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Title: Confronting a Thin Disk-wind Launching Mechanism of Broad-line Emission in Active Galactic Nuclei with GRAVITY Observations of Quasar 3C 273
Abstract

Quasars show a remarkable degree of atomic emission-line broadening, an observational feature which, in conjunction with a radial distance estimate for this emission from the nucleus, is often used to infer the mass of the central supermassive black hole. The radius estimate depends on the structure and kinematics of this so-called broad-line region, which is often modeled as a set of discrete emitting clouds. Here, we test an alternative kinematic disk-wind model of optically thick line emission originating from a geometrically thin accretion disk under Keplerian rotation around a supermassive black hole. We use this model to calculate broad emission-line profiles and interferometric phases to compare to GRAVITY data and previously published cloud modeling results. While we show that such a model can provide a statistically satisfactory fit to GRAVITY data for quasar 3C 273, we disfavor it as it requires 3C 273 be observed at high inclination, which observations of the radio jet orientation do not support.

 
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Award ID(s):
1909711
NSF-PAR ID:
10442884
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
DOI PREFIX: 10.3847
Date Published:
Journal Name:
The Astrophysical Journal
Volume:
953
Issue:
2
ISSN:
0004-637X
Format(s):
Medium: X Size: Article No. 184
Size(s):
["Article No. 184"]
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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