- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJS/248/8
- Title:
- 9-yr of Fermi-LAT & Swift obs. of 3C 454.3 flares
- Short Name:
- J/ApJS/248/8
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- 3C 454.3 is frequently observed in the flaring state. The long-term light curve of this source has been analyzed with 9yr (2008 August - 2017 July) of data from the Fermi-LAT detector. We have identified five flares and one quiescent state. The flares have substructures with many peaks during the flaring phase. We have estimated the rise and decay time of the flares and compared with flares of other similar sources. The modeling of gamma-ray spectral energy distributions shows in most cases that a log-parabola function gives the best fit to the data. We have done time-dependent leptonic modeling of two of the flares, for which simultaneous multiwavelength data are available. These two long-lasting flares, Flare-2A and Flare-2D, continued for 95 and 133 days, respectively. We have used the average values of Doppler factor, injected luminosity in electrons, size of the emission region, and the magnetic field in the emission region in modeling these flares. The emission region is assumed to be in the broad-line region in our single-zone model. The energy losses (synchrotron, synchrotron self-Compton, external Compton) and escape of electrons from the emission region have been included while doing the modeling. Although the total jet powers required to model these flares with the leptonic model are higher compared to other sources, they are always found to be lower than the Eddington luminosity of 3C 454.3. We also select some flaring peaks and show that the time variation of the Doppler factor or the injected luminosity in electrons over short timescales can explain their light curves.
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- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/856/80
- Title:
- 6-yr optical monitoring of the FSRQ 3C 454.3
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/856/80
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present our photometric monitoring of a flat spectrum radio quasar 3C 454.3 at Yunnan observatories from 2006 to 2011. We find that the optical color of 3C 454.3 shows an obvious redder-when-brighter trend, which reaches a saturation stage when the source is brighter than 15.15mag at V band. We perform a simulation with multiple values of disk luminosity and spectral index to reproduce the magnitude-color diagram. The results show that the contamination caused by the disk radiation alone is difficult to produce the observed color variability. The variability properties during the outburst in 2009 December are also compared with {gamma}-ray data derived from the Fermi {gamma}-ray space telescope. The flux variation of these two bands follows a linear relation with F_{gamma}_{propto}F_R_^1.14+/-0.07^, which provides observational evidence for the external Compton process in 3C 454.3. Meanwhile, this flux correlation indicates that electron injection is the main mechanism for the variability origin. We also explore the variation of the flux ratio F{gamma}/FR and the detailed structures in the light curves, and discuss some possible origins for the detailed variability behaviors.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJS/245/18
- Title:
- 9yr R-band photopolarimetric data of 3C 279
- Short Name:
- J/ApJS/245/18
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- An exhaustive analysis of 9yr optical R-band photopolarimetric data of the flat-spectrum radio quasar 3C 279 from 2008 February 27 to 2017 May 25 is presented, along with multiwavelength observing campaigns performed during the flaring activity exhibited in 2009 February/March, 2011 June, 2014 March/April, 2015 June, and 2017 February. In the R band, this source showed the maximum brightness state of 13.68+/-0.11mag (1.36+/-0.20mJy) on 2017 March 2 and the lowest brightness state ever recorded of 18.20+/-0.87 mag (0.16+/-0.03mJy) on 2010 June 17. During the entire period of observations, the polarization degree varied between 0.48%+/-0.17% and 31.65%+/-0.77%, and the electric vector position angle (EVPA) exhibited large rotations between 82.98+/-0.92{deg} and 446.32+/-1.95{deg}. Optical polarization data show that this source has a stable polarized component that varied from~6% (before the 2009 flare) to~13% after the flare. The overall behavior of our polarized variability data supports the scenario of jet precessions as responsible for the observed large rotations of the EVPA. Discrete correlation function analysis shows that the lags between gamma-rays and X-rays compared to the optical R-band fluxes are {Delta}t~31 days and 1 day in 2009. Lags were also found among gamma-rays compared with X-rays and radio of {Delta}t~30 and 43 days in 2011, and among radio and optical R band of {Delta}t~10 days in 2014. A very intense flare in 2017 was observed in optical bands, with a dramatic variation in the polarization degree (from~6% to 20%) in 90 days without exhibiting flaring activity in other wavelengths.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJS/253/10
- Title:
- 12yrs of R-band photometry of the quasar 3C 454.3
- Short Name:
- J/ApJS/253/10
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- In this work, we present 8523 pairs of R-band optical photometry observations for the quasar 3C 454.3 made during the period of 2006 October - 2018 February on the 70cm meniscus telescope at Abastumani Observatory, Georgia, to study its intraday variabilities (IDVs) and long-term variations, and we have come to the following results. (1) We detected 10 outbursts, a {Delta}R=3.825mag variation, and some IDVs. The IDV timescales are from 4.1 to 285 minutes, with the corresponding variability amplitude being A=2.9%-43.67%. The amplitude increases with IDV timescale. (2) The largest variation over a 1 day timescale is {Delta}R=1.38mag. (3) The IDV timescales suggest that the emission sizes are from 8.9x10^13^cm to 6.20x10^15^cm, and the magnetic field strengths are B=0.18-0.79G. (4) Period analysis results show three possible long-term periods, p=3.04+/-0.02yr, p=1.66+/-0.06yr, and p=1.20+/-0.03yr in the optical light curve. We adopted the accretion disk models and the lighthouse models to period p=3.04+/-0.02yr: in the accretion disk models, the binary black holes have masses M=1.17x10^9^M_{sun}_; in the lighthouse models, we used two boosted jet flux densities to fit the observational light curve. (5) WWZ analysis gives some short-period (high-frequency) signals associated with strong bursts (JD2454302 and JD2454521) with variable frequencies and lasting for the entire observation time span (11.3yr).
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/815/91
- Title:
- z<0.16 CIV absorbers from HST/COS QSOs spectra
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/815/91
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- To investigate the evolution of metal-enriched gas over recent cosmic epochs as well as to characterize the diffuse, ionized, metal-enriched circumgalactic medium, we have conducted a blind survey for CIV absorption systems in 89 QSO sightlines observed with the Hubble Space Telescope Cosmic Origins Spectrograph. We have identified 42 absorbers at z<0.16, comprising the largest uniform blind sample size to date in this redshift range. Our measurements indicate an increasing CIV absorber number density per comoving path length (dN/dX=7.5+/-1.1) and modestly increasing mass density relative to the critical density of the universe ({Omega}_CIV_=10.0+/-1.5x10^-8^) from z~1.5 to the present epoch, consistent with predictions from cosmological hydrodynamical simulations. Furthermore, the data support a functional form for the column density distribution function that deviates from a single power law, also consistent with independent theoretical predictions. As the data also probe heavy element ions in addition to CIV at the same redshifts, we identify, measure, and search for correlations between column densities of these species where components appear to be aligned in velocity. Among these ion-ion correlations, we find evidence for tight correlations between CII and SiII, CII and SiIII, and CIV and SiIV, suggesting that these pairs of species arise in similar ionization conditions. However, the evidence for correlations decreases as the difference in ionization potential increases. Finally, when controlling for observational bias, we find only marginal evidence for a correlation (86.8% likelihood) between the Doppler line width b(CIV) and column density N(CIV).
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/151/120
- Title:
- z<1 3CR radio galaxies and quasars star formation
- Short Name:
- J/AJ/151/120
- Date:
- 16 Dec 2021 13:37:06
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Using the Herschel Space Observatory we have observed a representative sample of 87 powerful 3CR sources at redshift z<1. The far-infrared (FIR, 70-500 {mu}m) photometry is combined with mid-infrared (MIR) photometry from the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer and cataloged data to analyze the complete spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of each object from optical to radio wavelength. To disentangle the contributions of different components, the SEDs are fitted with a set of templates to derive the luminosities of host galaxy starlight, dust torus emission powered by active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and cool dust heated by stars. The level of emission from relativistic jets is also estimated to isolate the thermal host galaxy contribution. The new data are in line with the orientation-based unification of high-excitation radio-loud AGN, in that the dust torus becomes optically thin longwards of 30 {mu}m. The low-excitation radio galaxies and the MIR-weak sources represent an MIR- and FIR-faint AGN population that is different from the high-excitation MIR-bright objects; it remains an open question whether they are at a later evolutionary state or an intrinsically different population. The derived luminosities for host starlight and dust heated by star formation are converted to stellar masses and star-formation rates (SFR). The host-normalized SFR of the bulk of the 3CR sources is low when compared to other galaxy populations at the same epoch. Estimates of the dust mass yield a 1-100 times lower dust/stellar mass ratio than for the Milky Way, which indicates that these 3CR hosts have very low levels of interstellar matter and explains the low level of star formation. Less than 10% of the 3CR sources show levels of star formation above those of the main sequence of star-forming galaxies.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/543/552
- Title:
- z>3 damped Ly{alpha} absorption systems
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/543/552
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We have completed spectroscopic observations using LRIS on the Keck 1 telescope of 30 very high redshift quasars, 11 selected for the presence of damped Ly{alpha} absorption systems and 19 with redshifts z>3.5 not previously surveyed for absorption systems. We have surveyed an additional 10 QSOs with the Lick 120" and the Anglo-Australian Telescope. We have combined these with previous data, resulting in a statistical sample of 646 QSOs and 85 damped Ly{alpha} absorbers with column densities N_HI_>=2 10^20^atoms/cm^2^ covering the redshift range 0.008<=z<=4.694. Four main features of how the neutral gas in the universe evolves with redshift are evident from these data.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/661/88
- Title:
- Zn measurements in sub-DLAs and DLAs QSOs
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/661/88
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Observations of low mean metallicity of damped Ly{alpha} (DLA) quasar absorbers at all redshifts studied appear to contradict the predictions for the global mean interstellar metallicity in galaxies from cosmic chemical evolution models. On the other hand, a number of metal-rich sub-DLA systems have been identified recently, and the fraction of metal-rich sub-DLAs appears to be considerably larger than that of metal-rich DLAs, especially at z<1.5. In view of this, here we investigate the evolution of metallicity in sub-DLAs. We find that the mean Zn metallicity of the observed sub-DLAs may be higher than that of the observed DLAs, especially at low redshifts, reaching a near-solar level at z<~1. This trend does not appear to be an artifact of sample selection, the use of Zn, the use of N_HI_ weighting, or observational sensitivity.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/854/158
- Title:
- z<0.5 PG quasars IR energy distributions
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/854/158
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The interstellar medium is crucial to understanding the physics of active galaxies and the coevolution between supermassive black holes and their host galaxies. However, direct gas measurements are limited by sensitivity and other uncertainties. Dust provides an efficient indirect probe of the total gas. We apply this technique to a large sample of quasars, whose total gas content would be prohibitively expensive to measure. We present a comprehensive study of the full (1 to 500{mu}m) infrared spectral energy distributions of 87 redshift <0.5 quasars selected from the Palomar-Green sample, using photometric measurements from 2MASS, WISE, and Herschel, combined with Spitzer mid-infrared (5-40{mu}m) spectra. With a newly developed Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo fitting method, we decompose various overlapping contributions to the integrated spectral energy distribution, including starlight, warm dust from the torus, and cooler dust on galaxy scales. This procedure yields a robust dust mass, which we use to infer the gas mass, using a gas-to-dust ratio constrained by the host galaxy stellar mass. Most (90%) quasar hosts have gas fractions similar to those of massive, star-forming galaxies, although a minority (10%) seem genuinely gas-deficient, resembling present-day massive early-type galaxies. This result indicates that "quasar mode" feedback does not occur or is ineffective in the host galaxies of low-redshift quasars. We also find that quasars can boost the interstellar radiation field and heat dust on galactic scales. This cautions against the common practice of using the far-infrared luminosity to estimate the host galaxy star formation rate.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/768/105
- Title:
- z~5 QSO luminosity function from SDSS Stripe 82
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/768/105
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present a measurement of the Type I quasar luminosity function at z=5 using a large sample of spectroscopically confirmed quasars selected from optical imaging data. We measure the bright end (M_1450_<-26) with Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data covering ~6000deg^2^, then extend to lower luminosities (M_1450_<-24) with newly discovered, faint z~5 quasars selected from 235deg^2^ of deep, coadded imaging in the SDSS Stripe 82 region (the celestial equator in the Southern Galactic Cap). The faint sample includes 14 quasars with spectra obtained as ancillary science targets in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, and 59 quasars observed at the MMT and Magellan telescopes. We construct a well-defined sample of 4.7<z<5.1 quasars that is highly complete, with 73 spectroscopic identifications out of 92 candidates. Our color selection method is also highly efficient: of the 73 spectra obtained, 71 are high-redshift quasars. These observations reach below the break in the luminosity function (M_1450_^*^~-27). The bright-end slope is steep ({beta}<~-4), with a constraint of {beta}<-3.1 at 95% confidence. The break luminosity appears to evolve strongly at high redshift, providing an explanation for the flattening of the bright-end slope reported previously. We find a factor of ~2 greater decrease in the number density of luminous quasars (M_1450_<-26) from z=5 to z=6 than from z=4 to z=5, suggesting a more rapid decline in quasar activity at high redshift than found in previous surveys. Our model for the quasar luminosity function predicts that quasars generate ~30% of the ionizing photons required to keep hydrogen in the universe ionized at z=5.
