The Mass of the Black Hole in the Seyfert 1 Galaxy NGC 4593 from Reverberation Mapping

• Published in: The Astrophysical journal Vol. 653; no. 1; pp. 152 - 158
• Main Authors: Denney, Kelly D, Bentz, Misty C, Peterson, Bradley M, Pogge, Richard W, Cackett, Edward M, Dietrich, Matthias, Fogel, Jeffrey K. J, Ghosh, Himel, Horne, Keith D, Kuehn, Charles, Minezaki, Takeo, Onken, Christopher A, Pronik, Vladimir I, Richstone, Douglas O, Sergeev, Sergey G, Vestergaard, Marianne, Walker, Matthew G, Yoshii, Yuzuru
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chicago, IL IOP Publishing 10-12-2006; University of Chicago Press
• Subjects: Astronomy; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; Active galaxies; Seyfert galaxies; galaxies: Seyfert; Black holes; galaxies: active; Galaxy nuclei; Mapping manifolds; Cosmology; galaxies: nuclei; Seyfert 1 galaxies
• ISSN: 0004-637X; 1538-4357
• DOI: 10.1086/508533

We present new observations leading to an improved black hole mass estimate for the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 4593 as part of a reverberation-mapping campaign conducted at the MDM Observatory. Cross-correlation analysis of the Hb emission-line light curve with the optical continuum light curve reveals an emission-line time delay of t sub(cent) = 3.73 c 0.75 days. By combining this time delay with the Hb line width, we derive a central black hole mass of M sub(BH) = (9.8 c 2.1) x 10 super(6) M sub( ), an improvement in precision of a factor of several over past results.