 1068
• An XMM-Newton observation of Ton S180: Constraints on the continuum emission in ultrasoft Seyfert galaxies
• The Spectral Energy Distribution of the Seyfert galaxy Ton S180
• The spectral energy distribution of self-gravitating protostellar disks

Cited by in corpus (18)

• Systematic Effects in Measurement of Black Hole Masses by Emission-Line Reverberation of Active Galactic Nuclei: Eddington Ratio and Inclination
• The case for super-critical accretion onto massive black holes at high redshift
• Super-Eddington accretion rates in Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies
• Self-shadowing Effects of Slim Accretion Disks in Active Galactic Nuclei: Diverse Appearance of the Broad-line Region
• How Big Can a Black Hole Grow?
• Near-Infrared Reverberation by Dusty Clumpy Tori in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Orientation Effects on the Inner Region of Dusty Torus of Active Galactic Nuclei
• The Unified Model of Active Galactic Nuclei: I. Non-hidden Broad Line Region Seyfert 2 and Narrow Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies
• New Analytical Formula for Supercritical Accretion Flows
• Growth of massive black holes by super-Eddington accretion
• Non-Blackbody Disks Can Help Explain Inferred AGN Accretion Disk Sizes
• Slim Disks with Transition Regions and Applications to Microquasars and Narrow Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies
• Multiple Regression Analysis of the Variable Component in the Near-Infrared Region for Type 1 AGN MCG+08-11-011
• The New Numerical Galaxy Catalogue (ν^2 GC): Properties of Active Galactic Nuclei and Their Host Galaxies
• Limits on luminosity and mass accretion rate of a radiation pressure dominated accretion disc
• X-ray properties of the quasar HE0450-2958
• Characterising SMSS J2157--3602, the most luminous known quasar, with accretion disc models
• First Detection of 12CO (1--0) Emission from Two Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies