Spectral variability of the 3C 390.3 nucleus for more than twenty years. I. Variability of the broad and narrow emission-line fluxes

TL;DR

This study analyzes over twenty years of optical variability in the 3C 390.3 nucleus, revealing changes in emission-line fluxes, reverberation lags, and black hole mass estimates, highlighting complex variability patterns and the importance of long-term monitoring.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive long-term analysis of emission-line variability and reverberation mapping in 3C 390.3, offering new insights into black hole mass and emission region kinematics.

Findings

Reverberation lags: 88.6, 161, 113 days for Hβ, Hα, Hγ.

Black hole mass estimates: ~1.87 and 2.81 billion solar masses.

Long-term trends affect reverberation mapping accuracy.

Abstract

We summarize results of the analysis of the optical variability of the continuum and emission-line fluxes in the 3C390.3 nucleus during 1992-2014. The [OIII]5007 flux increases monotonically by $\approx$30 per cent in 2003-2014. The narrow Balmer lines show similar monotonic increase, while the variability patterns of the [OI]6300 narrow line are completely different from that of [OIII]. The reverberation lags are found to be 88.6$\pm$8.4, 161$\pm$15, and 113$\pm$14d for the H$\beta$, H$\alpha$, and H$\gamma$ broad emission-lines, respectively. The reverberation mass of the central black hole equals to (1.87$\pm$0.26)$\times10^9\,M_\odot$ and (2.81$\pm$0.38)$\times10^9\,M_\odot$, for the H$\beta$ and H$\alpha$ lines and assuming a scaling factor that converts the virial product to a mass to be f=5.5. A difference between both masses can point to a difference between kinematics of the H$\alpha$ and H$\beta$ emission regions. We show that the reverberation mapping can only be applied to the entire period of observations of the 3C390.3 nucleus after removing a long-term trend. This trend has been expressed by a slowly varying scalefactor c(t) in the power-law relationship between the line and continuum fluxes: $F_{line}\propto c(t)\,F_{cont}^a$. We find the power-law index $a$ equals to 0.77 and 0.54 for the H$\beta$ and H$\alpha$ lines, respectively. The observed relationship between the Balmer decrement and the optical continuum flux is as follows: $F(H\alpha)/F(H\beta) \propto F_{cont}^{-0.20}$ and $F(H\beta)/F(H\gamma) \propto F_{cont}^{-0.18}$. The 3C390.3 nucleus is an "outsider" in the relationship between optical luminosity and black hole mass. Its Eddington ratio is $E_{bol}/E_{Edd}$ = 0.0037.