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The first spectroscopic IR reverberation programme on Mrk 509

  • J. A.J. Mitchell
  • , M. J. Ward
  • , D. Kynoch
  • , J. V.Hernández Santisteban
  • , K. Horne
  • , J. U. Pott
  • , J. Esser
  • , P. Mercatoris
  • , C. Packham
  • , G. J. Ferland
  • , A. Lawrence
  • , T. Fischer
  • , A. J. Barth
  • , C. Villforth
  • , H. Winkler

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Near IR spectroscopic reverberation of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) potentially allows the infrared (IR) broad line region (BLR) to be reverberated alongside the disc and dust continua, while the spectra can also reveal details of dust astro-chemistry. Here, we describe results of a short pilot study (17 near-IR spectra over a 183 d period) for Mrk 509. The spectra give a luminosity-weighted dust radius of Rd,lum = 186 ± 4 light-days for blackbody (large grain dust), consistent with previous (photometric) reverberation campaigns, whereas carbon and silicate dust give much larger radii. We develop a method of calibrating spectral data in objects where the narrow lines are extended beyond the slit width. We demonstrate this by showing our resultant photometric band light curves are consistent with previous results, with a hot dust lag at >40 d in the K band, clearly different from the accretion disc response at <20 d in the z band. We place this limit of 40 d by demonstrating clearly that the modest variability that we do detect in the H and K band does not reverberate on time-scales of less than 40 d. We also extract the Pa β line light curve, and find a lag which is consistent with the optical BLR H β line of ∼70-90 d. This is important as direct imaging of the near-IR BLR is now possible in a few objects, so we need to understand its relation to the better studied optical BLR.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)4824-4839
Number of pages16
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume529
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 1 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society.

Funding

We would like to thank the anonymous referee for their helpful comments, which improved the manuscript. JAJM acknowledges the support of STFC studentship (ST/S50536/1). MJW acknowledges support from an Leverhulme Emeritus Fellowship, EM-2021-064. KH and JVHS acknowledge support from STFC grant ST/R000824/1. Research by AJB is supported by NSF grant AST-1907290. The authors thank Dr Richard Wilman for the extraction and provision of pseudo-slit spectra from the IFU datacube. This work makes use of observations from the Las Cumbres Observatory global telescope network. Based on observations obtained with the Samuel Oschin 48-inch Telescope at the Palomar Observatory as part of the Zwicky Transient Facility project. ZTF is supported by the National Science Foundation under grant no. AST-1440341 and a collaboration including Caltech, IPAC, the Weizmann Institute for Science, the Oskar Klein Center at Stockholm University, the University of Maryland, the University of Washington, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, and Humboldt University, Los Alamos National Laboratories, the TANGO Consortium of Taiwan, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories. Operations are conducted by COO, IPAC, and UW. Based on observations obtained with the Samuel Oschin Telescope 48-inch and the 60-inch Telescope at the Palomar Observatory as part of the Zwicky Transient Facility project. ZTF is supported by the National Science Foundation under grant no. AST-2034437 and a collaboration including Caltech, IPAC, the Weizmann Institute for Science, the Oskar Klein Center at Stockholm University, the University of Maryland, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron and Humboldt University, the TANGO Consortium of Taiwan, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Trinity College Dublin, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, and IN2P3, France. Operations are conducted by COO, IPAC, and UW. Visiting Astronomer at the Infrared Telescope Facility, which is operated by the University of Hawaii under contract NNH14CK55B with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. We w ould lik e to thank the anonymous referee for their helpful comments, which impro v ed the manuscript. JAJM acknowledges the support of STFC studentship (ST/S50536/1). MJW acknowl- edges support from an Leverhulme Emeritus Fellowship, EM- 2021-064. KH and JVHS acknowledge support from STFC grant ST/R000824/1. Research by AJB is supported by NSF grant AST- 1907290. The authors thank Dr Richard Wilman for the extraction and provision of pseudo-slit spectra from the IFU datacube. This w ork mak es use of observ ations from the Las Cumbres Observ atory global telescope network. Based on observations obtained with the Samuel Oschin 48-inch Telescope at the Palomar Observatory as part of the Zwicky Transient Facility project. ZTF is supported by the National Science Foundation under grant no. AST-1440341 and a collaboration including Caltech, IPAC, the Weizmann Institute for Science, the Oskar Klein Center at Stockholm University, the University of Maryland, the University of Washington, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, and Humboldt University, Los Alamos National Laboratories, the TANGO Consortium of Taiwan, the University of Wisconsin at Mil w auk ee, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories. Operations are conducted by COO, IPAC, and UW. Based on observations obtained with the Samuel Oschin Telescope 48-inch and the 60-inch Telescope at the Palomar Ob- servatory as part of the Zwicky Transient Facility project. ZTF is supported by the National Science Foundation under grant no. AST-2034437 and a collaboration including Caltech, IPAC, the Weizmann Institute for Science, the Oskar Klein Center at Stock- holm University, the University of Maryland, Deutsches Elektronen- Synchrotron and Humboldt University, the TANGO Consortium of Taiwan, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, Trinity Colle ge Dublin, La wrence Liv ermore National Laboratories, and IN2P3, France. Operations are conducted by COO, IPAC, and UW.

FundersFunder number
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
Weizmann Institute for Science
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Institut national de physique nucléaire et de physique des particules
IFU
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY
Los Alamos National Laboratory
La wrence Liv ermore National Laboratories
California Institute of Technology
Synchrotron and Humboldt University
Trinity College Dublin
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Maryland Population Research Center, University of Maryland
IPAC
The George Washington University
University of Maryland, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron and Humboldt University
UK Industrial Decarbonization Research and Innovation Centre
National Science Foundation Arctic Social Science Program1907290, AST-1440341
Leverhulme TrustEM-2021-064
Science and Technology Facilities Council2021-064, ST/R000824/1, ST/S50536/1
Neurosciences FoundationAST-1907290
Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryAST-2034437

    Keywords

    • galaxies: Seyfert
    • infrared: galaxies
    • quasars: emission lines
    • quasars: individual: Mrk 509

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Astronomy and Astrophysics
    • Space and Planetary Science

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