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Dusty origin of the Broad Line Region in active galaxies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2013

Bozena Czerny ,
Krzysztof Hryniewicz ,
Janusz Kaluzny  and
Ishita Maity
Bozena Czerny
Affiliation:
Copernicus Astronomical Center, Bartycka 18, 00-716 Warsaw, Poland email: [email protected], [email protected]
Krzysztof Hryniewicz
Affiliation:
Copernicus Astronomical Center, Bartycka 18, 00-716 Warsaw, Poland email: [email protected], [email protected]
Janusz Kaluzny
Affiliation:
Copernicus Astronomical Center, Bartycka 18, 00-716 Warsaw, Poland email: [email protected], [email protected]
Ishita Maity
Affiliation:
Copernicus Astronomical Center, Bartycka 18, 00-716 Warsaw, Poland email: [email protected], [email protected]
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Abstract

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The most characteristic property of active galaxies, including quasars, are prominent broad emission lines. I will discuss an interesting possibility that dust is responsible for this phenomenon. The dust is known to be present in quasars in the form of a dusty/molecular torus which results in complexity of the appearance of active galaxies. However, this dust is located further from the black hole than the Broad Line Region. We propose that the dust is present also closer in and it is actually responsible for formation of the broad emission lines. The argument is based on determination of the temperature of the disk atmosphere underlying the Broad Line Region: it is close to 1000 K, independently from the black hole mass and accretion rate of the object. The mechanism is simple and universal but leads to a considerable complexity of the active nucleus surrounding. The understanding the formation of BLR opens a way to use it reliably - in combination with reverberation measurement of its size - as standard candles in cosmology.

Keywords

Accretionaccretion disksBlack hole physicsCosmology
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 8 , Symposium S290: Feeding Compact Objects: Accretion on All Scales , August 2012 , pp. 21 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2013

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