No Arabic abstract
We compile a large sample of 120 Seyfert 2 galaxies (Sy2s) which contains 49 hidden broad-line region (HBLR) Sy2s and 71 non-HBLR Sy2s. From the difference in the power sources between two groups, we test if HBLR Sy2s are dominated by active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and if non-HBLR Sy2s are dominated by starbursts. We show that: (1) HBLR Sy2s have larger accretion rates than non-HBLR Sy2s; (2) HBLR Sy2s have larger Nev $lambda 14.32$/Neii $lambda 12.81$ and oiv $lambda 25.89$/Neii $lambda 12.81$ line ratios than non-HBLR Sy2s; (3) HBLR Sy2s have smaller $IRAS$ $f_{60}/f_{25}$ flux ratio which shows the relative strength of the host galaxy and nuclear emission than non-HBLR Sy2s. So we suggest that HBLR Sy2s and non-HBLR Sy2s are AGN-dominated and starburst-dominated, respectively. In addition, non-HBLR Sy2s can be classified into the luminous ($L_{rm [O III]}>10^{41} rm ergs s^{-1}$) and less luminous ($L_{rm [O III]}<10^{41} rm ergs s^{-1}$) samples, when considering only their obscuration. We suggest that: (1) the invisibility of polarized broad lines (PBLs) in the luminous non-HBLR Sy2s depends on the obscuration; (2) the invisibility of PBLs in the less luminous non-HBLR Sy2s depends on the very low Eddington ratio rather than the obscuration.
Using a large sample of 90 Seyfert 2 galaxies (Sy2s) with spectropolarimetric observations, we tested the suggestion that the presence of hidden broad-line regions (HBLRs) in Sy2s is dependent upon the Eddington ratio. The stellar velocity dispersion and the extinction-corrected $OIII$ luminosity are used to derive the mass of central super-massive black holes and the Eddington ratio. We found that: (1) below the Eddington ratio threshold of $10^{-1.37}$, all but one object belong to non-HBLRs Sy2s; while at higher Eddington ratio, there is no obvious discrimination in the Eddington ratio and black hole mass distributions for Sy2s with and without HBLRs; (2) nearly all low-luminosity Sy2s (e.g., $LOIII < 10^{41} ergs$) do not show HBLRs regardless of the column density of neutral hydrogen ($N_{rm H}$); (3) for high-luminosity Sy2s, the possibility to detect HBLRs Sy2s is almost the same as that of non-HBLRs Sy2s; (4) when considering only Compton-thin Sy2s with higher $OIII$ luminosity ($>10^{41} ergs$), we find a very high detectability of HBLRs ,$sim$ 85%. These results suggested that AGN luminosity plays a major role in not detecting HBLRs in low-luminosity Sy2s, while for high-luminosity Sy2s, the detectability of HBLRs depends not only upon the AGN activity, but also upon the torus obscuration.
The hidden broad-line regions (BLRs) in Seyfert 2 galaxies, which display broad emission lines (BELs) in their polarized spectra, are a key piece of evidence in support of the unified model for active galactic nuclei (AGNs). However, the detailed kinematics and geometry of hidden BLRs are still not fully understood. The virial factor obtained from reverberation mapping of type 1 AGNs may be a useful diagnostic of the nature of hidden BLRs in type 2 objects. In order to understand the hidden BLRs, we compile six type 2 objects from the literature with polarized BELs and dynamical measurements of black hole masses. All of them contain pseudobulges. We estimate their virial factors, and find the average value is 0.60 and the standard deviation is 0.69, which agree well with the value of type 1 AGNs with pseudobulges. This study demonstrates that (1) the geometry and kinematics of BLR are similar in type 1 and type 2 AGNs of the same bulge type (pseudobulges), and (2) the small values of virial factors in Seyfert 2 galaxies suggest that, similar to type 1 AGNs, BLRs tend to be very thick disks in type 2 objects.
Narrow-line Seyfert,1 galaxies (NLS1s) with very small broad-line widths (say, FWHM(hb) $la $ 1200,kms) represent the extreme type of Seyfert,1 galaxies that have small black hole masses (mbh) and/or high Eddington ratios (redd). Here we study the X-ray properties of a homogeneously and optically selected sample of 13 such objects, termed as very narrow line Seyfert,1 galaxies (VNLS1s), using archival xmm data. It is found that the Fe K$alpha$ emission line is at most weak in these objects. A soft X-ray excess is ubiquitous, with the thermal temperatures falling within a strict range of 0.1--0.2,keV. Our result highlights the puzzling independence of the thermal temperature by extending the relations to even smaller FWHM(hb), i.e., smaller mbh ($sim 10^6$ msun) and/or higher redd. The excess emission can be modeled by a range of viable models, though the disk reflection and Comptonization models generally give somewhat better fits over the smeared absorption and the $p$-free models. At the Eddington ratios around unity and above, the X-ray spectral slopes in the 2--10,keV band are systematically flatter than the Risaliti et al.s predictions of the relationship with redd suggested previously. Short timescale (1--2 hours) X-ray variability is common, which, together with the variability amplitude computed for some of the objects, are supportive of the scenario that NLS1s are indeed AGN with relatively small mbh.
Many Seyfert galaxies are known to exhibit significant X-ray spectral variations and seemingly broad iron K-emission line features. In this paper, we show that the variable partial covering model, which has been successfully proposed for MCG-6.30-15 (Miyakawa, Ebisawa & Inoue 2012) and 1H0707.495 (Mizumoto, Ebisawa & Sameshima 2014), can also explain the spectral variations in 2-10 keV as well as the broad iron line features in 20 other Seyfert galaxies observed with Suzaku. In this model, the absorbed spectral component through the optically-thick absorbing clouds has a significant iron K-edge, which primarily accounts for the observed seemingly broad iron line feature. Fluctuation of the absorbing clouds in the line of sight of the extended X-ray source results in variation of the partial covering fraction, which causes an anti-correlation between the direct (not covered) spectral component and the absorbed (covered) spectral component below ~10 keV. Observed spectral variation in 2-10 keV in a timescale of less than ~day is primarily explained by such variations of the partial covering fraction, while the intrinsic soft X-ray luminosity is hardly variable.
We studied optical variability (OV) of a large sample of narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLSy1) and broad-line Seyfert 1 (BLSy1) galaxies with z<0.8 to investigate any differences in their OV properties. Using archival optical V-band light curves from the Catalina Real Time Transient Survey that span 5-9 years and modeling them using damped random walk, we estimated the amplitude of variability. We found NLSy1 galaxies as a class show lower amplitude of variability than their broad-line counterparts. In the sample of both NLSy1 and BLSy1 galaxies, radio-loud sources are found to have higher variability amplitude than radio-quiet sources. Considering only sources that are detected in the X-ray band, NLSy1 galaxies are less optically variable than BLSy1 galaxies. The amplitude of variability in the sample of both NLSy1 and BLSy1 galaxies is found to be anti-correlated with Fe II strength but correlated with the width of the H-beta line. The well-known anti-correlation of variability-luminosity and the variability-Eddington ratio is present in our data. Among the radio-loud sample, variability amplitude is found to be correlated with radio-loudness and radio-power suggesting jets also play an important role in the OV in radio-loud objects, in addition to the Eddington ratio, which is the main driving factor of OV in radio-quiet sources.