The Ohio State University College of Mathematical & Physical Sciences Department of Astronomy Colloquium Series 2006/7

Thursday, September 21, 3:30 p.m.
2015 McPherson Laboratory

Current and Recent AGN Emission- and Absorption-line Research

Karen Leighly
Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy
The University of Oklahoma

I will describe some of my current and recent research on AGN optical and UV emission and absorption lines. I will begin with recent and ongoing research on UV FeII properties in AGN that aims to understand the FeII excitation mechanisms so that it can be used to determine the conditions in the low-ionization line-emitting gas in AGN. I will then segue into a description of work that my student, Darrin Casebeer has done. Using the generalized radiation transfer code PHOENIX, he has successfully modelled the rest-UV spectra of two FeLoBALs (Broad Absorption-Line Quasars that contain absorption lines from LOw-ionization species including metastable FeII) with minimal free parameters. Finally, I will describe the recent discovery of the emergence of broad absorption lines in the rather low-luminosity Narrow-line Seyfert 1 Galaxy WPVS 007, and I will discuss the implications of this result.