Quasar black hole masses

From SDSS spectra of 615 high-redshift (1.69<z<4.75) quasars with spectra from two epochs, we estimate black hole masses using a single-epoch technique, which employs an additional, automated night-sky line removal and relies on UV continuum luminosity and CIV {lambda}1549 emission-line dispersion.

Mass estimates show variations between epochs at about the 30% level for the sample as a whole. We determine that for our full sample, measurement error in the line dispersion likely plays a larger role than the inherent variability in terms of contributing to variations in mass estimates between epochs. However, we use the variations in quasars with r-band spectral signal-to-noise ratio greater than 15 to estimate that the contribution to these variations from inherent variability is roughly 20%.