Paper detail

Test of the Formation mechanism of the Broad Line Region in Active Galactic Nuclei

The origin of the Broad Line Region (BLR) in active galaxies remains unknown. It seems to be related to the underlying accretion disk but an efficient mechanism is required to rise the material from the disk surface without giving too strong signatures of the outflow in the case of the low ionization lines. We discuss in detail two proposed mechanisms: (i) radiation pressure acting on dust in the disk atmosphere creating a failed wind (ii) the gravitational instability of the underlying disk. We compare the predicted location of the inner radius of the BLR in those two scenarios with the observed position obtained from the reverberation studies of several active galaxies. The failed dusty outflow model well represents the observational data while the predictions of the self-gravitational instability are not consistent with observations. The issue remains why actually we do not see any imprints of the underlying disk instability in the BLR properties.