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Reverberation mapping of Active Galactic Nuclei

Recent times have seen an increase in observational campaigns aimed at contributing to the overall sample of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with central super-massive black hole (SMBH) mass estimates using reverberation mapping (RM) technique. RM makes use of the time variability of the broad emissio...

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Main Author: Hlabathe, Michael
Other Authors: Whitelock, Patricia
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Astronomy 2023
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access_status_str Open Access
author Hlabathe, Michael
author2 Whitelock, Patricia
author_browse Hlabathe, Michael
Whitelock, Patricia
author_facet Whitelock, Patricia
Hlabathe, Michael
author_sort Hlabathe, Michael
collection Thesis
description Recent times have seen an increase in observational campaigns aimed at contributing to the overall sample of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with central super-massive black hole (SMBH) mass estimates using reverberation mapping (RM) technique. RM makes use of the time variability of the broad emission lines from the nearby broad-line region (BLR) to measure their time response or delay (τ) relative to the incident ionizing continuum from the accretion disc. This delay is a consequence of light-travel time effects and directly enables the size of the BLR to be determined as RBLR = cτ (c is speed of light). Assuming virialized motions of the gas clouds in the BLR, and combining the velocity width (∆V ) of a Doppler broadened emission line with RBLR leads to the estimation of the black hole mass M. RM can also be used to measure the accretion-disc size in which the X-ray variability source is assumed to drive UV/optical variations in the accretion disc leading to wavelength-dependent delays that scale as τ ∝ λ 4/3 . Here, both aspects of RM are explored using photometric and spectroscopic observations of 3C 120, PG 2304+043 and SDSS J132447.65+032432.6, with observations emanating from the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) and Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) robotic telescopes. The broad emission-line and inter-band continuum delays in these AGNs are measured using the Interpolated Cross-Correlation Function (ICCF) and Continuum REverberation AGN Markov Chain Monte Carlo (CREAM).
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/38497
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:07.122Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2023
publishDateRange 2023
publishDateSort 2023
publisher Department of Astronomy
publisherStr Department of Astronomy
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/38497 Reverberation mapping of Active Galactic Nuclei Hlabathe, Michael Whitelock, Patricia Galactic Nuclei Recent times have seen an increase in observational campaigns aimed at contributing to the overall sample of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with central super-massive black hole (SMBH) mass estimates using reverberation mapping (RM) technique. RM makes use of the time variability of the broad emission lines from the nearby broad-line region (BLR) to measure their time response or delay (τ) relative to the incident ionizing continuum from the accretion disc. This delay is a consequence of light-travel time effects and directly enables the size of the BLR to be determined as RBLR = cτ (c is speed of light). Assuming virialized motions of the gas clouds in the BLR, and combining the velocity width (∆V ) of a Doppler broadened emission line with RBLR leads to the estimation of the black hole mass M. RM can also be used to measure the accretion-disc size in which the X-ray variability source is assumed to drive UV/optical variations in the accretion disc leading to wavelength-dependent delays that scale as τ ∝ λ 4/3 . Here, both aspects of RM are explored using photometric and spectroscopic observations of 3C 120, PG 2304+043 and SDSS J132447.65+032432.6, with observations emanating from the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) and Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) robotic telescopes. The broad emission-line and inter-band continuum delays in these AGNs are measured using the Interpolated Cross-Correlation Function (ICCF) and Continuum REverberation AGN Markov Chain Monte Carlo (CREAM). 2023-09-11T06:50:49Z 2023-09-11T06:50:49Z 2023 2023-09-08T14:04:43Z Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/38497 eng application/pdf Department of Astronomy Faculty of Science
spellingShingle Galactic Nuclei
Hlabathe, Michael
Reverberation mapping of Active Galactic Nuclei
thesis_degree_str Doctoral
title Reverberation mapping of Active Galactic Nuclei
title_full Reverberation mapping of Active Galactic Nuclei
title_fullStr Reverberation mapping of Active Galactic Nuclei
title_full_unstemmed Reverberation mapping of Active Galactic Nuclei
title_short Reverberation mapping of Active Galactic Nuclei
title_sort reverberation mapping of active galactic nuclei
topic Galactic Nuclei
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/38497
work_keys_str_mv AT hlabathemichael reverberationmappingofactivegalacticnuclei