We present ground-based optical photometric monitoring data for NGC 5548, part of an extended multiwavelength reverberation mapping campaign. The light curves have nearly daily cadence from 2014 January to July in nine filters (BVRI and ugriz). Combined with ultraviolet data from the Hubble Space Telescope and Swift, we confirm significant time delays between the continuum bands as a function of wavelength, extending the wavelength coverage from 1158 Å to the z band (∼ 9160 Å). We find that the lags at wavelengths longer than the V band are equal to or greater than the lags of high-ionization-state emission lines (such as He II λ1640 and λ4686), suggesting that the continuum-emitting source is of a physical size comparable to the inner broad-line region (BLR). The trend of lag with wavelength is broadly consistent with the prediction for continuum reprocessing by an accretion disk with τ ∝ λ 4/3 . However, the lags also imply a disk radius that is 3 times larger than the prediction from standard thin-disk theory, assuming that the bolometric luminosity is 10% of the Eddington luminosity (L = 0.1L Edd ). Using optical spectra from the Large Binocular Telescope, we estimate the bias of the interband continuum lags due to BLR emission observed in the filters. We find that the bias for filters with high levels of BLR contamination (∼ 20%) can be important for the shortest continuum lags, and likely has a significant impact on the u and U bands owing to Balmer continuum emission.

Swift monitoring of NGC 4151 with an∼6hr sampling over a total of 69 days in early 2016 is used to construct light curves covering five bands in the X-rays (0.3-50keV) and six in the ultraviolet (UV)/optical (1900-5500Å). The three hardest X-ray bands (>2.5keV) are all strongly correlated with no measurable interband lag,while the two softer bands show lower variability and weaker correlations. The UV/optical bands are significantly correlated with the X-rays, lagging ∼3-4days behind the hard X-rays. The variability within the UV/optical bands is also strongly correlated, with the UV appearing to lead the optical by ∼0.5-1days. This combination of 3day lags between the X-rays and UV and 1day lags within the UV/optical appears to rule out the "lamp-post" reprocessing model in which a hot, X-ray emitting corona directly illuminates the accretion disk, which then reprocesses the energy in the UV/optical. Instead, these results appear consistent with the Gardner & Done picture in which two separate reprocessings occur: first, emission from the corona illuminates an extreme-UV-emitting toroidal component that shields the disk from the corona; this then heats the extreme-UV component,which illuminates the disk and drives its variability.

We present the results of extensive multi-frequency monitoring of the radio galaxy 3C 120 between 2002 and 2007 at X-ray (2-10 keV), optical (R and V band), and radio (14.5 and 37 GHz) wave bands, as well as imaging with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) at 43 GHz. Over the 5 yr of observation, significant dips in the X-ray light curve are followed by ejections of bright superluminal knots in the VLBA images. Consistent with this, the X-ray flux and 37 GHz flux are anti-correlated with X-ray leading the radio variations. Furthermore, the total radiative output of a radio flare is related to the equivalent width of the corresponding X-ray dip. This implies that, in this radio galaxy, the radiative state of accretion disk plus corona system, where the X-rays are produced, has a direct effect on the events in the jet, where the radio emission originates. The X-ray power spectral density of 3C 120 shows a break, with steeper slope at shorter timescale and the break timescale is commensurate with the mass of the central black hole based on observations of Seyfert galaxies and black hole X-ray binaries. These findings provide support for the paradigm that black hole X-ray binaries and both radio-loud and radio-quiet active galactic nuclei are fundamentally similar systems, with characteristic time and size scales linearly proportional to the mass of the central black hole. The X-ray and optical variations are strongly correlated in 3C 120, which implies that the optical emission in this object arises from the same general region as the X-rays, i.e., in the accretion diskcorona system. We numerically model multi-wavelength light curves of 3C 120 from such a system with the optical-UV emission produced in the disk and the X-rays generated by scattering of thermal photons by hot electrons in the corona. From the comparison of the temporal properties of the model light curves to that of the observed variability, we constrain the physical size of the corona and the distances of the emitting regions from the central BH. In addition, we discus physical scenarios for the disk-jet connection that are consistent with our observations.

We present data from simultaneous Chandra, XMM-Newton, and BeppoSAX observations of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 3516, taken during 2001 April and November. We have investigated the nature of the very flat observed X-ray spectrum. Chandra grating data show the presence of X-ray absorption lines, revealing two distinct components of the absorbing gas, one that is consistent with our previous model of a UV/ X-ray absorber while the other, which is outflowing at a velocity of $1100 km s À1 , has a larger column density and is much more highly ionized. The broadband spectral characteristics of the X-ray continuum observed with XMM-Newton during 2001 April reveal the presence of a third layer of absorption consisting of a very large column (%2:5 ; 10 23 cm À2 ) of highly ionized gas with a covering fraction $50%. This low covering fraction suggests that the absorber lies within a few light days of the X-ray source and /or is filamentary in structure. Interestingly, these absorbers are not in thermal equilibrium with one another. The two new components are too highly ionized to be radiatively accelerated, which we suggest is evidence for a hydromagnetic origin for the outflow. Applying our model to the November data set, we can account for the spectral variability primarily by a drop in the ionization states of the absorbers, as expected by the change in the continuum flux. When this complex absorption is accounted for, we find the underlying continuum to be typical of Seyfert 1 galaxies. The spectral curvature attributed to the high column absorber in turn reduces estimates of the flux and the extent of any broad Fe emission line from the accretion disk.

We analyze the results of long-term observations of broad-line region (BLR) in the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548 and provide a critical comparison with the predictions of a hydromagnetically-driven outflow model of Emmering, Blandford and Shlosman. We use this model to generate a time series of C IV line profiles that have responded to a time varying continuum. Our modifications to the model include cloud emission anisotropy, cloud obscuration, a CLOUDY-generated emissivity function and a narrow-line component which is added to the BLR component to generate the total line profiles. The model is driven with continuum input based on the monitoring campaigns of NGC 5548 reported in Clavel et al. and Korista et al., and the line strengths, profiles and lags are compared with the observations. Our model is able to reproduce the basic features of C IV line variability in this active galactic nucleus, i.e., time evolution of the profile shape and strength of the C IV emission line without varying the model parameters. The best fit model provides the effective size, the dominant geometry, the emissivity distribution and the 3D velocity field of the C IV BLR and constrains the mass of the central black hole to ∼ 3 × 10 7 M ⊙ . The inner part of the wind in NGC 5548 appears to be responsible for the anisotropically emitted C IV line, while its outer part remains dusty and molecular, thus having similar spectral characteristics to a molecular torus, although its dynamics is fundamentally different.In addition, our model predicts a differential response across the C IV line profile, producing a red-side-first response in the relative velocity interval of 3, 000 km s −1 to 6, 000 km s −1 followed by the blue mid-wing and finally by the line core. Based on the comparison of data and model cross-correlation functions and one and two-dimensional transfer functions, we find that the rotating outflow model is compatible with observations of the BLR in NGC 5548.