Accretion disk wind in the AGN broad-line region: Spectroscopically resolved line profile variations in Mrk 110^*

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

Corresponding author: wkollat@uni-sw.gwdg.de

Received: 1 April 2003
Accepted: 12 June 2003

Abstract

Detailed line profile variability studies of the narrow line Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 110 are presented. We obtained the spectra in a variability campaign carried out with the 9.2 m Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory. The integrated Balmer and helium (He i, ii) emission lines are delayed by 3 to 33 light days to the optical continuum variations respectively. The outer wings of the line profiles respond much faster to continuum variations than the central regions. The comparison of the observed profile variations with model calculations of different velocity fields indicates an accretion disk structure of the broad line emitting region in Mrk 110. Comparing the velocity-delay maps of the different emission lines among each other a clear radial stratification in the BLR can be recognized. Furthermore, delays of the red line wings are slightly shorter than those of the blue wings. This indicates an accretion disk wind in the BLR of Mrk 110. We determine a central black hole mass of . Because of the poorly known inclination angle of the accretion disk this is a lower limit only.