The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: Key Results

Kavli Affiliate: Linhua Jiang

| First 5 Authors: Yue Shen, Catherine J. Grier, Keith Horne, Zachary Stone, Jennifer I. Li

| Summary:

We present the final data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation
Mapping (SDSS-RM) project, a precursor to the SDSS-V Black Hole Mapper
Reverberation Mapping program. This data set includes 11-year photometric and
7-year spectroscopic light curves for 849 broad-line quasars over a redshift
range of 0.1<z<4.5 and a luminosity range of Lbol=1E44-47.5 erg/s, along with
spectral and variability measurements. We report 23, 81, 125, and 110
reverberation mapping lags (relative to optical continuum variability) for
broad Halpha, Hbeta, MgII and CIV using the SDSS-RM sample, spanning much of
the luminosity and redshift ranges of the sample. Using 30 low-redshift RM AGNs
with dynamical-modeling black hole masses, we derive a new estimate of the
average virial factor of <log f>=0.62+-0.07 for the line dispersion measured
from the RMS spectrum. The intrinsic scatter of individual virial factors is
0.31+-0.07 dex, indicating a factor of two systematic uncertainty in RM black
hole masses. Our lag measurements reveal significant R-L relations for Hbeta
and MgII at high redshift, consistent with the latest measurements based on
heterogeneous samples. While we are unable to robustly constrain the slope of
the R-L relation for CIV given the limited dynamical range in luminosity, we
found substantially larger scatter in CIV lags at fixed L1350. Using the
SDSS-RM lag sample, we derive improved single-epoch (SE) mass recipes for
Hbeta, MgII and CIV, which are consistent with their respective RM masses as
well as between the SE recipes from two different lines, over the luminosity
range probed by our sample. The new Hbeta and MgII recipes are approximately
unbiased estimators at given RM masses, but there are systematic biases in the
CIV recipe. The intrinsic scatter of SE masses around RM masses is ~0.45 dex
for Hbeta and MgII, increasing to ~0.58 dex for CIV.

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