Related papers: Advances in Reverberation Mapping
We aim to investigate the relationship between radio jet activity on parsec-scales and the characteristics of both the bright active galactic nuclei (AGN) and their broad line regions (BLR). For this purpose, we combine 2cm Very Long…
We present a new release of the RELTRANS model to fit the complex cross-spectrum of accreting black holes as a function of energy. The model accounts for continuum lags and reverberation lags self-consistently in order to consider the…
We calculate the time- and energy-dependent opacity of high-energy gamma-rays attenuated by pair production interaction with accretion-flare photons that are scattered by gas and dust surrounding thenuclei of active galaxies. We show that…
This work focuses on active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and the relation between the sizes of the hot dust continuum and the broad-line region (BLR). We find that the continuum size measured using optical/near-infrared interferometry (OI) is…
I review the current status of X-ray reflection (a.k.a. broad iron line) based black hole spin measurements. This is a powerful technique that allows us to measure robust black hole spins across the mass range, from the stellar-mass black…
Robust extragalactic distance measurements are crucial for resolving the persistent discrepancy in the value of the Hubble constant (H$_0$)). Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs), through their compact and variable broad-line regions (BLRs),…
By using the GRAVITY instrument with the near-infrared (NIR) Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), the structure of the broad (emission-)line region (BLR) in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) can be spatially resolved, allowing the…
Black hole (BH) mass of Type I active galactic nuclei (AGN) can be measured or estimated through either reverberation mapping (RM) or empirical $R-L$ relation, however, both of them suffer from uncertainties of the virial factor ($f_{\rm…
The broad line region (BLR) size-luminosity relation has paramount importance for estimating the mass of black holes in active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Traditionally, the size of the H$\beta$ BLR is often estimated from the optical continuum…
The X-ray properties of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) depend on their underlying physical parameters, particularly the accretion rate. We identified eight reverberation-mapped AGNs with some of the largest known accretion rates without…
A new technique is presented for determining the black-hole masses of high-redshift quasars from optical spectroscopy. The new method utilizes the full-width half maximum (FWHM) of the low-ionization MgII emission line and the correlation…
According to the standard paradigm, the strong and compact luminosity of active galactic nuclei (AGN) is due to multi-temperature black body emission originating from an accretion disk formed around a supermassive black hole. This central…
Probably the most fundamental characteristic of the quasar-AGN power house, the mass of the central black hole, is the least well known. I review the three main classes of mass estimation methods---broad emission-line kinematics, X-ray…
The applicability and apparent uncertainties of the techniques currently available for measuring or estimating black-hole masses in AGNs are briefly summarized.
The broad X-ray iron line seen in the spectra of many AGN is thought to originate from the inner regions of the putative black hole accretion disk, and hence provides a rare probe of that central region. In principle, future high throughput…
Intensity interferometry is a technique developed many decades ago, that has recently enjoyed a renaissance thanks in part to advances in photodetector technology. We investigate the potential for long-baseline optical intensity…
Accretion onto supermassive black holes (SMBHs) powers active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and drives feedback that shapes galaxy evolution. Constraining AGN accretion disk structure is therefore essential for understanding black hole growth and…
We show that Massive Black Holes of AGNs follow the same approximately linear relation with the luminosity of the host spheroid (bulge) found in normal (quiescent) galaxies, with the black hole mass being ~0.002 that of the bulge. We also…
Black Hole Mass (M_BH) estimation in quasars, especially at high redshift, involves use of single epoch spectra with s/n and resolution that permit accurate measurement of the width of a broad line assumed to be a reliable virial estimator.…
Using different kinds of velocity tracers derived from the broad H$\beta$ profile (in the mean or rms spectrum) and the corresponding virial factors $f$, the central supermassive black hole (SMBH) masses ($M_{\rm BH}$) are calculated for a…