Speaker
Description
Although active galactic nuclei (AGN) have been studied extensively for more than six decades, the physical origin of their powerful luminosities and the structure and geometry of their central regions remain a mystery. The aim of this study is to interpret UV and optical spectroscopic observations by combining reverberation mapping with photoionization modeling. Reverberation mapping has been highly successful in measuring the mass of black holes in AGN through time delays between continuum and emission-line light curves. At the same time, the photoionization models (e.g., the CLOUDY code) provide reliable predictions of emission-line strengths over a wide range of physical conditions of gas exposed to ionizing radiation. By combining these two approaches, we seek to constrain the geometry of the Broad-Line Region (BLR) and thereby gain insight into the structure and physical conditions of the central engine in AGN. In this talk, I will present our methodology and some of the first results from applying this method to UV-optical observations of a nearby AGN.