# University of Hertfordshire

## The Performance of Photometric Reverberation Mapping at High Redshift and the Reliability of Damped Random Walk Models

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

### Standard

The Performance of Photometric Reverberation Mapping at High Redshift and the Reliability of Damped Random Walk Models. / Read, S. C.; Smith, D. J. B.; Jarvis, M. J.; Gurkan, G.

In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 20.12.2019.

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

### Bibtex

@article{98ffd404d3ee4a4ba3def76c939fd1cd,
title = "The Performance of Photometric Reverberation Mapping at High Redshift and the Reliability of Damped Random Walk Models",
abstract = " Accurate methods for reverberation mapping using photometry are highly sought after since they are inherently less resource intensive than spectroscopic techniques. However, the effectiveness of photometric reverberation mapping for estimating black hole masses is sparsely investigated at redshifts higher than $z\approx0.04$. Furthermore, photometric methods frequently assume a Damped Random Walk (DRW) model, which may not be universally applicable. We perform photometric reverberation mapping using the Javelin photometric DRW model for the QSO SDSSJ144645.44+625304.0 at z=0.351 and estimate the H$\beta$ lag of $65^{+6}_{-1}$ days and black-hole mass of $10^{8.22^{+0.13}_{-0.15}}M_{\odot}$. An analysis of the reliability of photometric reverberation mapping, conducted using many thousands of simulated CARMA process light-curves, shows that we can recover the input lag to within 6 per cent on average given our target's observed signal-to-noise of > 20 and an average cadence of 14 days (even when DRW is not applicable). Furthermore, we use our suite of simulated light curves to deconvolve aliases and artefacts from our QSO's posterior probability distribution, increasing the signal-to-noise on the lag by a factor of $\sim2.2$. We exceed the signal-to-noise of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project (SDSS-RM) campaign with a quarter of the observing time per object, resulting in a $\sim200$ per cent increase in SNR efficiency over SDSS-RM. ",
keywords = "astro-ph.GA",
author = "Read, {S. C.} and Smith, {D. J. B.} and Jarvis, {M. J.} and G. Gurkan",
year = "2019",
month = dec,
day = "20",
doi = "10.1093/mnras/stz3574",
language = "English",
journal = "Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society",
issn = "0035-8711",
publisher = "Oxford University Press",

}

### RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Performance of Photometric Reverberation Mapping at High Redshift and the Reliability of Damped Random Walk Models

AU - Smith, D. J. B.

AU - Jarvis, M. J.

AU - Gurkan, G.

PY - 2019/12/20

Y1 - 2019/12/20

N2 - Accurate methods for reverberation mapping using photometry are highly sought after since they are inherently less resource intensive than spectroscopic techniques. However, the effectiveness of photometric reverberation mapping for estimating black hole masses is sparsely investigated at redshifts higher than $z\approx0.04$. Furthermore, photometric methods frequently assume a Damped Random Walk (DRW) model, which may not be universally applicable. We perform photometric reverberation mapping using the Javelin photometric DRW model for the QSO SDSSJ144645.44+625304.0 at z=0.351 and estimate the H$\beta$ lag of $65^{+6}_{-1}$ days and black-hole mass of $10^{8.22^{+0.13}_{-0.15}}M_{\odot}$. An analysis of the reliability of photometric reverberation mapping, conducted using many thousands of simulated CARMA process light-curves, shows that we can recover the input lag to within 6 per cent on average given our target's observed signal-to-noise of > 20 and an average cadence of 14 days (even when DRW is not applicable). Furthermore, we use our suite of simulated light curves to deconvolve aliases and artefacts from our QSO's posterior probability distribution, increasing the signal-to-noise on the lag by a factor of $\sim2.2$. We exceed the signal-to-noise of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project (SDSS-RM) campaign with a quarter of the observing time per object, resulting in a $\sim200$ per cent increase in SNR efficiency over SDSS-RM.

AB - Accurate methods for reverberation mapping using photometry are highly sought after since they are inherently less resource intensive than spectroscopic techniques. However, the effectiveness of photometric reverberation mapping for estimating black hole masses is sparsely investigated at redshifts higher than $z\approx0.04$. Furthermore, photometric methods frequently assume a Damped Random Walk (DRW) model, which may not be universally applicable. We perform photometric reverberation mapping using the Javelin photometric DRW model for the QSO SDSSJ144645.44+625304.0 at z=0.351 and estimate the H$\beta$ lag of $65^{+6}_{-1}$ days and black-hole mass of $10^{8.22^{+0.13}_{-0.15}}M_{\odot}$. An analysis of the reliability of photometric reverberation mapping, conducted using many thousands of simulated CARMA process light-curves, shows that we can recover the input lag to within 6 per cent on average given our target's observed signal-to-noise of > 20 and an average cadence of 14 days (even when DRW is not applicable). Furthermore, we use our suite of simulated light curves to deconvolve aliases and artefacts from our QSO's posterior probability distribution, increasing the signal-to-noise on the lag by a factor of $\sim2.2$. We exceed the signal-to-noise of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project (SDSS-RM) campaign with a quarter of the observing time per object, resulting in a $\sim200$ per cent increase in SNR efficiency over SDSS-RM.

KW - astro-ph.GA

U2 - 10.1093/mnras/stz3574

DO - 10.1093/mnras/stz3574

M3 - Article

JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

SN - 0035-8711

ER -