Medium-band Photometry Reverberation Mapping of Nearby Active Galactic Nuclei. (arXiv:1910.01061v1 [astro-ph.GA])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Kim_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">Joonho Kim</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Im_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">Myungshin Im</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Choi_C/0/1/0/all/0/1">Changsu Choi</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Hwang_S/0/1/0/all/0/1">Sungyong Hwang</a>
Reverberation mapping (RM) is one of the most efficient ways to investigate
the broad-line region around the central supermassive black holes of active
galactic nuclei (AGNs). A common way of performing the RM is to perform a long
term spectroscopic monitoring of AGNs, but the spectroscopic monitoring
campaign of a large number of AGNs requires an extensive amount of observing
time of medium to large size telescopes. As an alternative way, we present the
results of photometric RM with medium-band photometry. As the widths of
medium-band filters match well with the widths of AGN broad emission lines, the
medium-band observation with small telescopes can be a cost-effective way to
perform RM. We monitored five nearby AGNs with available spectroscopic RM
results showing days to weeks scale variability. Observations were performed
for ~3 months with an average of 3 days cadence using three medium-band filters
on a 0.43 m telescope. The time lags between the continuum and the H-alpha
emission line light curves are calculated using the JAVELIN software and the
discrete correlation function. We find time lags of 1.5-15.9 days for these
AGNs, which are consistent with the time lags derived from previous
spectroscopic RM measurements. This result demonstrates that even a 0.5 m class
telescope can perform RM with medium-bands. Furthermore, we show that RM for
tens of thousands AGNs is possible with a dedicated 1 m class telescope.
Reverberation mapping (RM) is one of the most efficient ways to investigate
the broad-line region around the central supermassive black holes of active
galactic nuclei (AGNs). A common way of performing the RM is to perform a long
term spectroscopic monitoring of AGNs, but the spectroscopic monitoring
campaign of a large number of AGNs requires an extensive amount of observing
time of medium to large size telescopes. As an alternative way, we present the
results of photometric RM with medium-band photometry. As the widths of
medium-band filters match well with the widths of AGN broad emission lines, the
medium-band observation with small telescopes can be a cost-effective way to
perform RM. We monitored five nearby AGNs with available spectroscopic RM
results showing days to weeks scale variability. Observations were performed
for ~3 months with an average of 3 days cadence using three medium-band filters
on a 0.43 m telescope. The time lags between the continuum and the H-alpha
emission line light curves are calculated using the JAVELIN software and the
discrete correlation function. We find time lags of 1.5-15.9 days for these
AGNs, which are consistent with the time lags derived from previous
spectroscopic RM measurements. This result demonstrates that even a 0.5 m class
telescope can perform RM with medium-bands. Furthermore, we show that RM for
tens of thousands AGNs is possible with a dedicated 1 m class telescope.
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