2026 Project Description

Go back to the list of available projects

Spectral Variability of Local AGN with a Focus on Optical Hydrogen Lines

Keywords:

Supervisors

Shoichiro Mizukoshi, Bovornpratch Vijarnwannaluk
Find out more about supervisors on ASIAA website

Task Description and Goals

In this program, we focus on a supermassive black hole with active mass accretion, called active galactic nuclei (AGNs). One of the most characteristic features of AGNs is flux time variability, which allows us to distinguish whether the observed emission originates from the AGN itself or from its host galaxy.
Main tasks of this program is as follows:

• To analyze multi-epoch optical spectroscopic data of one local AGN,
• To measure the flux of Hydrogen Balmer Hβ line (4861 Å) and evaluate its time variability,
• To compare the variability of Hβ line and that of Hydrogen Balmer Hα line (6563 Å) in the literature.

Throughout these analyses, we finally aim to constrain the origin of Hβ line in this target.

Required Background

Basic knowledge of astrophysics is prefered. Basic programming skills (e.g. Python) are desirable.