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Journal Articles The Astrophysical Journal Year : 2011

Broad-line Reverberation in the Kepler-field Seyfert Galaxy Zw 229-015

Aaron J. Barth
  • Function : Author
My L. Nguyen
  • Function : Author
Matthew A. Malkan
  • Function : Author
Alexei V. Filippenko
  • Function : Author
Weidong Li
  • Function : Author
Varoujan Gorjian
  • Function : Author
Michael D. Joner
  • Function : Author
Vardha Nicola Bennert
  • Function : Author
Janos Botyanszki
  • Function : Author
S. Bradley Cenko
  • Function : Author
Michael Childress
  • Function : Author
Jieun Choi
  • Function : Author
Julia M. Comerford
  • Function : Author
Antonino Cucciara
  • Function : Author
Robert da Silva
  • Function : Author
Michele Fumagalli
Mohan Ganeshalingam
  • Function : Author
Elinor L. Gates
  • Function : Author
Brian F. Gerke
  • Function : Author
Christopher V. Griffith
  • Function : Author
Chelsea Harris
  • Function : Author
Eric G. Hintz
  • Function : Author
Eric Hsiao
  • Function : Author
Michael T. Kandrashoff
  • Function : Author
William C. Keel
  • Function : Author
David Kirkman
  • Function : Author
Io K. W. Kleiser
  • Function : Author
C. David Laney
  • Function : Author
Jeffrey Lee
Liliana Lopez
  • Function : Author
Thomas B. Lowe
  • Function : Author
J. Ward Moody
  • Function : Author
Alekzandir Morton
  • Function : Author
A. M. Nierenberg
  • Function : Author
Peter Nugent
  • Function : Author
Anna Pancoast
  • Function : Author
Jacob Rex
  • Function : Author
R. Michael Rich
Jeffrey M. Silverman
  • Function : Author
Graeme H. Smith
  • Function : Author
Alessandro Sonnenfeld
  • Function : Author
Nao Suzuki
  • Function : Author
David Tytler
  • Function : Author
Jonelle L. Walsh
  • Function : Author
Jong-Hak Woo
  • Function : Author
Yizhe Yang
  • Function : Author
Carl Zeisse
  • Function : Author

Abstract

The Seyfert 1 galaxy Zw 229-015 is among the brightest active galaxies being monitored by the Kepler mission. In order to determine the black hole mass in Zw 229-015 from Hβ reverberation mapping, we have carried out nightly observations with the Kast Spectrograph at the Lick 3 m telescope during the dark runs from 2010 June through December, obtaining 54 spectroscopic observations in total. We have also obtained nightly V-band imaging with the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope at Lick Observatory and with the 0.9 m telescope at the Brigham Young University West Mountain Observatory over the same period. We detect strong variability in the source, which exhibited more than a factor of two change in broad Hβ flux. From cross-correlation measurements, we find that the Hβ light curve has a rest-frame lag of 3.86+0.69 -0.90 days with respect to the V-band continuum variations. We also measure reverberation lags for Hα and Hγ and find an upper limit to the Hδ lag. Combining the Hβ lag measurement with a broad Hβ width of σline = 1590 ± 47 km s-1 measured from the rms variability spectrum, we obtain a virial estimate of M BH = 1.00+0.19 -0.24 × 107 M sun for the black hole in Zw 229-015. As a Kepler target, Zw 229-015 will eventually have one of the highest-quality optical light curves ever measured for any active galaxy, and the black hole mass determined from reverberation mapping will serve as a benchmark for testing relationships between black hole mass and continuum variability characteristics in active galactic nuclei.

Dates and versions

insu-03612374 , version 1 (17-03-2022)

Identifiers

Cite

Aaron J. Barth, My L. Nguyen, Matthew A. Malkan, Alexei V. Filippenko, Weidong Li, et al.. Broad-line Reverberation in the Kepler-field Seyfert Galaxy Zw 229-015. The Astrophysical Journal, 2011, 732, ⟨10.1088/0004-637X/732/2/121⟩. ⟨insu-03612374⟩
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