Estimates of AGN Black Hole Mass and Minimum Variability Timescale

Black hole mass is one of the fundamental physical parameters of active galactic nuclei （AGNs）, for which many methods of estimation have been proposed. One set of methods assumes that the broad-line region （BLR） is gravitationally bound by the central black hole potential, so the black hole mass can be estimated from the orbital radius and the Doppler velocity. Another set of methods assumes the observed variability timescale is determined by the orbital timescale near the innermost stable orbit around the Schwarzschild black hole or the Kerr black hole, or by the characteristic timescale of the accretion disk. We collect a sample of 21 AGNs, for which the minimum variability timescales have been obtained and their black hole masses （Mσ） have been well estimated from the stellar velocity dispersion or the BLR size-luminosity relation. Using the minimum variability timescales we estimated the black hole masses for 21 objects by the three different methods, the results are denoted by Ms, Mk and Md,respectively. We compared each of them with Mσ individually and found that： （1） using the minimum variability timescale with the Kerr black hole theory leads to small differences between Mσ and Mk, none exceeding one order of magnitude, and the mean difference between them is about 0.53 dex; （2） using the minimum variability timescale with the Schwarzschild black hole theory leads to somewhat larger difference between Mσ and Ms： larger than one order of magnitude for 6 of the 21 sources, and the mean difference is 0.74 dex; （3） using the minimum variability timescale with the accretion disk theory leads to much larger differences between Mσ and Md, for 13 of the 21 sources the differences are larger than two orders of magnitude; and the mean difference is as high as about 2.01 dex.

A Periodicity Analysis of the Light Curve of 3C 454.3

We analyzed the radio light curves of 3C 454.3 at frequencies 22 and 37 GHz taken from the database of Metsaeovi Radio Observatory, and found evidence of quasi-periodic activity. The light curves show great activity with very complicated non-sinusoidal variations. Two possible periods, a very weak one of 1.57 ± 0.12 yr and a very strong one of 6.15 ±0.50 yr were consistently identified by two methods, the Jurkevich method and power specmun estimation. The period of 6.15 ± 0.50 yr is consistent with results previously reported by Ciaramella et al. and Webb et al. Applying the binary black hole model to the central structure we found black hole masses of 1.53 × 10^9M⊙ and 1.86 × 10^8M⊙, and predicted that the next radio outburst is to take place in 2006 March and April.

Quasi-periodic Oscillation Analysis for the BL Lacertae Object 1823+568

We studied the optical band periodic variability of 1823+568 using the Jurkevich method,the Lomb-Scargle periodogram and the REDFIT38 software,and found evidence of quasi-periodic oscillation.An unprecedented variability with period P=283^(+17)_(-13) days was identified by three different analysis methods.This quasi-periodic variability most likely results from nonballistic helical jet motion driven by the orbital motion in a binary black hole system.Considering the light-travel time effect,the real physical period is P_(d)=67.1 yr.Moreover,we estimated that the primary black hole mass is M■1.92×10^(9) M_(⊙)to 3.43×10^(9) M_(⊙).

The broadband spectral energy distributions of SDSS blazars

We compiled the radio, optical and X-ray data of blazars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey database, and presented the distribution of luminosities and broadband spectral indices. The distribution of luminosities shows that the averaged luminosity of flat spectrum radio quasars（FSRQs） is larger than that of BL Lacertae（BL Lac） objects. On the other hand, the broadband spectral energy distribution reveals that FSRQs and low energy peaked BL Lac objects have similar spectral properties,but high energy peaked BL Lac objects have a distinct spectral property. This may be due to the fact that different subclasses of blazars have different intrinsic environments and are at different cooling levels. Even so, a unified scheme is also revealed from the color-color diagram, which hints that there are similar physical processes operating in all objects under a range of intrinsic physical conditions or beaming parameters.

The spectral properties of Fermi blazars:the spectral sequence and unification of blazars

Using a large sample of blazars of the Fermi observations presented by Abdo et al., we constructed a sample of blazars including high energy peaked BL Lac objects （HBLs）, low energy peaked BL Lac objects （LBLs） and flat-spectral ra- dio quasars （FSRQs）. These unique characteristics make it possible to unambiguously address the question of how HBLs, LBLs and FSRQs are related. In this paper, we investigated the relationship between X-ray and 7-ray spectral indices （~^-aT）, as well as the relationship between the broadband spectral indices （~ro--ar~, ~ro--~ox, OZro--O^x7 and ~r^-~xT） for this sample. The color-color diagram shows that there is a significant correlation between both quantities when all three subclasses of blazars are considered, which suggests that there is a unified scheme for blazars. On the other hand, the a^-~7 diagram reveals that three kinds of blazars have different spectral energy distributions： the trend of HBLs is different from that of FSRQs and LBLs, whereas FSRQs and LBLs have a similar trend, which hints that FSRQs and LBLs have similar spectral properties, but HBLs have distinct spectral properties. In addi- tion, the broadband energy distributions also reveal the similar spectral properties with that of the Cx-C7 diagram. The spectral properties revealed from the Fermi sample do not support the blazar sequence reported by Fossati et al. and Ghisellini et al.

Possible properties of Te V spectra in PKS 2155–304

We present a one-zone homogeneous lepton-hadronic model and obtain steady-state spectra by solving the time-dependent equations to study a plausible origin of hard TeV spectra in PKS 2155-304.In this model,we assume a steady electron and proton injection rate in the source and solve the non-linear time-dependent kinematic equations that self-consistently consist of proton-photon interaction,synchrotron radiation of electron/positron pairs and proton,inverse Compton scattering,and synchrotron self-absorption.We employ this model to reproduce the multi-wavelength spectrum of PKS 2155-304,then find that the possible bump located at E~1 TeV which may originate from the synchrotron radiation of secondary electrons produced by Bethe-Heitler pair production,resulting in the hard TeV spectrum.