Speaker
Description
Active galactic nuclei (AGN), the visible result of supermassive black hole growth, are prevalent in many fields from galaxy evolution to gravitational wave astrophysics. However, our understanding of these objects has been limited because the primary emission regions surrounding the supermassive black hole, the accretion disk and broad-line region (BLR) that make up the central engine, cannot be imaged except in very special cases because of their small angular sizes. However, we can leverage time variability in photometric and spectroscopic observations as a powerful tool for revealing the physics and structure of these regions and also as signposts of exotic classes of objects like changing-look AGN or supermassive black hole binaries. This talk will provide an introduction to AGN in the time domain and highlight the design and discovery space of the Black Hole Mapper program. I will focus on the variability observed in optical spectroscopy of these objects on timescales of weeks to years, the physical view of the central engine that such observations provide, and opportunities for understanding exotic accretion behaviors.
