Bibcode
DOI
Wanders, I.; Peterson, B. M.; Alloin, D.; Ayres, T. R.; Clavel, J.; Crenshaw, D. M.; Horne, K.; Kriss, G. A.; Krolik, J. H.; Malkan, M. A.; Netzer, H.; O'Brien, P. T.; Reichert, G. A.; Rodriguez-Pascual, P. M.; Wamsteker, W.; Alexander, T.; Anderson, K. S. J.; Benitez, E.; Bochkarev, N. G.; Burenkov, A. N.; Cheng, F.-Z.; Collier, S. J.; Comastri, A.; Dietrich, M.; Dultzin-Hacyan, D.; Espey, B. R.; Filippenko, A. V.; Gaskell, C. M.; George, I. M.; Goad, M. R.; Ho, L. C.; Kaspi, S.; Kollatschny, W.; Korista, K. T.; Laor, A.; MacAlpine, G. M.; Mignoli, M.; Morris, S. L.; Nandra, K.; Penton, S.; Pogge, R. W.; Ptak, R. L.; Rodriguez-Espinosa, J. M.; Santos-Lleo, M.; Shapovalova, A. I.; Shull, J. M.; Snedden, S. A.; Sparke, L. S.; Stirpe, G. M.; Sun, W.-H.; Turner, T. J.; Ulrich, M.-H.; Wang, T.-G.; Wei, C.; Welsh, W. F.; Xue, S.-J.; Zou, Z.-L.
Bibliographical reference
Astrophysical Journal v.113, p.69
Advertised on:
11
1997
Citations
172
Refereed citations
146
Description
From 1996 June 10 to July 29, the International Ultraviolet Explorer
monitored the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 7469 continuously in an attempt to
measure time delays between the continuum and emission-line fluxes. From
the time delays, one can estimate the size of the region dominating the
production of the UV emission lines in this source. We find the strong
UV emission lines to respond to continuum variations with time delays of
about 2.d3-3.d1 for Ly alpha , 2.d7 for C IV lambda 1549, 1.d9-2.d4 for
N V lambda 1240, 1.d7-1.d8 for Si IV lambda 1400, and 0.d7-1.d0 for He
II lambda 1640. The most remarkable result, however, is the detection of
apparent time delays between the different UV continuum bands. With
respect to the UV continuum flux at 1315 A, the flux at 1485 A, 1740 A,
and 1825 A lags with time delays of 0.d21, 0.d35, and 0.d28,
respectively. Determination of the significance of this detection is
somewhat problematic since it depends on accurate estimation of the
uncertainties in the lag measurements, which are difficult to assess. We
attempt to estimate the uncertainties in the time delays through Monte
Carlo simulations, and these yield estimates of ~0.d07 for the 1 sigma
uncertainties in the interband continuum time delays. Possible
explanations for the delays include the existence of a continuum-flux
reprocessing region close to the central source and/or a contamination
of the continuum flux with a very broad time-delayed emission feature
such as the Balmer continuum or merged Fe II multiplets.