BASS. XXV. DR2 Broad-line-based Black Hole Mass Estimates and Biases from Obscuration
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Date
2022
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Abstract
We present measurements of broad emission lines and virial estimates of supermassive black hole masses (M _{BH} ) for a large sample of ultrahard X-ray-selected active galactic nuclei (AGNs) as part of the second data release of the BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey (BASS/DR2). Our catalog includes M _{BH} estimates for a total of 689 AGNs, determined from the Hα, Hβ, Mg II λ2798, and/or C_{IV} λ1549 broad emission lines. The core sample includes a total of 512 AGNs drawn from the 70 month Swift/BAT all-sky catalog. We also provide measurements for 177 additional AGNs that are drawn from deeper Swift/BAT survey data. We study the links between M _{BH} estimates and line-of-sight obscuration measured from X-ray spectral analysis. We find that broad Hα emission lines in obscured AGNs (Log(N_{H} / cm^{-2} > 22.0) are on average a factor of 8.0_{-2.4}^{+4.1} weaker relative to ultrahard X-ray emission and about 35_{-12}^{,+7} % narrower than those in unobscured sources (i.e.(Log(N_{H} / cm^{-2} > 21.5). This indicates that the innermost part of the broad-line region is preferentially absorbed. Consequently, current single-epoch M _{BH} prescriptions result in severely underestimated (>1 dex) masses for Type 1.9 sources (AGNs with broad Hα but no broad Hβ) and/or sources with Log(N_{H} / cm^{-2} >= 22.0 . We provide simple multiplicative corrections for the observed luminosity and width of the broad Hα component (LbHα and FWHMbHα) in such sources to account for this effect and to (partially) remedy M _{BH} estimates for Type 1.9 objects. As a key ingredient of BASS/DR2, our work provides the community with the data needed to further study powerful AGNs in the low-redshift universe.