Abstract:
: We discuss three long term observational programmes to probe the central engine and environment
of active galactic nuclei (AGN) using the recently installed ARIES 1.3-m and 3.6-m telescopes. The first
programme is on the photometric reverberation mapping of low luminosity AGN by mainly using the ARIES
1.3-m telescope. The major impact of this programme other than to estimate the black hole mass will be to
extend the broad line region (BLR) radius-luminosity (RBLR-LAGN ) relation to the unexplored low luminosity
regime, and to constrain the AGN broad line region geometry. The second programme is to use long slit
spectroscopy on the ARIES 3.6-m telescope to discover new high redshift quasar pairs with angular separation
less than ∼1-arcmin. Here, the background QSOs sight-line will be used to probe the environment of the
foreground QSOs at kpc-Mpc scales. The major impact of this programme will be on the discovery of new
pairs which have been missed in the SDSS survey due to fiber collision below 1-arcmin separation, and use
them to understand about any excess overdensity around the QSO, any an-isotropic emission of QSOs, and/or
any episodic activity of QSOs. The third programme is related to spectral variability studies of the C IV broad
absorption line (BAL) QSOs, based on low resolution spectroscopy using the ARIES 3.6-m telescope. Here,
those most interesting cases will be monitored, where the BAL flow emerges afresh or disappears completely
in the C IV trough of BAL QSOs sample as seen in SDSS multi-epoch observations. Continuous monitoring
of such a sample will be important for our understanding of the nature and origin of the flow, along with their
stability and dynamical evolution.
