Journal
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 316, Issue 1, Pages 103-106Publisher
BLACKWELL SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-8711.2000.03465.x
Keywords
line : profiles; magnetic fields; MHD; galaxies : active; galaxies : nuclei
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In this paper, we show that if the broad-line region clouds are in approximate energy equipartition between the magnetic field and gravity, as hypothesized by Rees, there will be a significant effect on the shape and smoothness of broad emission-line profiles in active galactic nuclei. Linewidths of contributing clouds or flow elements are much wider than their thermal widths, because of the presence of non-dissipative magnetohydrodynamic waves and their collective contribution produce emission-line profiles broader and smoother than would be expected if a magnetic field were not present. As an illustration, a simple model of isotropically emitting clouds, normally distributed in velocity, is used to show that smoothness can be achieved for less than similar to 8 x 10(4) clouds and may even be as low as a few hundred. We conclude that magnetic confinement has far-reaching consequences for observing and modelling active galactic nuclei.
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