Reverberation Mapping of the Seyfert 1 Galaxy NGC 7469

TL;DR

This study conducted reverberation mapping of NGC 7469, measuring emission-line lags and black hole mass, confirming the size-luminosity relationship despite low variability and data challenges.

Contribution

First detailed reverberation mapping of NGC 7469 yielding emission-line lags and black hole mass consistent with prior estimates.

Findings

Measured Hbeta and He II lags and black hole mass (~10 million solar masses)

NGC 7469 aligns with the size-luminosity relation after new measurements

Low variability required detrending for consistent time-series analysis

Abstract

A large reverberation mapping study of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 7469 has yielded emission-line lags for Hbeta 4861 and He II 4686 and a central black hole mass measurement of about 10 million solar masses, consistent with previous measurements. A very low level of variability during the monitoring campaign precluded meeting our original goal of recovering velocity-delay maps from the data, but with the new Hbeta measurement, NGC 7469 is no longer an outlier in the relationship between the size of the Hbeta-emitting broad-line region and the AGN luminosity. It was necessary to detrend the continuum and Hbeta and He II 4686 line light curves and those from archival UV data for different time-series analysis methods to yield consistent results.