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arXiv 1008.0641astro-ph.COastro-ph.IM
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测量活动星系核混响滞后的另一种方法

An Alternative Approach To Measuring Reverberation Lags in Active Galactic Nuclei

Ying Zu, C. S. Kochanek, Bradley. M. Peterson

摘要:

受类星体变率统计模型的最新进展的启发,我们开发了一种新的方法来测量发射线混响滞后估计活动星系核中的宽线区域(BLR)的大小。假设所有发射线光变曲线都是连续体的缩放、平滑和位移版本,这种替代方法直接使用阻尼随机游走模型拟合光变曲线,并将它们对齐以恢复时滞及其统计置信限。我们介绍了这种方法的数学形式主义,并证明了它的能力,以应付传统方法的一些问题,如不规则的采样,相关的错误,和季节性差距。我们重新确定了31个类星体中87条发射线的滞后,并使用60个H-β滞后重新评估了BLR的大小-光度关系。我们证实了传统的互相关方法的一般结果,有几个例外。然而,我们的方法也支持广泛的扩展。特别是,它可以同时拟合多条线和连续光变曲线,这改善了对线的滞后估计,并提供了它们之间的误差相关性的估计。确定这些相关性是特别重要的解释发射线速度延迟图。我们还可以包括亮度相关滞后或线路响应的参数。我们用它来探测NGC 5548中BLR大小与连续发光度的缩放。

英文摘要:

Motivated by recent progress in the statistical modeling of quasar variability, we develop a new approach to measuring emission-line reverberation lags to estimate the size of broad-line regions (BLRs) in active galactic nuclei. Assuming that all emission-line light curves are scaled, smoothed, and displaced versions of the continuum, this alternative approach fits the light curves directly using a damped random walk model and aligns them to recover the time lag and its statistical confidence limits. We introduce the mathematical formalism of this approach and demonstrate its ability to cope with some of the problems for traditional methods, such as irregular sampling, correlated errors, and seasonal gaps. We redetermine the lags for 87 emission lines in 31 quasars and reassess the BLR size--luminosity relationship using 60 H-beta lags. We confirm the general results from the traditional cross-correlation methods, with a few exceptions. Our method, however, also supports a broad range of extensions. In particular, it can simultaneously fit multiple lines and continuum light curves which improves the lag estimate for the lines and provides estimates of the error correlations between them. Determining these correlations is of particular importance for interpreting emission-line velocity--delay maps. We can also include parameters for luminosity-dependent lags or line responses. We use this to detect the scaling of the BLR size with continuum luminosity in NGC 5548.

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