REVERBERATION MAPPING OF THE KEPLER-FIELD AGN KA1858+4850

KA1858+4850 is a narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy at redshift 0.078 and is among the brightest active galaxies monitored by the Kepler mission. We have carried out a reverberation mapping campaign designed to measure the broad-line region size and estimate the mass of the black hole in this galaxy. We obtained 74 epochs of spectroscopic data using the Kast Spectrograph at the Lick 3 m telescope from 2012 February to November, and obtained complementary V-band images from five other ground-based telescopes. We measured the Hβ light curve lag with respect to the V-band continuum light curve using both cross-correlation techniques (CCF) and continuum light curve variability modeling with the JAVELIN method and found rest-frame lags of τ{sub CCF}=13.53{sub −2.32}{sup +2.03} days and τ {sub JAVELIN} =13.15{sub −1.00}{sup +1.08} days. The Hβ rms line profile has a width of σ{sub line} = 770 ± 49 km s{sup –1}. Combining these two results and assuming a virial scale factor of f = 5.13, we obtained a virial estimate of M{sub BH}=8.06{sub −1.72}{sup +1.59}×10{sup 6}M{sub ⊙} for the mass of the central black hole and an Eddington ratio of L/L {sub Edd} ≈ 0.2. We also obtained consistent but slightly shorter emission-line lags withmore » respect to the Kepler light curve. Thanks to the Kepler mission, the light curve of KA1858+4850 has among the highest cadences and signal-to-noise ratios ever measured for an active galactic nucleus; thus, our black hole mass measurement will serve as a reference point for relations between black hole mass and continuum variability characteristics in active galactic nuclei.« less