How to Measure Black Hole Masses and Other Interesting Properties

We present a new framework to model high-quality active galactic nuclei (AGN) reverberation mapping data using geometric and dynamical models of the broad line region (BLR). We model reverberation mapping data from the Lick AGN Monitoring Project 2008, as well as from the first results for the Lick AGN Monitoring Project spring 2011 campaign. The main goals of the most recent spring 2011 campaign are to obtain velocity resolved reverberation mapping data, to constrain the kinematics and geometry of the BLR, and to determine the mass of the black holes. In addition to applying the traditional reverberation mapping analysis of cross-correlation, we model the reverberation mapping data directly. Modeling the reverberation mapping data allows us to estimate the black hole mass without a normalizing constant, as is needed for traditional reverberation mapping analysis. Our modeling constrains the geometry of the BLR, including its distance from the central source, its width, and its inclination with respect to the line of sight. The model also includes a simple prescription for net inflowing and outflowing gas in the BLR. While our model for the geometry and dynamics is relatively simple, it is able to model broad spectral line asymmetries and could be expanded to include more complicated models in the future. The Lick AGN Monitoring Project datasets should allow us to explore the differences between the geometry and inflow/outflow properties in different Seyfert 1 galaxies, and provide an independently-calibrated set of AGN black hole masses to use in the M-sigma* relation.