We conduct an analysis of over 60,000 dwarf galaxies (7<=log(M_*/M_\odot)<=10) in search of photometric variability indicative of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Using data from the Young Supernova Experiment (YSE), a time domain survey on the Pan-STARRS telescopes, we construct light curves for each galaxy in up to four bands (griz) where available. We select objects with AGN-like variability by fitting each light curve to a damped random walk (DRW) model. After quality cuts and removing transient contaminants, we identify 1100 variability-selected AGN candidates (representing 2.4% of the available sample). We analyze their spectra to measure various emission lines and calculate black hole (BH) masses, finding general agreement with previously found mass scaling-relations and nine potential IMBH candidates. Furthermore, we re-analyze the light curves for our candidates to calculate the dampening timescale tau_DRW associated with the DRW and see a similar correlation between this value and the BH mass. Finally, we estimate the active fraction as a function of stellar mass and see evidence that active fraction increases with host mass.
@article{arxiv.2504.00971,
title = {A Large-Scale Search for Photometrically Variable AGNs in Dwarf Galaxies Using the Young Supernova Experiment},
author = {Alexander Messick and Vivienne Baldassare and David O. Jones and K. Decker French and Sandra I. Raimundo and Nicholas Earl and Katie Auchettl and David A. Coulter and Mark E. Huber and Margaret E. Verrico and Thomas de Boer and Kenneth C. Chambers and Hua Gao and Chien-Cheng Lin and Richard J. Wainscoat},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2504.00971},
year = {2025}
}