2025/11/24 by Rachana, Vivek, M., Shen, Yue
#Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #FOS: Physical sciences
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2511.19587
Narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLSy1s) are a subclass of active galactic nuclei (AGNs), commonly associated with rapidly accreting, relatively low-mass black holes (106 - 108 M_\odot) hosted in spiral galaxies. Although typically considered to have high Eddington ratios, recent observations, particularly of γ-ray-emitting NLSy1s, have raised questions about their true black hole masses, with some estimates approaching those of Broad-line Seyfert 1 (BLSy1) systems. In this work, we present the recalibrated mass estimations for a large sample of NLSy1s galaxies with z <0.8. We apply the damped random walk (DRW) formalism to a comparison set of 1,141 NLSy1 and 1,143 BLSy1 galaxies, matched in redshift and bolometric luminosity using SDSS DR17 spectroscopy. Our analysis employs a multivariate calibration that incorporates both the Eddington ratio and the rest-frame wavelength to refine the mass estimates. We obtain median DRW-based black hole masses of log(MBHDRW/M_\odot) = 6.25 ± 0.65 for NLSy1s and 7.07 ± 0.67 for BLSy1s, in agreement with their respective virial mass distributions. Furthermore, we identify strong inverse trends between the variability amplitude and both optical luminosity and FeII emission strength, consistent with a scenario where higher accretion rates suppress long-term optical variability. These findings reinforce the view that NLSy1s harbor smaller black holes and highlight the value of variability-based approaches in tracing AGN accretion properties.