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The active galactic nuclei (AGN) are among the most powerful sources with an inherent, pronounced and random variation of brightness. The randomness of their time series is so subtle as to blur the border between aperiodic fluctuations and noisy oscillations. This poses challenges to analysing of such time series because neither visual inspection nor pre-exisitng methods can identify well oscillatory signals in them. Thus, there is a need for an objective method for periodicity detection. Here we review our a new data analysis method that combines a two-dimensional correlation (2D) of time series with the powerful methods of Gaussian processes. To demonstrate the utility of this technique, we apply it to two example problems which were not exploited enough: damped rednoised artificial time series mimicking AGN time series and newly published observed time series of changing look AGN (CL AGN) NGC 3516. The method successfully detected periodicities in both types of time series. Identified periodicity of ~4 yr in NGC 3516 allows us to speculate that if the thermal instability formed in its accretion disc (AD) on a time scale resembling detected periodicity then AD radius could be ~0.0024 pc.

The mass measurement of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) is a very complex task. Between several methods for SMBH mass measurements, some of them use the spectral lines, which indicate the motion of the emitting/absorbing material around an SMBH. Mostly, there is an assumption of virialization of line emitting gas in the region which is close to the central SMBH. In this paper we will give an overview of methods for the SMBH mass measurements using broad emission spectral lines observed in Type 1 AGNs. First we give the basic idea to use the parameters of broad lines to SMBH mass measurements. After that we give an overview of broad lines from X-ray (Fe kα) to the IR (Pashen and Brecket lines) which have been used for SMBH mass estimates. Additionally, we describe and discuss a new method for SMBH mass measurements using the polarization in the broad lines emitted from Type 1 AGNs.

Ice Ages (IA) and their glacial periods can be regarded as significant natural hazards (NH). Unfortunately, the knowledge of hominid evolution that occurred during IAs, in such extreme climatic fluctuations, is preserved almost exclusively in mythology. The omission of more scientific discourse regarding the history of NH during IAs should be rectified for posterity. As our civilization will likely have to cope with the beginnings of a new glacial phase, a more complete understanding of the mechanisms of IA climate dynamics is crucial.

We investigated the emission of active galactic nuclei dusty tori in the infrared domain, with a focus on the 10 μm silicate feature. We modeled the dusty torus as a clumpy two-phase medium with high-density clumps and a low-density medium filling the space between the clumps. We used a three-dimensional radiative transfer code to obtain spectral energy distributions and images of tori at different wavelengths. We calculated a grid of models for different parameters and analyzed the influence of these parameters on the shape of the mid-infrared emission. A corresponding set of clumps-only models and models with a smooth dust distribution is calculated for comparison. We found that the dust distribution, the optical depth and a random arrangement of clumps in the innermost region, all have an impact on the shape and strength of the silicate feature. The 10 μm silicate feature can be suppressed for some parameters, but models with smooth dust distribution are also able to produce a wide range of the silicate feature strength.