Reverberation Mapping as a Probe of Black hole Masses and AGN Structure: New Results from Intensive Monitoring Campaigns

Thu, October 01, 2015

The method of reverberation mapping uses the time delay between continuum and emission-line variations in active galactic nuclei to probe the structure of the broad-line region and to derive estimates of black hole masses. Reverberation mapping results provide a fundamental low-redshift calibration for the methods used to trace the cosmological evolution of supermassive black holes. I will present recent developments in reverberation mapping based on observations from the Lick AGN Monitoring Project and from the AGN-STORM project, which carried out a 6-month intensive program of monitoring the nearby Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 in 2014.