We have modeled the velocity-resolved reverberation response of the Hβ broad emission line in nine Seyfert 1 galaxies from the Lick Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) Monitoring Project 2016 sample, drawing inferences on the geometry and structure of the low-ionization broad-line region (BLR) and the mass of the central supermassive black hole. Overall, we find that the Hβ BLR is generally a thick disk viewed at low to moderate inclination angles. We combine our sample with prior studies and investigate line-profile shape dependence, such as log 10 ( FWHM / σ ) , on BLR structure and kinematics and search for any BLR luminosity-dependent trends. We find marginal evidence for an anticorrelation between the profile shape of the broad Hβ emission line and the Eddington ratio, when using the rms spectrum. However, we do not find any luminosity-dependent trends, and conclude that AGNs have diverse BLR structure and kinematics, consistent with the hypothesis of transient AGN/BLR conditions rather than systematic trends.

Abstract. -We perform detailed surface photometry, based on B-and/or R-band CCD images of 92 faint galaxies. They are a subsample of those galaxies which were studied by Hopp et al. (1994) in the direction of three nearby voids. We derive integral photometric parameters and radial surface brightness profiles and compare them to those of several faint galaxy samples, located in different environments, and of a bright field galaxy sample. According to the obtained photometric characteristics, our sample is a mixture of intrinsically bright and faint galaxies, about 60% of them belonging to the bright subsample (MB −19.0). These bright ones show mean characteristics of typical Freeman's disks and are mainly located in the background of the observed voids. The faint subsample (MB ≥ −19.0) has parameters typical for the low-surface-brightness (LSB) galaxies. There are a few well isolated galaxies both among the bright and faint subsamples. About 40% of studied galaxies reveal ellipticity and position angle variations along of the radius. The (B − R) colour indices of the observed galaxies span over a wide range of 0.5−1.8 mag with a median value at 1.11 mag, rather blue. About 30% of the observed galaxies reveal radial colour gradients at a 5σ significance level. These galaxies show typically red centers and are getting bluer towards the periphery. The most isolated galaxies in our sample show relatively blue colours (BT − RT 0.8). About 40% of the studied galaxies have surface brightness profiles which can be described by the model of single exponential disk. 38% of our galaxies have more complicated profiles and either can be approximated by two exponentials or show the presence of a small bulge. 20% of the observed galaxies have central light depression and outer irregularities -typical for some dwarf galaxies. These profile type frequencies are similar to those of faint field galaxy sample. The evolutionary history of both the isolated and clustered galaxies obviously results in similar photometric and structural characteristics. Thus the photometric methods alone are inadequate for selecting galaxies with different isolation properties.

We carried out spectroscopic monitoring of 21 low-redshift Seyfert 1 galaxies using the Kast double spectrograph on the 3 m Shane telescope at Lick Observatory from 2016 April to 2017 May. Targeting active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with luminosities of λ L λ (5100 Å) ≈ 1044 erg s−1 and predicted Hβ lags of ∼20–30 days or black hole masses of 107–108.5 M ⊙, our campaign probes luminosity-dependent trends in broad-line region (BLR) structure and dynamics as well as to improve calibrations for single-epoch estimates of quasar black hole masses. Here we present the first results from the campaign, including Hβ emission-line light curves, integrated Hβ lag times (8–30 days) measured against V-band continuum light curves, velocity-resolved reverberation lags, line widths of the broad Hβ components, and virial black hole mass estimates (107.1–108.1 M ⊙). Our results add significantly to the number of existing velocity-resolved lag measurements and reveal a diversity of BLR gas kinematics at moderately high AGN luminosities. AGN continuum luminosity appears not to be correlated with the type of kinematics that its BLR gas may exhibit. Follow-up direct modeling of this data set will elucidate the detailed kinematics and provide robust dynamical black hole masses for several objects in this sample.