The luminosity-dependent contribution from the broad line region to the wavelength-dependent lags in Mrk 110

F M Vincentelli*, I McHardy, J V Hernández Santisteban, E M Cackett, J Gelbord, Keith Horne, J A Miller, A Lobban

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We have measured the wavelength-dependent lags between the X-ray, UV and optical bands in the high accretion rate (L/LEdd≈40 per cent⁠) Active Galactic Nucleus Mrk 110 during two intensive monitoring campaigns in February and September 2019. We divide the observations into three intervals with different X-ray luminosities. The first interval, already published in Vincentelli et al. (2021), has the lowest X-ray luminosity and did not exhibit the U-band excess positive lag, or the X-ray excess negative lag that is seen in most AGN. However, these excess lags are seen in the two subsequent intervals of higher X-ray luminosity. Although the data are limited, the excess lags appear to scale with X-ray luminosity. Our modelling shows that lags expected from reprocessing of X-rays by the accretion disc vary hardly at all with increasing luminosity. Therefore, as the U-band excess almost certainly arises from Balmer continuum emission from the broad line region (BLR), we attribute these lag changes to changes in the contribution from the BLR. The change is easily explained by the usual increase in the inner radius of the BLR with increasing ionising luminosity.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages6
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
VolumeAdvance Article
Early online date29 Jan 2022
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 29 Jan 2022

Keywords

  • Galaxies: active
  • Galaxies: individual: Mrk 110
  • Accretion
  • Accretion discs

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