J/ApJ/915/129 13yr of spectrophotometrically monitored QSOs (Kaspi+, 2021)
Taking a long look: a two-decade reverberation mapping study of high-Luminosity
quasars.
Kaspi S., Brandt W.N., Maoz D., Netzer H., Schneider D.P., Shemmer O.,
Grier C.J.
<Astrophys. J., 915, 129 (2021)>
=2021ApJ...915..129K 2021ApJ...915..129K
ADC_Keywords: Active gal. nuclei; QSOs; Photometry; Spectra, optical
Keywords: Active galactic nuclei ; Active galaxies ; Galaxy nuclei ;
High-luminosity active galactic nuclei ;
Low-luminosity active galactic nuclei ; Quasars
Abstract:
Reverberation mapping (RM) of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) has been
used over the past three decades to determine AGN broad-line region
(BLR) sizes and central black hole masses, and their relations with
the AGN luminosity. Until recently, the sample of objects with RM data
was limited to low-luminosity AGNs (Lopt≲1046erg/s) and low
redshifts (z≲0.5). Here we present results from an RM project of some
of the most luminous and highest-redshift quasars that have been
mapped to date. The study is based on almost 20 years of photometric
monitoring of 11 quasars, 6 of which were monitored
spectrophotometrically for 13yr. This is the longest RM project
carried out so far on this type of AGNs. We successfully measure a
time lag between the CIVλ1549 broad emission line and the
quasar continuum in three objects, and measure a CIII]λ1909 lag
in one quasar. Together with recently published data on CIV RM, the
BLR size is found to scale as the square root of the UV luminosity
over eight orders of magnitude in AGN luminosity. There is a
significant scatter in the relation, part of which may be intrinsic to
the AGNs. Although the CIV line is probably less well suited than
Balmer lines for determination of the mass of the black hole, virial
masses are tentatively computed, and in spite of a large scatter, we
find that the mass of the black hole scales as the square root of the
UV luminosity.
Description:
The sample, observations, and data processing are described in detail
in Paper I (Kaspi+ 2007ApJ...659..997K 2007ApJ...659..997K). In this paper we report the
final results from this campaign after 18yr of photometric and 13yr
of spectroscopic monitoring.
The photometric sample consists of 11 high-luminosity quasars with
observed magnitude of V≲18 and redshift in the range 2≲z≲3.4. Six
of the objects in our sample are radio loud and five are radio quiet.
Photometric observations were obtained at the Wise observatory 1m
telescope in the Johnson-Cousins B and R bands from 1995 to mid-2013.
Spectroscopic observations were performed for 6 of the 11
photometrically monitored AGNs at the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET).
Spectra were obtained starting in 1999 with the Low Resolution
Spectrograph (LRS), which began its primary observations in 1998, and
spectroscopic observations continued until the instrument was
decommissioned in mid-2013. The total program time amounted to roughly
12hr of HET time each year.
File Summary:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ReadMe 80 . This file
table1.dat 37 11 Luminosities of the eleven 2≲z≲3.4 quasar sample
table4.dat 35 1264 Continuum light curves for six quasars
with spectroscopic observation
(same QSOs as in Tables 5 and 9)
table5.dat 45 495 Line light curves for six quasars
with spectroscopic observation
(same QSOs as in Tables 4 and 9)
table8.dat 37 1729 R and B band light curves for five quasars
that have no spectroscopic observation
table9.dat 37 992 B band light curves for six quasars
with spectroscopic observation
(same QSOs as in Tables 4 and 5)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
See also:
J/ApJ/613/682 : AGN masses and broad-line region sizes (Peterson+, 2004)
J/ApJ/632/799 : NGC4395 light curves (Peterson+, 2005)
J/ApJ/748/49 : Optical sp. of 1LAC broad-line blazars (Shaw+, 2012)
J/ApJ/763/L36 : MgII & FeII flux of 3C 454.3 (Leon-Tavares+, 2013)
J/ApJ/806/128 : Space telescope RM project. I. NGC5548 (De Rosa+, 2015)
J/ApJ/806/22 : SEAMBHs IV. Hβ time lags (Du+, 2015)
J/ApJ/825/126 : SEAMBHs. V. The third year (Du+, 2016)
J/ApJ/818/30 : Lag measurements for z<0.8 QSOs from SDSS-RM (Shen+, 2016)
J/MNRAS/465/2120 : Correcting CIV-based virial BH masses (Coatman+, 2017)
J/ApJ/851/21 : SDSS RM project first year of observations (Grier+, 2017)
J/ApJ/869/142 : Monitoring AGNs with Hβ Asymmetry (MAHA) I. (Du+, 2018)
J/ApJ/865/56 : Emission line & R-band cont. LCs of 17 QSOs (Lira+, 2018)
J/ApJ/870/123 : Swift optical & UV flux of four AGNs (Edelson+, 2019)
J/ApJ/887/38 : SDSS RM Project: CIV lags & LCs; 4yrs of data (Grier+, 2019)
J/ApJ/903/112 : SDSS Hb & CIV reverberation mapped AGNs (Dalla Bonta+, 2020)
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table1.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 11 A11 --- ID Quasar name
13 A1 --- f_ID c = spectroscopically monitored
15- 19 F5.2 10+40W L1350A [0.72/10.9] Luminosity at 1350Å,
λLλ(1350Å),
in 1047erg/s (1)
21- 24 F4.2 10+40W e_L1350A [0.09/1.22] L1350A uncertainty
26- 29 F4.2 10+40W L5100A [0.37/5.63] Luminosity at 5100Å,
λLλ(5100Å),
in 1047erg/s (2)
31- 37 F7.1 --- RL [1.3/12378] Radio loudness (3)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note (1): λLλ(1350Å) for the six objects in our
spectroscopic sample were measured from the spectra shown in Figure 1,
for S5 0014+81, S5 0153+74, and HS 1946+7658 from spectra published in
the literature, and for TB 0933+733 and S5 2017+74 from extrapolation
of their SED given in NED. Luminosities were corrected for Galactic
extinction using AV from NED based on
Schlafly & Finkbeiner (2011ApJ...737..103S 2011ApJ...737..103S).
Note (2): λLλ(5100Å) was computed from
λLλ(1350Å) using a power law fν∝ν-0.5.
Note (3): Radio loudness is the radio (1.4GHz)-to-optical (estimated at
4400Å) flux ratio, from Paper I (Kaspi+ 2007ApJ...659..997K 2007ApJ...659..997K).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table4.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 11 A11 --- ID Object identifier
13- 22 F10.2 d JD [2449667.17/2456552.22] Julian Date
24- 29 F6.3 10-15mW/m2/nm flambda [2.4/12.5] Continuum flux (1)
31- 35 F5.3 10-15mW/m2/nm e_flambda [0.01/1.5] Uncertainty in flambda (1)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note (1): In units of 10-16erg/s/cm2/Angstroms.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table5.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 11 A11 --- ID Object identifier
13- 21 A9 --- Line Line identifier ("C III", "C IV" or
"Lyα")
23- 32 F10.2 d JD [2451584.78/2456362.68] Julian Date
34- 39 F6.3 10-15mW/m2/nm flambda [0.47/37.1] Continuum flux (1)
41- 45 F5.3 10-15mW/m2/nm e_flambda [0.03/9.1] Uncertainty in flambda (1)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note (1): In units of 10-16erg/s/cm2/Angstroms.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table8.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 11 A11 --- ID Object identifier
13- 13 A1 --- Band Passband ("B" or "R")
15- 24 F10.2 d JD [2449660.21/2456568.27] Julian Date
26- 31 F6.3 mag mag [16.32/19.21] Apparent magnitude in Band
33- 37 F5.3 mag e_mag [0.007/0.3] Uncertainty in mag
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table9.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 11 A11 --- ID Object identifier
13- 13 A1 --- Band Passband (Always "B")
15- 24 F10.2 d JD [2449667.17/2456552.23] Julian Date
26- 31 F6.3 mag mag [15.88/18.11] Apparent magnitude in Band
33- 37 F5.3 mag e_mag [0.007/0.14] Uncertainty in mag
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
History:
From electronic version of the journal
References:
Kaspi et al. Paper I. 2007ApJ...659..997K 2007ApJ...659..997K
(End) Prepared by [AAS], Emmanuelle Perret [CDS] 20-Dec-2022