A long standing problem in the study of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) is that the observed VLBI core is in fact a blending of the actual AGN core (classically defined by the  = 1 surface) and the upstream regions of the jet or optically thin flows. This blending may cause some biases in the observ- ables of the core, such as its flux density, size or brightness temperature, which may lead to misleading interpretation of the derived quantities and physics. We study the effects of such blending under the view of the Korean VLBI Network (KVN) for a sample of AGNs at 43 GHz by comparing their observed properties with observations obtained using the Very Large Baseline Array (VLBA). Our results suggest that the observed core sizes are a factor  11 larger than these of VLBA, which is similar to the factor expected by considering the different resolutions of the two facilities. We suggest the use of this factor to consider blending effects in KVN measurements. Other parameters, such as flux density or brightness temperature, seem to possess a more complicated dependence.

Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) variability can be used to study the physics of the region in the vicinity of the central black hole. In this paper, we investigated intra-night optical variability of AGN in the COSMOS field in order to understand the AGN instability at the smallest scale. Observations were performed using the KMTNet on three separate nights for 2.5 to 5 hours at a cadence of 20 to 30 min. We find that the observation enables the detection of short-term variability as small as ∼ 0.02 and 0.1 mag for R ∼ 18 and 20 mag sources, respectively. Using four selection methods (X-rays, mid-infrared, radio, and matching with SDSS quasars), 394 AGN are detected in the 4 deg2 field of view. After differential photometry and X2−test, we classify intra-night variable AGN. The fraction of variable AGN (0–8%) is statistically consistent with a null result. Eight out of 394 AGN are found to be intra-night variable in two filters or two nights with a variability level of 0.1 mag, suggesting that they are strong candidates for intra-night variable AGN. Still they represent a small population (2%). There is no sub-category of AGN that shows a statistically significant intra-night variability.

We demonstrate the luminosity dependence of the covering factor (CF) of active galactic nuclei (AGNs), based on AKARI mid-infrared all-sky survey catalog. Combining the AKARI with Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) spectroscopic data, we selected 243 galaxies at 9 m and 255 galaxies at 18 m. We then identied 64 AGNs at 9 μm and 105 AGNs at 18 μm by their optical emission lines. Following that, we estimated the CF as the fraction of type 2 AGN in all AGNs. We found that the CF decreased with increasing 18 μm luminosity, regardless of the choice of type 2 AGN classification criteria.

Combining the AKARI Point Source Catalog and the 37-month Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI) catalog, the infrared and X-ray properties of nearby active galactic nuclei were investigated. The 37-month MAXI catalog tabulates 100 nearby Seyfert galaxies, 73 of which are categorized into Seyfert I galaxies. Among these Seyfert galaxies, 69 ones were found to have an AKARI infrared counterpart. For the Seyfert I galaxies in this sample, a well-known correlation was found between the infrared and X-ray luminosities. However, the observed X-ray luminosity of the Seyfert II galaxies tends to be lower for the infrared luminosity than the Seyfert I galaxies. This suggests that the X-ray absorption is significant in the Seyfert II galaxies. The Seyfert II galaxies seem to have a bimodal distribution of the IR color between 18 μm and 90 μm. Especially, a large fraction of the Seyfert II galaxies exhibits a redder IR color than the Seyfert I galaxies. A possible origin of the redder IR color is brie y discussed, in relation to the star formation activity in the host galaxy, and to the X-ray absorption.

The dusty torus of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) is one of the important components for the unification theory of AGNs. The geometry and properties of the dusty torus are key factors in understanding the nature of AGNs as well as the formation and evolution of AGNs. However, they are still under discussion. Infrared observation is useful for understanding the dusty torus as thermal emission from hot dust with the dust sublimation temperature (~ 1500 K) has been observed in the infrared. We have analyzed infrared spectroscopic data of low-redshift and high-redshift quasars, which are luminous AGNs. For the low-redshift quasars, we constructed the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) with AKARI near-infrared and Spitzer mid-infrared spectra and decomposed the SEDs into a power-law component from the nuclei, silicate features, and blackbody components with different temperatures from the dusty torus. From the decomposition, the temperature of the innermost dusty torus shows the range between 900-2000 K. For the high-redshift quasars, AKARI traced rest-frame optical and near-infrared spectra of AGNs. Combining with WISE data, we have found that the temperature of the innermost dusty torus in high redshift quasars is lower than that in typical quasars. The hydrogen Hα emission line from the braod emission line region in the quasars also shows narrow full width at half maximum of 3000-4000 km s-1. These results indicate that the dusty torus and the broad emission line region are more extended than those of typical quasars.