English

Systematic research of low redshift optically selected SDSS Type-2 AGN but with apparent long-term optical variabilities from Catalina Sky Survey, I: data sample and basic results

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2023-08-09 v1

Abstract

The main objective of the paper, the first paper in a dedicated series, is to report basic results on systematic research of low-redshift optically selected SDSS Type-2 AGN but with apparent optical variabilities. For all the pipeline classified Type-2 AGN in SDSS DR16 with z<0.3z<0.3 and SN>10SN>10, long-term optical V-band light curves are collected from Catalina Sky Survey. Through all light curves described by Damped Random Walk process with process parameters of σ/(mag/days0.5)\sigma/(mag/days^{0.5}) and τ/days\tau/days, 156 Type-2 AGN have apparent variabilities with process parameters at least three times larger than corresponding uncertainties and with ln(σ/(mag/days0.5))>4\ln(\sigma/(mag/days^{0.5}))>-4, indicating central AGN activity regions directly in line-of-sight, leading the 156 Type-2 AGN as mis-classified Type-2 AGN. Furthermore, based on spectroscopic emission features around Hα\alpha, 31 out of the 156 AGN have broad Hα\alpha, indicating the 31 Type-2 AGN are actually Type-1.8/1.9 AGN. Meanwhile, 14 out of the 156 AGN have multi-epoch SDSS spectra. After checking multi-epoch spectra of the 14 objects, no clues for appearance/disappearance of broad lines indicate true Type-2 AGN rather than changing-look AGN are preferred in the collected Type-2 AGN with long-term variabilities. Moreover, a small sample of Type-2 AGN have long-term variabilities with features roughly described by theoretical TDEs expected t5/3t^{-5/3}, indicating probable central TDEs as further and strong evidence to support true Type-2 AGN.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2302.08634,
  title  = {Systematic research of low redshift optically selected SDSS Type-2 AGN but with apparent long-term optical variabilities from Catalina Sky Survey, I: data sample and basic results},
  author = {Zhang XueGuang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2302.08634},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

30 pages, 12 figures, 2 tables, accepted to be published in ApJS