# Calibration of AGN Reverberation Distance Measurements

## TL;DR

This paper validates a dust reverberation method for measuring extragalactic distances using Type Ia supernovae in AGN host galaxies, confirming its accuracy and extending its application to cosmological distance measurements up to redshift 0.3.

## Contribution

The paper introduces a validation of a new AGN dust reverberation distance measurement method using supernovae, confirming its consistency with established techniques and extending its use for cosmological studies.

## Key findings

- Validated the dust reverberation method with SN Ia distances
- Found the calibration factor g consistent with previous estimates
- Extended the Hubble diagram to z≈0.3 using AGN reverberation distances

## Abstract

In Yoshii et al. (2014), we described a new method for measuring extragalactic distances based on dust reverberation in active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and we validated our new method with Cepheid variable stars. In this paper, we validate our new method with Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) which occurred in two of the AGN host galaxies during our AGN monitoring program: SN 2004bd in NGC 3786 and SN 2008ec in NGC 7469. Their multicolor light curves were observed and analyzed using two widely accepted methods for measuring SN distances, and the distance moduli derived are $\mu=33.47\pm 0.15$ for SN 2004bd and $33.83\pm 0.07$ for SN 2008ec. These results are used to obtain independently the distance measurement calibration factor, $g$. The $g$ value obtained from the SN Ia discussed in this paper is $g_{\rm SN} = 10.61\pm 0.50$ which matches, within the range of 1$\sigma$ uncertainty, $g_{\rm DUST} = 10.60$, previously calculated ab initio in Yoshii et al. (2014). Having validated our new method for measuring extragalactic distances, we use our new method to calibrate reverberation distances derived from variations of H$\beta$ emission in the AGN broad line region (BLR), extending the Hubble diagram to $z\approx 0.3$ where distinguishing between cosmologies is becoming possible.