Echo Mapping of Black Hole Accretion Flows in Active Galactic Nuclei

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Light travel time delays enable micro-arcsecond mapping of accretion discs and broad emission-line regions around the super-massive black holes in the nuclei of active galaxies. Using our share of time on the LCOGT robotic telescope network, along with data from HST, Swift and Kepler satellites, we are monitoring spectral variations of Active Galactic Nuclei to measure black hole masses, accretion rates, and luminosity distances. By decoding information in the reverberating emission-line profiles, we make 2-dimensional velocity-delay maps of broad emission-line regions, mapping the velocity field and ionisation structure of the accretion flows. The student will acquire and analyse such datasets, fitting parameterised models using MCMC methods, image reconstruction using Horne maximum entropy fitting code MEMEcho, and photo-ionisation codes such as Ferland's Cloudy.