- Main
Broad-line reverberation in the Kepler-field Seyfert galaxy Zw 229-015
- Author(s): Barth, AJ
- Nguyen, ML
- Malkan, MA
- Filippenko, AV
- Li, W
- Gorjian, V
- Joner, MD
- Bennert, VN
- Botyanszki, J
- Cenko, SB
- Childress, M
- Choi, J
- Comerford, JM
- Cucciara, A
- Da Silva, R
- Duchêne, G
- Fumagalli, M
- Ganeshalingam, M
- Gates, EL
- Gerke, BF
- Griffith, CV
- Harris, C
- Hintz, EG
- Hsiao, E
- Kandrashoff, MT
- Keel, WC
- Kirkman, D
- Kleiser, IKW
- Laney, CD
- Lee, J
- Lopez, L
- Lowe, TB
- Moody, JW
- Morton, A
- Nierenberg, AM
- Nugent, P
- Pancoast, A
- Rex, J
- Rich, RM
- Silverman, JM
- Smith, GH
- Sonnenfeld, A
- Suzuki, N
- Tytler, D
- Walsh, JL
- Woo, JH
- Yang, Y
- Zeisse, C
- et al.
Published Web Location
https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/732/2/121Abstract
The Seyfert 1 galaxy Zw 229-015 is among the brightest active galaxies being monitored by the Kepler mission. In order to determine the black hole mass in Zw 229-015 from Hβ reverberation mapping, we have carried out nightly observations with the Kast Spectrograph at the Lick 3 m telescope during the dark runs from 2010 June through December, obtaining 54 spectroscopic observations in total. We have also obtained nightly V-band imaging with the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope at Lick Observatory and with the 0.9 m telescope at the Brigham Young University West Mountain Observatory over the same period. We detect strong variability in the source, which exhibited more than a factor of two change in broad Hβ flux. From cross-correlation measurements, we find that the Hβ light curve has a rest-frame lag of 3.86+0.69-0.90 days with respect to the V-band continuum variations. We also measure reverberation lags for Hα and Hγ and find an upper limit to the Hδ lag. Combining the Hβ lag measurement with a broad Hβ width of σline = 1590 ± 47 km s-1 measured from the rms variability spectrum, we obtain a virial estimate of M BH = 1.00+0.19-0.24 × 107 M⊙ for the black hole in Zw 229-015. As a Kepler target, Zw 229-015 will eventually have one of the highest-quality optical light curves ever measured for any active galaxy, and the black hole mass determined from reverberation mapping will serve as a benchmark for testing relationships between black hole mass and continuum variability characteristics in active galactic nuclei. © 2011. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
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