Related papers: The Variable Line Width of Achernar

A new model is presented which explains the origin of the broad emission lines observed in the LINER/Seyfert nucleus of M81 in terms of a steady state spherically symmetric inflow, amounting to 1 x 10^-5 Msun/yr, which is sufficient to…

We present a new evidence of the accretion disc in active galactic nuclei, by examining the properties of the Ha emission line versus viewing angle, in a sample of superluminal (SL) quasars. Both line velocity width (FWHM) and rest…

High-precision space-based photometry obtained by the \emph{Kepler} and \emph{TESS} missions has revealed evidence of rotational modulation associated with main sequence (MS) A and late-B type stars. Generally, such variability in these…

Variable continuum emission from AGN can be used to probe the structure of their accretion disks via reverberation mapping. Assuming a variable, hot inner light source irradiates the surrounding accretion disk, time delays between different…

We present an analysis of several high-resolution Chandra grating observations of the X-ray binary pulsar Her X-1. With a total exposure of 170 ks, the observations are separated by years and cover three combinations of orbital and…

We have recently demonstrated that the non-linear relation between ultraviolet and X-ray luminosity in quasars is very tight (with an intrinsic dispersion of ~0.2 dex), once contaminants (e.g. dust reddening, X-ray absorption), variability,…

We present the light curves obtained during an eight-year program of optical spectroscopic monitoring of nine Seyfert 1 galaxies: 3C 120, Akn 120, Mrk 79, Mrk 110, Mrk 335, Mrk 509, Mrk 590, Mrk 704, and Mrk 817. All objects show…

Although blazar variability is probably dominated by emission from relativistic jets, accretion disks should be present in all blazars. These disks produce emission over most of the electromagnetic spectrum; various unstable processes…

The variability of quasars across multiple wavelengths is a useful probe of physical conditions in active galactic nuclei. In particular, variable accretion rates, instabilities, and reverberation effects in the accretion disk of a…

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…

We present reverberation mapping measurements for the prominent ultraviolet broad emission lines of the active galactic nucleus Mrk817 using 165 spectra obtained with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. Our…

[Abridged] Optically thick, geometrically thin accretion disks around supermassive black holes are thought to contribute to broad-line emission in type-1 active galactic nuclei (AGN). However, observed emission line profiles most often…

We present the results of the long-term optical monitoring campaign of active galactic nuclei (AGN) coordinated by the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Science. This campaign has produced a remarkable set of…

We examine whether the spectral energy distribution of optical continuum emission of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) changes during flux variation, based on accurate and frequent monitoring observations of 11 nearby Seyfert galaxies and QSOs…

The great power offered by photoionization models of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) emission-line regions has long been mitigated by the fact that very little is known about the spectral energy distribution (SED) between the Lyman limit,…

The mechanism and the region of generation of variable continuum emission are poorly understood for radio-loud AGN because of a complexity of the nuclear region. High-resolution radio VLBI (very long baseline interferometry) observations…

Variability studies of the broad emission lines of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) and quasars show stochastic radial velocity variations (i.e., fluctuations in the centroid of the line), 'jitter', on timescales of weeks to months. This…

With a quasar sample designed for studying orientation effects, we investigate the orientation dependence of characteristics of the C IV 1549 broad emission line in approximately 50 Type 1 quasars with z=0.1-1.4. Orientation is measured for…

We have performed IRS low resolution 5-12 micron spectroscopy on a sample of galaxies selected to be at 3 distinct post-starburst evolutionary stages based on their optical spectral indices. The resulting IRS spectra show distinctive PAH…

Recent infrared (IR) observations of the center of our Galaxy indicate that the supermassive black hole source Sgr A* is strongly variable in the IR. The timescale for the variability, $\sim 30$ min, is comparable to that of the X-ray…