A pilot study of AGN disk reverberation mapping at redshift z=1

Liverpool Telescope | 26.0hrs | PI - J. Hernandez Santisteban

We propose a pilot study to use Intensive accretion Disc Reverberation Mapping (IDRM) to probe the radial structure of a moderately-high redshift quasar, SDSS J2353 (z = 0.99). IDRM has successfully combined ground-based and Swift monitoring to measure interband continuum lags to study the geometry and infer the properties of >10 low-redshift (z < 0.15) AGN discs. Because SDSS J2353 is more than an order of magnitude more luminous, the lags should be commensurately larger, and thus should be measurable even without Swift to anchor the UV. However that has not yet been definitively demonstrated. If successful, this program will allow us to extend the local sample measurements of disc size and temperature structure to higher mass (∼ 109 M⊙), luminosity (∼ 1047 erg s−1) and redshift. It will also provide a key proof of concept for LSST, which should provide comparable data for many thousands of AGN.