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American Astronomical Society, Astrophysical Journal, 2(948), p. 85, 2023

DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/acc45a

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AGN STORM 2. II. Ultraviolet Observations of Mrk 817 with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope*

Journal article published in 2023 by Y. Homayouni ORCID, Gisella De Rosa ORCID, Rachel Plesha ORCID, Gerard A. Kriss ORCID, Aaron J. Barth ORCID, Edward M. Cackett ORCID, Keith Horne ORCID, Erin A. Kara ORCID, Hermine Landt, Nahum Arav ORCID, Benjamin D. Boizelle ORCID, Misty C. Bentz ORCID, Thomas G. Brink ORCID, Michael S. Brotherton ORCID, Doron Chelouche and other authors.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Abstract We present reverberation mapping measurements for the prominent ultraviolet broad emission lines of the active galactic nucleus Mrk 817 using 165 spectra obtained with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. Our ultraviolet observations are accompanied by X-ray, optical, and near-infrared observations as part of the AGN Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Program 2 (AGN STORM 2). Using the cross-correlation lag analysis method, we find significant correlated variations in the continuum and emission-line light curves. We measure rest-frame delayed responses between the far-ultraviolet continuum at 1180 Å and Lyα λ1215 Å ( 10.4 − 1.4 + 1.6 days), N v λ1240 Å ( 15.5 − 4.8 + 1.0 days), Si iv + ]O iv λ1397 Å ( 8.2 − 1.4 + 1.4 days), C iv λ1549 Å ( 11.8 − 2.8 + 3.0 days), and He ii λ1640 Å ( 9.0 − 1.9 + 4.5 days) using segments of the emission-line profile that are unaffected by absorption and blending, which results in sampling different velocity ranges for each line. However, we find that the emission-line responses to continuum variations are more complex than a simple smoothed, shifted, and scaled version of the continuum light curve. We also measure velocity-resolved lags for the Lyα and C iv emission lines. The lag profile in the blue wing of Lyα is consistent with virial motion, with longer lags dominating at lower velocities, and shorter lags at higher velocities. The C iv lag profile shows the signature of a thick rotating disk, with the shortest lags in the wings, local peaks at ±1500 km s−1, and a local minimum at the line center. The other emission lines are dominated by broad absorption lines and blending with adjacent emission lines. These require detailed models, and will be presented in future work.