Related papers: Advances in Reverberation Mapping
By using standard broad-band VRI photometry we were able to discriminate the variations of the broad hydrogen alpha line from the continuum variations for the active galaxy Mkn 279. Cross-correlating both light curves enabled us to…
We present the first results from a high sampling rate, multi-month reverberation mapping campaign undertaken primarily at MDM Observatory with supporting observations from telescopes around the world. The primary goal of this campaign was…
For type-1 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) for which the equatorial scattering is the dominant broad line polarization mechanism, it is possible to measure the supermassive black hole mass by tracing the Keplerian motion across the…
As one of the series of papers reporting on a large reverberation mapping campaign of super-Eddington accreting massive black holes (SEAMBHs) in active galactic nuclei (AGNs), we present the results of 10 SEAMBHs monitored spectroscopically…
Massive black holes detected in the centers of many nearby galaxies are linearly correlated with the luminosity of the host bulge, the black hole mass being about 0.1% of the bulge mass. An even stronger relation exists between the BH mass…
Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) show a correlation between the size of the broad line region (BLR) and the monochromatic continuum luminosity at 5100 \AA, allowing black hole mass estimation based on single-epoch spectra. However, the…
The black-hole/accretion-disk paradigm for active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is now reasonably secure, but there are still important unresolved issues, some of which will require the capabilities of an 8 to 10-m class UV/optical space-based…
We propose a new method of estimation of the black hole masses in AGN based on the normalized excess variance, sigma_{nxs}^2. We derive a relation between sigma_{nxs}^2, the length of the observation, T, the light curve bin size, Delta t,…
Along the last ten years, a general relativistic method has been developed to generate analytical expressions for the black hole (BH) parameters in terms of observables, namely the frequency shift of photons emitted by orbiting test…
We show that X-ray reverberation mapping can be used to measure the distance to type 1 active galactic nuclei (AGNs). This is because X-ray photons originally emitted from the `corona' close to the black hole irradiate the accretion disc…
We present the first X-ray reverberation mass measurement of a stellar-mass black hole. Accreting stellar-mass and supermassive black holes display characteristic spectral features resulting from reprocessing of hard X-rays by the accretion…
We test a novel method for estimating black hole masses ($M_{\rm BH}$) in obscured active galactic nuclei (AGN) that uses proxies to measure the full-width half maximum of broad H$\alpha$ (FWHM$_{\rm bH\alpha}$) and the accretion disk…
We use a large, heterogeneous sample of local active galactic nuclei (AGN) that includes Seyfert 1s, Seyfert 2s and PG quasars to investigate for the first time the relation between black hole mass (M_BH) and mid-infrared nuclear emission.…
Line broadening and variability are observational hallmarks of active galactic nuclei which allow us to measure supermassive black hole masses as well as constrain the geometry and kinematics of the emitting gas, with the most precise…
A 7.5 years spectrophotometric monitoring program of 28 Palomar-Green quasars to determine the size of their broad emission line region (BLR) is reviewed. We find both the continuum and the emission line fluxes of all quasars to vary during…
Photometric reverberation mapping employs a wide bandpass to measure the AGN continuum variations and a suitable band, usually a narrow band (NB), to trace the echo of an emission line in the broad line region (BLR). The narrow band catches…
We present results of broad band photometric reverberation mapping (RM) to measure the radius of the broad line region, and subsequently the black hole mass (M$_{\rm BH}$), in the nearby, low luminosity active galactic nuclei (AGN) NGC…
More than 50% of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) are suspected to be red and affected by dust-obscuration. Meanwhile, popular spectral diagnostics of AGNs are based on optical or ultraviolet light, making the dust obscuration as a primary…
One of the hallmarks of active galactic nuclei are that they are highly variable with time. In watching the spectra vary it has been observed that the emission-lines often appear to "reverberate" -- that is they vary in response to…
Accurate distances to celestial objects are key to establishing the age and energy density of the Universe and the nature of dark energy. A distance measure using active galactic nuclei (AGN) has been sought for more than forty years, as…