Monitoring AGNs with H{beta} Asymmetry (MAHA). I.

The motivations of the project are to explore the geometry and kinematics of the gas responsible for complex H{beta} emission-line profiles, ideally leading to an understanding of the structures and origins of the broad-line region (BLR). Furthermore, such a project provides the opportunity to search for evidence of close binary supermassive black holes.

We describe MAHA and report initial results from our first campaign, from 2016 December to 2017 May, highlighting velocity-resolved time lags for four active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with asymmetric H{beta} lines. We find that 3C120, Ark120, and Mrk6 display complex features different from the simple signatures expected for pure outflow, inflow, or a Keplerian disk. While three of the objects have been previously reverberation mapped, including velocity-resolved time lags in the cases of 3C120 and Mrk6, we report a time lag and corresponding black hole mass measurement for SBS1518+593 for the first time.