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Related papers: Systematic Uncertainties in Black Hole Masses Dete…

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Here we investigate the connection of broad emission line shapes and continuum light curve variability time scales of type-1 Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). We developed a new model to describe optical broad emission lines as an accretion…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2018-05-21 E. Bon , P. Jovanovic , P. Marziani , N. Bon , A. Otasevic

This contribution briefly reviews the reverberation mapping technique which leads to determination of black hole masses. I focus on the emerging relation between the broad-line region size and the active galactic nucleus (AGN) luminosity,…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 Shai Kaspi

Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) exhibit variability in their luminosities with timescales that correlate with the mass of the black hole at the centre of the AGN. Presently, the empirical correlation lacks sufficient precision to confidently…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-12-22 Adrien Hélias , Sarah C. Gallagher , Pauline Barmby

A large reverberation mapping study of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 7469 has yielded emission-line lags for Hbeta 4861 and He II 4686 and a central black hole mass measurement of about 10 million solar masses, consistent with previous…

We present a sample of 930 intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with black hole masses of $M_\mathrm{BH} \leqslant 2 \times 10^{6}$ M$_{\odot}$, uniformly selected from the Seventeenth Data Release of the Sloan…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2026-05-12 Wen-Juan Liu , Luis C. Ho , Xiao-Bo Dong , Su Yao , Paulina Lira , Yicheng Guo

We present a study of the host bulge properties and their relations with the black hole mass on a sample of 10 intermediate-type active galactic nuclei (AGN). Our sample consists mainly of early type spirals, four of them hosting a bar. For…

The scaling relations between supermassive black holes and their host galaxy properties are of fundamental importance in the context black hole-host galaxy co-evolution throughout cosmic time. In this work, we use a novel algorithm that…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2019-06-26 Dalya Baron , Brice Ménard

Graham et al. found a sample of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and quasars from the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey (CRTS) that have long-term periodic variations in optical continuum, the nature of the periodicity remains uncertain. We…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2016-04-20 Kai-Xing Lu , Yan-Rong Li , Shao-Lan Bi , Jian-Min Wang

The single-epoch virial method is a fundamental tool for estimating supermassive black hole (SMBH) masses in large samples of AGNs and has been extensively employed in studies of SMBH-galaxy co-evolution across cosmic time. However, since…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-11-12 C. -Z. Jiang , J. -X. Wang , H. Sou , W. -K. Ren

Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHB) are expected to produce periodic modulations in active galactic nuclei (AGN) light curves, but distinguishing such signals from stochastic red-noise variability remains a major challenge. We present…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-05-13 Pablo Huijse , Jordy Davelaar , Joris De Ridder , Nicholas Jannsen , Conny Aerts

We present our statistical analysis of the connection between active galactic nuclei (AGN) variability and physical properties of the central supermassive black hole (SMBH). We constructed optical light curves using data from the QUEST-La…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2018-09-19 P. Sánchez-Sáez , P. Lira , J. Mejía-Restrepo , L. C. Ho , P. Arévalo , M. Kim , R. Cartier , P. Coppi

We study the morphology of the central region of a sample of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and a ``control'' sample of normal galaxies using archival observations of the WFPC2 instrument onboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We use the…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-07 E. M. Xilouris , I. E. Papadakis

The determination of the central black hole mass is crucial to the understanding of AGN physics. In this paper we briefly review some methods that are currently used to estimate the black hole mass of AGNs. Particularly we demonstrate the…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 Xue-Bing Wu , F. K. Liu , R. Wang , M. Z. Kong , J. L. Han

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…

We are conducting an archival Swift program to measure multiwavelength variability in active galactic nuclei (AGN). This variability information will provide constraints on the geometry, physical conditions and processes of the structures…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-05-21 Jonathan Gelbord , Caryl Gronwall , Dirk Grupe , Dan Vanden Berk , Jian Wu

The present-day mass function of supermassive black holes is the most important observable quantity for the prediction and theoretical interpretation of the gravitational wave background (GWB) measured by pulsar timing arrays (PTAs). Due to…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-09-11 Gabriela Sato-Polito , Matias Zaldarriaga

Based on the measured sizes of broad line region of the reverberation-mapping AGN sample, two new empirical relations are introduced to estimate the central black hole masses of radio-loud high-redshift ($z > 0.5$) AGNs. First, using the…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-13 Min-Zhi Kong , Xue-Bing Wu , Ran Wang , Jin-Lin Han

As a newly discovered class of radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGNs), the \gamma-ray detected narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s) launch powerful jets which are generally found only in blazars and radio galaxies. However, their black…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2019-03-15 Hai-Wu Pan , Weimin Yuan , Su Yao , S. Komossa , Chichuan Jin

(ABRIDGED) We assess the systematic uncertainties in (young) cluster age, mass, and - to a lesser extent - extinction and metallicity determinations, based on broad-band imaging observations with the Hubble Space Telescope. Our aim here is…

One of the proposed explanations for the broad, double-peaked Balmer emission lines observed in the spectra of some active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is that they are associated with sub-parsec supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries. Here, we…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2016-01-27 Jia Liu , Michael Eracleous , Jules P. Halpern