Kavli Affiliate: Luis C. Ho
| First 5 Authors: Rong Du, Luis C. Ho, Yuanze Ding, Ruancun Li,
| Summary:
Models of active galactic nuclei often invoke a close physical association
between the broad-line region and the accretion disk. We evaluate this
theoretical expectation by investigating the relationship between the
inclination angle of the BLR ($theta_mathrm{BLR}$) and the inclination angle
of the inner accretion disk ($theta_mathrm{disk}$). For a sample of eight
active galactic nuclei that have published values of $theta_mathrm{BLR}$
estimated from dynamical modeling of the BLR based on velocity-resolved
reverberation mapping experiments, we analyze high-quality, joint XMM-Newton
and NuSTAR X-ray observations to derive new, robust measurements of
$theta_mathrm{disk}$ through broadband (0.3–78,keV) reflection
spectroscopy. We find a strong, positive correlation between
$theta_mathrm{BLR}$ and $theta_mathrm{disk}$ (Pearson correlation
coefficient 0.856, $p$-value 0.007), although Monte Carlo simulations indicate
that the level of significance is only marginal ($<3,sigma$). Nevertheless,
the nearly linear relation between $theta_mathrm{BLR}$ and
$theta_mathrm{disk}$ suggests of a possible physical alignment between the
accretion disk and the BLR. Future studies with a larger and more homogeneous
sample are needed to confirm the correlation and refine our understanding of
the structure and dynamics of the central regions of active galaxies.
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