TY - JOUR
T1 - The radius-luminosity relationship for active galactic nuclei
T2 - The effect of host-galaxy starlight on luminosity measurements. II. the full sample of reverberation-mapped agns
AU - Bentz, Misty C.
AU - Peterson, Bradley M.
AU - Netzer, Hagai
AU - Pogge, Richard W.
AU - Vestergaard, Marianne
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - We present high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope images of all 35 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with optical reverberation-mapping results, which we have modeled to create a nucleus-free image of each AGN host galaxy. From the nucleus-free images, we determine the host-galaxy contribution to ground-based spectroscopic luminosity measurements at 5100 . After correcting the luminosities of the AGNs for the contribution from starlight, we re-examine the Hβ R BLR-L relationship. Our best fit for the relationship gives a power-law slope of 0.52 with a range of 0.45-0.59 allowed by the uncertainties. This is consistent with our previous findings, and thus still consistent with the naive assumption that all AGNs are simply luminosity-scaled versions of each other. We discuss various consistency checks relating to the galaxy modeling and starlight contributions, as well as possible systematic errors in the current set of reverberation measurements from which we determine the form of the R BLR-L relationship.
AB - We present high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope images of all 35 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with optical reverberation-mapping results, which we have modeled to create a nucleus-free image of each AGN host galaxy. From the nucleus-free images, we determine the host-galaxy contribution to ground-based spectroscopic luminosity measurements at 5100 . After correcting the luminosities of the AGNs for the contribution from starlight, we re-examine the Hβ R BLR-L relationship. Our best fit for the relationship gives a power-law slope of 0.52 with a range of 0.45-0.59 allowed by the uncertainties. This is consistent with our previous findings, and thus still consistent with the naive assumption that all AGNs are simply luminosity-scaled versions of each other. We discuss various consistency checks relating to the galaxy modeling and starlight contributions, as well as possible systematic errors in the current set of reverberation measurements from which we determine the form of the R BLR-L relationship.
KW - Active
KW - Galaxies: Seyfert
KW - Galaxies: nuclei
KW - Galaxies: photometry
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=66649127029&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1088/0004-637X/697/1/160
DO - 10.1088/0004-637X/697/1/160
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AN - SCOPUS:66649127029
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 697
SP - 160
EP - 181
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
IS - 1
ER -