We have decomposed the broad Hα, Hβ and Hγ lines of
90 Active Galactic
Nuclei (AGNs) into a superposition of a very broad and
an intermediate Gaussian
components and discovered that the two Gaussian
components evolve with
FWHM of the whole emission lines. We suggest that the
Very Broad Gaussian
Component (VBGC) and the Inter-Mediate Gaussian
Component (IMGC) are
produced in different emission regions, namely, Very
Broad Line Region (VBLR)
and Intermediate Line Region (IMLR). The details of the
two components of Hα,
Hβ and Hγ lines indicate that IMLR has a flattened
geometry, is more dense and
dusty compared to VBLR. Our results indicates that the
radius obtained from
the emission line reverberation mapping normally
corresponds to the radius of
the VBLR, but the radius obtained from the infrared
reverberation mapping
corresponding to IMLR, i.e., the inner boundary of the
dusty torus. The existence
of the IMGC may affect the measurement of the black
hole mass in AGNs.
Therefore, the deviation of NLS1s from the M-sigma
relation may be explained
naturally in this way. The evolution of the two emission
line regions may be
related to the evolutionary stages of the broad line
regions of AGNs from NLS1s
to BLS1s. Based on the results presented here, a
unified picture of hierarchical
evolution of black hole, dust torus and galaxy is
proposed.Re-examination of
the reverberation mapping data provide supportive
evidence for our model. |