Letter to the Editor

Geometry and kinematics in the central broad-line region of a Seyfert 1 galaxy

¹ Universitäts-Sternwarte Göttingen, Geismarlandstraße 11, 37083 Göttingen, Germany
² Department of Astronomy and McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA

Corresponding author: W. Kollatschny, wkollat@uni-sw.gwdg.de

Received: 9 February 2002
Accepted: 13 March 2002

Abstract

We recorded spectra of the highly variable Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 110 in a variability campaign with the 9.2 m Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory in order to study the detailed line profile variations of the broad emission lines. Here we show that only an AGN model predicting the formation of the broad Hβ line emission in the wind of an accretion disk matches the observed 2-D variability pattern. Furthermore, we derive an improved mass of the central supermassive black hole of from the Hβ velocity-delay map.