Consistency of the black hole mass determination in AGN from the reverberation and the X-ray excess variance method

TY - JOUR

T1 - Consistency of the black hole mass determination in AGN from the reverberation and the X-ray excess variance method

AU - Nikołajuk, M.

AU - Czerny, B.

AU - Ziółkowski, J.

AU - Gierliński, M.

PY - 2006/8/11

Y1 - 2006/8/11

N2 - Values of black hole masses are frequently determined with the help of the reverberation method. This method requires a specific geometrical factor related to the distribution of the orbits of the broad-line region clouds. Onken et al. determined the value f2 = 1.37 ± 0.45 from the black hole mass-dispersion relation. In this paper, we determine this factor using an independent mass determination from the X-ray variance method for a number of Seyfert 1 galaxies and comparing them with the reverberation results by Peterson et al. We obtain mean value f2 = 1.12 ± 0.54, consistent with Onken et al. Both values are larger than the value 0.75 corresponding to a spherical geometry. It indicates that most probably all values of the black hole masses obtained with the use of the Kaspi et al. formulae should be multiplied by a factor of ∼1.7. This also shows that the broad-line region is rather flat, and hints for a dependence of the factor f2 on a source inclination seem to be present in the data.

AB - Values of black hole masses are frequently determined with the help of the reverberation method. This method requires a specific geometrical factor related to the distribution of the orbits of the broad-line region clouds. Onken et al. determined the value f2 = 1.37 ± 0.45 from the black hole mass-dispersion relation. In this paper, we determine this factor using an independent mass determination from the X-ray variance method for a number of Seyfert 1 galaxies and comparing them with the reverberation results by Peterson et al. We obtain mean value f2 = 1.12 ± 0.54, consistent with Onken et al. Both values are larger than the value 0.75 corresponding to a spherical geometry. It indicates that most probably all values of the black hole masses obtained with the use of the Kaspi et al. formulae should be multiplied by a factor of ∼1.7. This also shows that the broad-line region is rather flat, and hints for a dependence of the factor f2 on a source inclination seem to be present in the data.

KW - Galaxies: active

KW - Galaxies: Seyfert

KW - X-rays: galaxies

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/33746476365

U2 - 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10576.x

DO - 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10576.x

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:33746476365

SN - 0035-8711

VL - 370

SP - 1534

EP - 1540

JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

IS - 3

ER -