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A technique for timescale analysis of spectral lags performed directly in the time domain is developed. Simulation studies are made to compare the time domain technique with the Fourier frequency analysis for spectral time lags. The time domain technique is applied to studying rapid variabilities of X-ray binaries and γ-ray bursts. The results indicate that in comparison with the Fourier analysis the timescale analysis technique is more powerful for the study of spectral lags in rapid variabilities on short time scales and short duration flaring phenomena.

We present our observations of the optical intra-day variability (IDV) in γ-ray BL

We present the results from a spectroscopic monitoring campaign to obtain reverberation mapping measurements and investigate the broad-line region (BLR) kinematics for active galactic nuclei (AGNs) of Mrk 817 and NGC 7469. This campaign was undertaken with the Lijiang 2.4 m telescope. The median spectroscopic sampling is 2.0 days for Mrk 817 and 1.0 day for NGC 7469. We detect time lags of the broad emission lines, including Hβ, Hγ, He ii, and He i for both AGNs, including Fe ii for Mrk 817 with respect to the varying AGN continuum at 5100 Å. Investigating the relationship between line widths and time lags of the broad emission lines, we find that the BLR dynamics of Mrk 817 and NGC 7469 are consistent with the virial prediction. We estimate the masses of central supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and the accretion rates of both AGNs. Using the data of this campaign, we construct the velocity-resolved lag profiles of the broad Hγ, Hβ, and He i lines for Mrk 817, which show almost the same kinematic signatures in that the time lags in the red wing are slightly larger than the time lags in the blue wing. For NGC 7469, we only clearly construct the velocity-resolved lag profiles of the broad Hγ and Hβ, which show very similar kinematic signatures to the BLR of Mrk 817. These signatures indicate that the BLR of Keplerian motion in both AGNs seemingly has outflowing components during the monitoring period. We discuss the kinematics of the BLR and the measurements, including SMBH mass and accretion rates.