We find that the Fe IIIλλ2039-2113 spectral feature in quasars appears systematically redshifted by amounts accountable under the hypothesis of gravitational redshift induced by the central supermassive black hole. Our analysis of 27 composite spectra from the BOSS survey indicates that the redshift and the broadening of the lines in the Fe IIIλλ2039-2113 blend roughly follow the expected correlation in the weak limit of Schwarzschild geometry for virialized kinematics. Assuming that the Fe III UV redshift provides a measure of M BH R ( ∆λ λ 3 2 G c 2 M BH R ) and using different estimates of the emitting region size, R (either from gravitational microlensing, reverberation mapping or from the scaling of size with intrinsic quasar luminosity), we obtain masses for 10 objects which are in agreement within uncertainties with previous mass estimates based on the virial theorem. Reverberation mapping estimates of the size of the Fe IIIλλ2039-2113 emitting region in a sample of objects would be needed to confirm the gravitational origin of the measured redshifts. Meanwhile, we present a tentative black

We present the first results from the ongoing, intensive, multiwavelength monitoring program of the luminous Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 817. While this active galactic nucleus was, in part, selected for its historically unobscured nature, we discovered that the X-ray spectrum is highly absorbed, and there are new blueshifted, broad, and narrow UV absorption lines, which suggest that a dust-free, ionized obscurer located at the inner broad-line region partially covers the central source. Despite the obscuration, we measure UV and optical continuum reverberation lags consistent with a centrally illuminated Shakura–Sunyaev thin accretion disk, and measure reverberation lags associated with the optical broad-line region, as expected. However, in the first 55 days of the campaign, when the obscuration was becoming most extreme, we observe a de-coupling of the UV continuum and the UV broad emission-line variability. The correlation recovered in the next 42 days of the campaign, as Mrk 817 entered a less obscured state. The short C iv and Lyα lags suggest that the accretion disk extends beyond the UV broad-line region.

We present eight monitoring seasons of the four brightest images of the gravitational lens SDSS J1004+4112 observed between December 2003 and October 2010. Using measured time delays for the images A, B and C and the model predicted time delay for image D we have removed the intrinsic quasar variability, finding microlensing events of about 0.5 and 0.7 mag of amplitude in the images C and D. From the statistics of microlensing amplitudes in images A, C, and D, we have inferred the half-light radius (at λ rest = 2407Å) for the accretion disk using two different methods, R 1/2 = 8.7 +18.5 −5.5 √ M/0.3M (histograms product) and R 1/2 = 4.2 +3.2 −2.2 √ M/0.3M light-days (χ 2 ). The results are in agreement within uncertainties with the size predicted from the black hole mass in SDSS J1004+4112 using the thin disk theory.