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Black hole masses from reverberation measurements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2004

Bradley M. Peterson
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, The Ohio State University, 140 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA email: peterson@astronomy.ohio-state.edu
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Abstract

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We have reanalyzed in a consistent way existing reverberation data for 35 AGNs for the purpose of refining the black hole masses derived from these data. We find that the precision (or random component of the error) of reverberation-based black hole mass measurements is typically around 30%, comparable to the precision attained in measurement of black hole masses in quiescent galaxies by gas or stellar dynamical methods. As discussed in this volume by Onken et al., we have established an absolute calibration for AGN reverberation-based masses by assuming that AGNs and quiescent galaxies follow an identical relationship between black hole mass and host-galaxy bulge velocity dispersion. The scatter around this relationship implies that the typical systematic uncertainties in reverberation-based black hole masses are smaller than a factor of three. We present a preliminary version of a mass–luminosity relationship that is much better defined than any previous attempt. Scatter about the mass–luminosity relationship for these AGNs appears to be real and could be correlated with either Eddington ratio or source inclination.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html

Type
INVITED LECTURES
Copyright
© 2004 International Astronomical Union