SIMBAD references

Models of active galactic nuclei (AGN) often invoke a close physical association between the broad-line region (BLR) and the accretion disk. We evaluate this theoretical expectation by investigating the relationship between the inclination angle of the BLR (θ_BLR) and the inclination angle of the inner accretion disk (θ_disk). For a sample of eight AGN that have published values of θ_BLR estimated from dynamical modeling of the BLR based on velocity-resolved reverberation mapping experiments, we analyze high-quality, joint XMM-Newton and NuSTAR X-ray observations to derive new, robust measurements of θ_disk through broadband (0.3-78 keV) reflection spectroscopy. Mock spectra demonstrate that the results are generally not strongly affected by warm absorbers or the model used to fit the soft-band data. We find a strong, positive correlation between θ_BLR and θ_disk (Pearson correlation coefficient 0.856, p-value 0.007), although Monte Carlo simulations indicate that the level of significance is only marginal (<3σ). Nevertheless, the nearly linear relation between θ_BLR and θ_disk suggests a possible physical alignment between the accretion disk and the BLR. Future studies with a larger and more homogeneous sample are needed to confirm the correlation and refine our understanding of the structure and dynamics of the central regions of active galaxies.