Evidence for Two Distinct Broad-line Regions from Reverberation Mapping of PG 0026+129

DOI: 
10.3847/1538-4357/abc2da
Publication date: 
03/12/2020
Main author: 
Hu, Chen
IAA authors: 
Aceituno, Jesús
Authors: 
Hu, Chen;Li, Sha-Sha;Guo, Wei-Jian;Yang, Sen;Yang, Zi-Xu;Bao, Dong-Wei;Jiang, Bo-Wei;Du, Pu;Li, Yan-Rong;Xiao, Ming;Songsheng, Yu-Yang;Yu, Zhe;Bai, Jin-Ming;Ho, Luis C.;Bian, Wei-Hao;Brotherton, Michael S.;Yuan, Ye-Fei;Aceituno, Jesús;Winkler, Hartmut;Wang, Jian-Min;SEAMBH Collaboration
Journal: 
The Astrophysical Journal
Publication type: 
Article
Volume: 
905
Pages: 
75
Abstract: 
We report on the results of a new spectroscopic monitoring campaign of the quasar PG 0026+129 at the Calar Alto Observatory 2.2 m telescope from 2017 July to 2020 February. Significant variations in the fluxes of the continuum and broad emission lines, including Hβ and He II, were observed in the first and third years, and clear time lags between them are measured. The broad Hβ line profile consists of two Gaussian components: an intermediate-width H ${\beta }_{\mathrm{IC}}$ <!-- --> with an FWHM of 1964 ± 18 $\mathrm{km}\,{{\rm{s}}}^{-1}$ <!-- --> and another very broad H ${\beta }_{\mathrm{VBC}}$ <!-- --> with an FWHM of 7570 ± 83 $\mathrm{km}\,{{\rm{s}}}^{-1}$ <!-- --> . H ${\beta }_{\mathrm{IC}}$ <!-- --> has long time lags of ∼40-60 days in the rest frame, while H ${\beta }_{\mathrm{VBC}}$ <!-- --> shows nearly zero time delay with respect to the optical continuum at 5100 Å. The velocity-resolved delays show consistent results: lags of ∼30-50 days at the core of the broad Hβ line and roughly zero lags at the wings. H ${\beta }_{\mathrm{IC}}$ <!-- --> has a redshift of ∼400 $\mathrm{km}\,{{\rm{s}}}^{-1}$ <!-- --> , which seems to be stable for nearly 30 yr by comparing with archived spectra, and may originate from an infall. The rms spectrum of H ${\beta }_{\mathrm{VBC}}$ <!-- --> shows a double-peaked profile with brighter blue peak and extended red wing in the first year, which matches the signature of a thin disk. Both the double-peaked profile and the near-zero lag suggest that H ${\beta }_{\mathrm{VBC}}$ <!-- --> comes from a region associated with the part of the accretion disk that emits the optical continuum. Adopting the FWHM (in the rms spectrum) and the time lag measured for the total Hβ line, and a virial factor of 1.5, we obtain a virial mass of ${2.89}_{-0.69}^{+0.60}\times {10}^{7}\,{M}_{\odot }$ <!-- --> for the central black hole in this quasar.
Database: 
ADS
URL: 
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/#abs/2020ApJ...905...75H/abstract
ADS Bibcode: 
2020ApJ...905...75H
Keywords: 
Supermassive black holes;Seyfert galaxies;Active galactic nuclei;Quasars;Reverberation mapping;Time domain astronomy;1663;1447;16;1319;2019;2109;Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies