Diverse kinematic signatures from reverberation mapping of the broad-line region in AGNs

Abstract

A detailed analysis of the data from a high sampling rate, multi-month reverberation mapping campaign, undertaken primarily at MDM Observatory with supporting observations from telescopes around the world, reveals that the Hβ emission region within the broad-line regions (BLRs) of several nearby active galactic nuclei (AGNs) exhibits a variety of kinematic behaviors. While the primary goal of this campaign was to obtain either new or improved Hβ reverberation lag measurements for several relatively low-luminosity AGNs, we were also able to unambiguously reconstruct velocity-resolved reverberation signals from a subset of our targets. Through high cadence spectroscopic monitoring of the optical continuum and broad Hβ emission-line variations observed in the nuclear regions of NGC3227, NGC3516, and NGC5548, we clearly see evidence for outflowing, infalling, and virialized BLR gas motions, respectively. © 2009. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.