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The radius-luminosity ($R_{\rm BLR}$-$L_{5100}$) relation is fundamental to active galactic nucleus (AGN) studies, enabling supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass estimates and AGN-based cosmology applications. However, its high-luminosity end…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2026-01-27 Sha-Sha Li , Hai-Cheng Feng , Jiancheng Wu , J. M. Bai , H. T. Liu , Kai-Xing Lu , Mouyuan Sun , Jian-Guo Wang

Reverberation mapping (RM) is a widely-used method for probing the physics of broad-line regions (BLRs) in active galactic nuclei (AGNs). There are increasing preliminary evidences that the RM behaviors of broad emission lines are…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2023-01-25 Pu Du , Shuo Zhai , Jian-Min Wang

Among active galactic nuclei, BL Lac objects show extreme properties that have been interpreted as the effect of relativistic beaming on the emission from a plasma jet oriented close to the line of sight. The Doppler amplification of the…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-29 Alessandro Capetti , Claudia M. Raiteri

The NRAO VLBA was used at 1.4 GHz to image the inner 550 mas (23 lt-years) of the nearest known Seyfert 1 nucleus, in the Sm galaxy NGC 4395. One continuum source was detected, with flux density $530\pm130 \mu$Jy, diameter d<11 mas (0.46…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-06 J. M. Wrobel , C. D. Fassnacht , L. C. Ho

The broad-line region (BLR) of active galactic nuclei (AGN) is an essential component, yet its small size keeps its origin, structure, and kinematics uncertain. Infrared interferometry with VLTI/GRAVITY is now resolving BLR-scale emission,…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2026-03-12 Keiichi Wada , Tohru Nagao , Taro Shimizu , Daryl Joe D. Santos , Jinyi Shangguan , Richard Davies

We report results from the simultaneous XRISM (183 ks) and NuSTAR (62 ks) observations of the Seyfert-2 galaxy NGC 4388. This AGN has the brightest Fe K$\alpha$ line among Compton-thin, obscured sources. To model the reflection continuum…

Adopting a spherically symmetric steady-state ballistic inflow as the kinematic model for the gas distribution responsible for producing the H{\alpha} emission line and a central black hole (BH) mass of 1.7 x10^6 M_sun, determined from…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-15 Nick Devereux , Emily Heaton

In this work, we revisit the size-luminosity relation of the extended narrow line regions (ENLRs) using a large sample of nearby active galactic nuclei (AGN) from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey. The…

Low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (LLAGN; $L_{\rm bol} < 10^{42}$~erg~s$^{-1}$) may comprise a significant fraction of the local AGN population, yet their weak emission makes them difficult to detect. In this paper, we analyse 38 LLAGN…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2026-05-19 M. N. Rosli , A. Annuar

Continuum reverberation mapping probes the size scale of the optical continuum-emitting region in active galactic nuclei (AGN). The source of this emission has long been thought to originate from the accretion disk, but recent studies…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-11-11 Jake A. Miller , Edward M. Cackett , Misty C. Bentz , Michael R. Goad , Kirk T. Korista , Ian M. McHardy

We present dynamical modeling of the broad line region (BLR) for a sample of five Seyfert 1 galaxies using reverberation mapping data taken by the Lick AGN Monitoring Project in 2008. By modeling the AGN continuum light curve and H$\beta$…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-18 Anna Pancoast , Brendon J. Brewer , Tommaso Treu , Daeseong Park , Aaron J. Barth , Misty C. Bentz , Jong-Hak Woo

We present spectroscopic observations of 27 active galactic nuclei (AGN) with some of the lowest black hole (BH) masses known. We use the high spectral resolution and small aperture of our Keck data, taken with the Echellette Spectrograph…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-11 Randi R. Ludwig , Jenny E. Greene , Aaron J. Barth , Luis C. Ho

(abridged) We have spectrophotometrically monitored a well-defined sample of 28 Palomar-Green quasars in order to obtain measurements of their BLRs and to investigate the relationships between quasar luminosity, central black hole mass, and…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-10-31 Shai Kaspi , Paul S. Smith , Hagai Netzer , Dan Maoz , Buell T. Jannuzi , Uriel Giveon

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…

"Changing-look active galactic nuclei" (CLAGNs) are known to change their apparent types between types 1 and 2, usually accompanied by a drastic change in their luminosity on timescales of years. However, it is still unclear whether…

Low-Ionisation Nuclear Emission-line Regions (LINERs) are the least luminous and the most numerous among the local population of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). They can be classified as type-1 or type-2 if their optical spectra show or do…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2020-03-11 L. Hermosa-Muñoz , S. Cazzoli , I. Márquez , J. Masegosa

We study the broad-band spectral energy distribution (SED) of the prototypical low-mass active galactic nucleus (AGN) in NGC 4395. We jointly model the optical through mid-infrared SED with a combination of galaxy and AGN light, and find…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2023-07-31 Hector Afonso G. Cruz , Andy D. Goulding , Jenny E. Greene

We have newly identified a substantial number of type 1 active galactic nuclei (AGN) featuring weak broad-line regions (BLRs) at z < 0.2 from detailed analysis of galaxy spectra in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7. These objects…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-07-15 Kyuseok Oh , Sukyoung K. Yi , Kevin Schawinski , Michael Koss , Benny Trakhtenbrot

We report the detection of optical and X-ray variability in the least luminous known Seyfert galaxy, NGC4395. The featureless continuum changed by a factor of 2 in 6 months, which is typical of more luminous AGN. The largest variation was…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-10-31 P. Lira , A. Lawrence , P. O'Brien , R. A. Johnson , R. Terlevich , N. Bannister

Outflows in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are crucial to understand in investigating the co-evolution of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and their host galaxies since outflows may play an important role as an AGN feedback mechanism. Based…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2019-01-04 Jaejin Shin , Tohru Nagao , Jong-Hak Woo