Calibration of AGN Reverberation Distance Measurements

Shintaro Koshida, Yuzuru Yoshii, Yukiyasu Kobayashi, Takeo Minezaki, Keigo Enya, Masahiro Suganuma, Hiroyuki Tomita, Tsutomu Aoki, Bruce A. Peterson

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    9 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    In Yoshii et al., we described a new method for measuring extragalactic distances based on dust reverberation in active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and we validated our new method with Cepheid variable stars. In this Letter, we validate our new method with Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) that occurred in two of the AGN host galaxies during our AGN monitoring program: SN 2004bd in NGC 3786 and SN 2008ec in NGC 7469. Their multicolor light curves were observed and analyzed using two widely accepted methods for measuring SN distances, and the distance moduli derived are m = 33.47 ± 0.15 for SN 2004bd and 33.83±0.07 for SN 2008ec. These results are used to obtain independently the distance measurement calibration factor, g. The g value obtained from the SN Ia discussed in this Letter is gSN = 10.61 ± 0.50, which matches, within the range of 1? uncertainty, gDUST = 10.60, previously calculated ab initio in Yoshii et al. Having validated our new method for measuring extragalactic distances, we use our new method to calibrate reverberation distances derived from variations of H? emission in the AGN broad-line region, extending the Hubble diagram to z " 0.3 where distinguishing between cosmologies is becoming possible.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article numberL13
    JournalAstrophysical Journal Letters
    Volume842
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 20 Jun 2017

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