Search for Intermediate-mass Black Holes at Low Redshift with Intra-night Variability

We present a sample of intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) candidates based on the detection of a broad H α emission line and variability, which are selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7. By performing spectral decomposition of emission lines as well as a visual inspection, we in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astronomical journal 2022-02, Vol.163 (2), p.73
Main Authors: Shin, Lael, Woo, Jong-Hak, Son, Donghoon, Cho, Hojin, Kim, Taewoo, Gallo, Elena, Kang, Wonseok
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astronomy
Black holes
Emission lines
Galaxies
H alpha line
Inspection
Intermediate-mass black holes
Low-luminosity active galactic nuclei
Night
Optical properties
Red shift
Sky surveys (astronomy)
Target detection
Telescopes
Variability
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Summary:We present a sample of intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) candidates based on the detection of a broad H α emission line and variability, which are selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7. By performing spectral decomposition of emission lines as well as a visual inspection, we initially identified 131 targets with a broad H α line among a large sample of emission line galaxies. We further selected 25 IMBH candidates whose estimated black hole mass ( M BH ) is less than 10 6 M ⊙ . To constrain the nature of these candidates, we analyzed X-ray properties and performed an intra-night variability monitoring campaign with optical telescopes. Based on the optical variability analysis, we report a sample of 11 targets with detected intra-night variability as the best IMBH candidates, which are suitable for follow-up observations for accurate M BH determination such as reverberation mapping campaigns.
ISSN:0004-6256
1538-3881
DOI:10.3847/1538-3881/ac4038