Confronting a Thin Disk-Wind Launching Mechanism of Broad-Line Emission in AGN with GRAVITY Observations of Quasar 3C 273

Quasars show a remarkable degree of atomic emission line-broadening, an observational feature which, in conjunction with a radial distance estimate for this emission from the nucleus is often used to infer the mass of the central supermassive black hole. The radius estimate depends on the structure and kinematics of this so-called Broad-Line Region (BLR), which is often modeled as a set of discrete emitting clouds.