Related papers: Systematic Uncertainties in Black Hole Masses Dete…
The masses of the central black holes in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) can be estimated using the broad emission-lines as a probe of the virial mass. Using reverberation mapping to determine the size of the Broad Line Region (BLR) and the…
NGC 5548 is one of the active galactic nuclei (AGN) selected for our long-term spectroscopic monitoring with the Lijiang 2.4~m telescope, aiming at investigating the origin and evolution of the broad-line regions (BLRs), accurately…
We propose a new method to determine the dark matter density profile in the vicinity of distant supermassive black holes (SMBH) using reverberation mapping (RM) measurements of active galactic nuclei (AGN). The mapping of multiple emission…
We have undertaken a new ground-based monitoring campaign to improve the estimates of the mass of the central black hole in NGC 4151. We measure the lag time of the broad H beta line response compared to the optical continuum at 5100 A and…
Although the super-massive (AGN) and stellar mass (XRBs) black holes have many properties in common, the broad emission lines (BELs) are exclusively signatures of the AGN. Based on the detection of these lines from SDSS data bases, there…
We conduct a reverberation mapping (RM) campaign to spectroscopically monitor a sample of selected bright active galactic nuclei with large anticipated broad-line region (BLR) sizes adequate for spectroastrometric observations by the…
We present the results from performing spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting on 121 variable active galactic nuclei (AGN) candidates in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) using photometry from both the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and…
Black hole masses for samples of active galactic nuclei (AGN) are currently estimated from single-epoch optical spectra using scaling relations anchored in reverberation mapping results. In particular, the two quantities needed for…
We present a new method for supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass measurements in Type 1 active galactic nuclei (AGN) using polarization angle across broad lines. This method gives measured masses which are in a good agreement with…
Unraveling the growth of supermassive black holes and their connection to host galaxies requires disentangling the Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) emission from that of the stellar populations. When an AGN spectrum is observed at different…
This is the second in a series of papers aiming to test how the mass ($M_{\rm BH}$), accretion rate ($\dot{M}$) and spin ($a_{*}$) of super massive black holes (SMBHs) determine the observed properties of type-I active galactic nuclei…
The accretion efficiency for individual black holes is very difficult to determine accurately. There are many factors that can influence each step of the calculation, such as the dust and host galaxy contribution to the observed luminosity,…
Determining the black hole masses in active galactic nuclei (AGN) is of crucial importance to constrain the basic characteristics of their central engines and shed light on their growth and co-evolution with their host galaxies. While the…
Variability of active galactic nuclei is not well understood. One possible explanation is existence of supermassive binary black holes (SMBBH) in their centres. It is expected that major mergers are common in the Universe. It is expected…
We present the first results from a reverberation-mapping campaign undertaken during the first half of 2012, with additional data on one AGN (NGC 3227) from a 2014 campaign. Our main goals are (1) to determine the black hole masses from…
We have recently completed a 64-night spectroscopic monitoring campaign at the Lick Observatory 3-m Shane telescope with the aim of measuring the masses of the black holes in 13 nearby (z < 0.05) Seyfert 1 galaxies with expected masses in…
It has been established that virial masses for black holes in low-redshift active galaxies can be estimated from measurements of the optical continuum strength and the width of the broad Hbeta line. Under various circumstances, however,…
Spectroscopic reverberation mapping (RM) is a direct approach widely used to estimate the mass of black holes (BHs) in active galactic nuclei (AGNs). However, it is very time consuming and difficult to apply to a large AGN sample. The…
We investigate the time-dependent variations of ultraviolet (UV) black hole mass estimates of quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). From SDSS spectra of 615 high-redshift (1.69 < z < 4.75) quasars with spectra from two epochs, we…
Black hole masses for samples of active galactic nuclei (AGN) are currently estimated from single-epoch optical spectra. In particular, the size of the broad-line emitting region needed to compute the black hole mass is derived from the…