Using Multiwavelength Observations to Estimate the Black Hole Masses and Accretion Rates in Seyfert Galaxies

Abstract

We model the spectral energy distribution of the type 1 Seyfert galaxies, fitting data from simultaneous optical, UV, and X-ray monitoring observations. We assume a geometry consisting of a hot central Comptonizing region surrounded by a thin accretion disk. The properties of the disk and the hot central region are determined by the feedback occurring between the hot Comptonizing region and thermal reprocessing in the disk that, along with viscous dissipation, provides the seed photons for the Comptonization process. The constraints imposed upon this model by existing multiwavelength data allow us to derive limits on the central black hole mass, the accretion rate, and the radius of the transition region between the thin outer disk and the geometrically thick, hot inner region in these objects.