- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/560/A104
- Title:
- UV variability of quasars
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/560/A104
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Although the variability in the ultraviolet and optical domain is one of the major characteristics of quasars, the dominant underlying mechanisms are still poorly understood. There is a broad consensus on the relationship between the strength of the variability and such quantities as time-lag, wavelength, luminosity, and redshift. However, evidence on a dependence on the fundamental parameters of the accretion process is still inconclusive. This paper is focused on the correlation between the ultraviolet quasar long-term variability and the accretion rate.
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Search Results
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/525/A37
- Title:
- Variability indexes of QSOs in SDSS Stripe 82
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/525/A37
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We identified 8744 quasars in the Light-Motion Curve Catalogue (LMCC; Bramich et al., 2008MNRAS.386..887B, http://das.sdss.org/value_added/stripe_82_variability/SDSS_82_public/) for the stripe 82 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The light curves were used, after correction for photometric outliers, to compute individual noise-corrected first-order structure functions (variance as a function of time-lag) binned into rest frame time-lag intervals. The mean value of the corrected structure function at rest frame time-lags from 300 to 600 days is found to be a useful variability index for the statistical investigation of quasar samples with redshifts up to ~3. For each quasar, the variability indexes for the five SDSS bands are given along with the equatorial coordinates, redshift, mean g band magnitude, absolute i band magnitude, and a remark on spectral peculiarities.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/497/81
- Title:
- Variability-selected AGN in CDFS
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/497/81
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Supermassive black holes with masses of 10^5^-10^9^M_{sun}_ are believed to inhabit most, if not all, nuclear regions of galaxies, and both observational evidence and theoretical models suggest a scenario where galaxy and black hole evolution are tightly related. Luminous AGNs are usually selected by their non-stellar colours or their X-ray emission. Colour selection cannot be used to select low-luminosity AGNs, since their emission is dominated by the host galaxy. Objects with low X-ray to optical ratio escape even the deepest X-ray surveys performed so far. In a previous study we presented a sample of candidates selected through optical variability in the Chandra Deep Field South, where repeated optical observations were performed in the framework of the STRESS supernova survey. The analysis is devoted to breaking down the sample in AGNs, starburst galaxies, and low-ionisation narrow-emission line objects, to providing new information about the possible dependence of the emission mechanisms on nuclear luminosity and black-hole mass, and eventually studying the evolution in cosmic time of the different populations.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/488/73
- Title:
- Variability-selected AGN in Chandra DFS
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/488/73
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Variability is a property shared by virtually all active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and was adopted as a criterion for their selection using data from multi epoch surveys. Low Luminosity AGNs (LLAGNs) are contaminated by the light of their host galaxies, and cannot therefore be detected by the usual colour techniques. For this reason, their evolution in cosmic time is poorly known. Consistency with the evolution derived from X-ray detected samples has not been clearly established so far, also because the low luminosity population consists of a mixture of different object types. LLAGNs can be detected by the nuclear optical variability of extended objects. Several variability surveys have been, or are being, conducted for the detection of supernovae (SNe). We propose to re-analyse these SNe data using a variability criterion optimised for AGN detection, to select a new AGN sample and study its properties. We analysed images acquired with the wide field imager at the 2.2m ESO/MPI telescope, in the framework of the STRESS supernova survey. We selected the AXAF field centred on the Chandra Deep Field South where, besides the deep X-ray survey, various optical data exist, originating in the EIS and COMBO-17 photometric surveys and the spectroscopic database of GOODS.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/487/4285
- Title:
- Variable AGN candidates catalog
- Short Name:
- J/MNRAS/487/4285
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Identifying active galactic nuclei (AGNs) through their X-ray emission is efficient, but necessarily biased against X-ray-faint objects. We aim to characterize this bias by comparing X-ray-selected AGNs to the ones identified through optical variability and mid-infrared (mid-IR) colours. We present a catalogue of AGNs selected through optical variability using all publicly available z-band Hubble Space Telescope images in the GOODS-South field. For all objects in the catalogue, we compute X-ray upper limits or discuss detections in the deepest available ~7 Ms Chandra Deep Field South images and present the Spitzer/Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) mid-IR colours. For the variability study, we consider only sources observed over at least five epochs and over a time baseline of up to 10yr. We adopt the elevated median absolute deviation as a variability indicator robust against individual outlier measurements and identify 113 variability-selected AGN candidates. Among these, 26 have an X-ray counterpart and lie within the conventional AGN area in the FX/Fopt diagram. The candidates with X-ray upper limits are on average optically fainter, have higher redshifts compared to the X-ray-detected ones and are consistent with low-luminosity AGNs. Out of 41 variable optical sources with IR detections, 13 fulfill the IR AGN colour selection criteria. Our work emphasizes the importance of optical variability surveys for constructing complete samples of AGNs including the ones that remain undetected even by the deepest X-ray and IR surveys.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/731/97
- Title:
- Variable AGNs in GOODS fields
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/731/97
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We identify 85 variable galaxies in the GOODS North and South fields using five epochs of Hubble Space Telescope Advance Camera for Survey V-band (F606W) images spanning 6 months. The variables are identified through significant flux changes in the galaxy's nucleus and represent ~2% of the survey galaxies. With the aim of studying the active galaxy population in the GOODS fields, we compare the variability-selected sample with X-ray and mid-IR active galactic nucleus (AGN) candidates. Forty-nine percent of the variables are associated with X-ray sources identified in the 2Ms Chandra surveys. Twenty-four percent of X-ray sources likely to be AGNs are optical variables and this percentage increases with decreasing hardness ratio of the X-ray emission. Stacking of the non-X-ray-detected variables reveals marginally significant soft X-ray emission. Forty-eight percent of mid-IR power-law sources are optical variables, all but one of which is also X-ray detected. Thus, about half of the optical variables are associated with either X-ray or mid-IR power-law emission. The slope of the power-law fit through the Spitzer IRAC bands indicates that two-thirds of the variables have BLAGN-like spectral energy distributions. Among those galaxies spectroscopically identified as AGNs, we observe variability in 74% of broad-line AGNs and 15% of NLAGNs. The variables are found in galaxies extending to z~3.6.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/633/638
- Title:
- Variable quasar sample from SDSS
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/633/638
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- SDSS repeat spectroscopic observations have resulted in multiepoch spectroscopy for 2500 quasars observed more than 50 days apart. From this sample, calibrating against stars observed simultaneously, we identify 315 quasars that have varied significantly between observations (with respect to assumed nonvariable stars observed concurrently). These variable quasars range in redshift from 0.5 to 4.72. This is the first large quasar sample studied spectroscopically for variability and represents a potentially useful sample for future high-redshift reverberation mapping studies. This also marks the first time the precise wavelength dependence of quasar variability has been determined, allowing both the continuum and emission-line variability to be studied.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/698/895
- Title:
- Variations in QSOs optical flux
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/698/895
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We analyze a sample of optical light curves, compiled from the literature, for 100 quasars, 70 of which have black hole mass estimates. Our sample is the largest and broadest used yet for modeling quasar variability. The sources in our sample have z<2.8, 10^42^<~{lambda}L_{lambda}_(5100{AA})<~10^46^, and 10^6^<~M_BH_/M_{sun}_<~10^10^. We model the light curves as a continuous time stochastic process, providing a natural means of estimating the characteristic timescale and amplitude of quasar variations. We employ a Bayesian approach to estimate the characteristic timescale and amplitude of flux variations; our approach is not affected by biases introduced from discrete sampling effects.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/732/121
- Title:
- V-band and H{beta} monitoring of Z299-15
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/732/121
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The Seyfert 1 galaxy Zw 229-015 is among the brightest active galaxies being monitored by the Kepler mission. In order to determine the black hole mass in Zw 229-015 from H{beta} reverberation mapping, we have carried out nightly observations with the Kast Spectrograph at the Lick 3m telescope during the dark runs from 2010 June through December, obtaining 54 spectroscopic observations in total. We have also obtained nightly V-band imaging with the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope at Lick Observatory and with the 0.9m telescope at the Brigham Young University West Mountain Observatory over the same period. We detect strong variability in the source, which exhibited more than a factor of two change in broad H{beta} flux. From cross-correlation measurements, we find that the H{beta} light curve has a rest-frame lag of 3.86^+0.69^_-0.90_ days with respect to the V-band continuum variations. We also measure reverberation lags for H{alpha} and H{gamma} and find an upper limit to the H{delta} lag. Combining the H{beta} lag measurement with a broad H{beta} width of {sigma}_line_=1590+/-47km/s measured from the rms variability spectrum, we obtain a virial estimate of M_BH_=1.00^+0.19^_-0.24_x10^7^M_{sun}_ for the black hole in Zw 229-015.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/585/647
- Title:
- Velocity dispersion in AGN
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/585/647
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- It has been proposed that the width of the narrow [O III] {lambda}5007 emission line can be used as a surrogate for the stellar velocity dispersion in active galaxies. This proposition is tested using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Early Data Release (EDR) spectra of 107 low-redshift radio-quiet QSOs and Seyfert 1 galaxies by investigating the correlation between black hole mass, as determined from H{beta} FWHM and optical luminosity, and [O III] FWHM. The correlation is real, but the scatter is large. Without additional information or selection criteria, the [O III] width can predict the black hole mass to a factor of 5.
