AGN Continuum Reverberation Mapping Based on Zwicky Transient Facility Light Curves

TL;DR

This study uses Zwicky Transient Facility light curves to measure AGN continuum lags, revealing larger-than-expected emission regions and a significant diffuse BLR contribution, challenging standard accretion disk models.

Contribution

First systematic survey of AGN continuum lags with high-cadence data, demonstrating larger emission regions and BLR influence on lag measurements.

Findings

AGN continuum sizes exceed standard thin disk predictions

CE size scales with luminosity as R ∝ L^{0.48}

Diffuse BLR emission contributes significantly to continuum lags

Abstract

We perform a systematic survey of active galactic nucleus (AGN) continuum lags using $\sim$3 day cadence $gri$-band light curves from the Zwicky Transient Facility. We select a sample of 94 type 1 AGN at $z<0.8$ with significant and consistent inter-band lags based on the interpolated cross-correlation function method and the Bayesian method JAVELIN. Within the framework of the lamp-post reprocessing model, our findings are: 1) The continuum emission (CE) sizes inferred from the data are larger than the disk sizes predicted by the standard thin disk model; 2) For a subset of the sample, the CE size exceeds the theoretical limit of the self-gravity radius (12 lt-days) for geometrically thin disks; 3) The CE size scales with continuum luminosity as $R_{\mathrm{CE}} \propto L^{0.48\pm0.04}$ with a scatter of 0.2 dex, analogous to the well-known radius-luminosity relation of broad H$\mathrm{\beta}$. These findings suggest a significant contribution of diffuse continuum emission from the broad-line region (BLR) to AGN continuum lags. We find that the $R_{\mathrm{CE}}-L$ relation can be explained by a photoionization model that assumes $\sim$23% of the total flux comes from the diffuse BLR emission. In addition, the ratio of the CE size and model-predicted disk size anti-correlates with the continuum luminosity, indicative of a potential non-disk BLR lag contribution evolving with luminosity. Finally, a robust positive correlation between CE size and black hole mass is detected.