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AGN Reverberation Mapping

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Book cover Astronomy at High Angular Resolution

Part of the book series: Astrophysics and Space Science Library ((ASSL,volume 439))

Abstract

Reverberation mapping is now a well-established technique for investigating spatially-unresolved structures in the nuclei of distant galaxies with actively-accreting supermassive black holes. Structural parameters for the broad emission-line region, with angular sizes of microarcseconds, can be constrained through the substitution of time resolution for spatial resolution. Many reverberation experiments over the last 30 years have led to a practical understanding of the requirements necessary for a successful programme. With reverberation measurements now in hand for 60 active galaxies, and more on the horizon, we are able to directly constrain black hole masses, derive scaling relationships that allow large numbers of black hole mass estimates throughout the observable Universe, and begin investigating the detailed geometry and kinematics of the broad line region. Reverberation mapping is therefore one of the few techniques that will allow a deeper understanding of the physical mechanisms involved in AGN feeding and feedback at very small scales, as well as constraints on the growth and evolution of black holes across cosmic time. In this chapter, I will briefly review the background, implementation, and major results derived from this high angular resolution technique.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by NSF CAREER grant AST-1253702.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Georgia State University, 25 Park Place Suite 605, Atlanta, GA, 30303, USA

    Misty C. Bentz

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  1. Misty C. Bentz
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Correspondence to Misty C. Bentz .

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  1. ESO Vitacura, Santiago de Chile, Chile

    Henri M. J. Boffin

  2. ESO, Garching, Germany

    Gaitee Hussain

  3. ESO Vitacura, Santiago de Chile, Chile

    Jean-Philippe Berger

  4. ESO Vitacura, Santiago de Chile, Chile

    Linda Schmidtobreick

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Bentz, M.C. (2016). AGN Reverberation Mapping. In: Boffin, H., Hussain, G., Berger, JP., Schmidtobreick, L. (eds) Astronomy at High Angular Resolution. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 439. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39739-9_13

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