Photometric reverberation mapping of AGNs at 0.1 < z < 0.8: I. Observational technique

Abstract

The improvement of the calibration relation for determining the size of the broad-line region from the observed optical luminosity of active galactic nuclei (AGN) is a necessary task to study fundamental parameters of distant AGNs such as mass of the central supermassive black hole. The most popular method of the BLR size estimation is the reverberation mapping based on measuring the time delay between the continuum flux and the flux in the emission lines. In our work, we apply the method of photometric reverberation mapping in medium-band filters, adapted for observations at the Zeiss-1000 telescope of the SAO RAS, for the study of AGN with broad lines in the range of redshifts $0.1 < z < 0.8$. This paper describes the technique of observations and data processing, provides a sample of objects and demonstrates the stability of the used method. As a preliminary result for 2MASX J08535955+7700543 at $z=0.1$ we have obtained time delay estimates of $\tau (ICCF)=32.2^{\pm10.6}$ days and $\tau(JAVELIN)=39.5_{-15.8}^{+23.0}$ days that are consistent with each other and also within the accuracy of the existing calibration relations.