Broad-line active galactic nuclei rotate faster than narrow-line ones

Wolfram Kollatschny () and Matthias Zetzl
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Wolfram Kollatschny: Institut für Astrophysik, Universität Göttingen, Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
Matthias Zetzl: Institut für Astrophysik, Universität Göttingen, Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1, 37077 Göttingen, Germany

Nature, 2011, vol. 470, issue 7334, 366-368

Abstract: Super-massive black holes cut down to size? Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are the most luminous objects in the Universe. They are powered by super-massive black holes of between 10 million and 10 billion times the mass of the Sun, and are surrounded by a broad emission line region probably associated with an accretion disk. The kinematics and structure of the central broad-line region are poorly understood despite intensive studies over more than 30 years. Wolfram Kollatschny and Matthias Zetzl now show that there is a fundamental relationship between observed emission line width and emission line shape in the spectra of AGN, from which they infer that the geometry of the inner region is flattest for the fast-rotating broad-line objects, while slow-rotating narrow-line AGN have a more spherical structure. Knowing the rotational velocities, it is possible to derive more accurate estimates for the masses of the central black holes — which turn out to be 2–10 times smaller than previously estimated.

Date: 2011
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DOI: 10.1038/nature09761

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