English
Related papers

Related papers: AGN Variability Surveys: DASCH from BATSS to EXIST

200 papers

One of the most peculiar characteristics of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) is their variability over all wavelengths. This property has been used in the past to select AGN samples and is foreseen to be one of the detection techniques applied…

The 4 Ms Chandra Deep Field-South (CDF-S) and other deep X-ray surveys have been highly effective at selecting active galactic nuclei (AGN). However, cosmologically distant low-luminosity AGN (LLAGN) have remained a challenge to identify…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-03 M. Young , W. N. Brandt , Y. Q. Xue , M. Paolillo , D. M. Alexander , F. E. Bauer , B. D. Lehmer , B. Luo , O. Shemmer , D. P. Schneider , C. Vignali

This whitepaper describes how the VLASS could be designed in a manner to allow the identification of candidate dual active galactic nuclei (AGN) at separations <7 kpc. Dual AGN represent a clear marker of two supermassive black holes within…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2014-02-05 Sarah Burke-Spolaor , Adam Brazier , Shami Chatterjee , Julia Comerford , James Cordes , T. Joseph W. Lazio , Xin Liu , Yue Shen

Dual Active Galactic Nuclei (dual AGNs), a phase in some galaxy mergers during which both central supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are active, are expected to be a key observable stage leading up to SMBH mergers. Constraining the population…

Periodic variability in active galactic nuclei (AGN) light curves has been proposed as a signature of close supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries. Recently, 181 candidate SMBH binaries were identified in Gaia DR3 based on apparently…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2026-01-28 Kareem El-Badry , David W. Hogg , Hans-Walter Rix

We discuss the very different methods in each wavelength band for selecting and finding Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). We briefly review the history of the different techniques for finding AGN and compare and contrast the advantages and…

Astrophysics · Physics 2016-01-27 Richard Mushotzky

The general picture of how thermal AGNs work has become clearer in recent years but major observational puzzles threaten to undermine this picture. These puzzles include AGNs with extremely asymmetric emission line profiles, inconsistent…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2018-03-14 C. Martin Gaskell

We analyse the ultraviolet variability time scales in a sample of 15 Type 1 Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) observed by IUE. Using a structure function analysis, we demonstrate the existence in most objects of a maximum variability time scale…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-11 P. Favre , T. J. -L. Courvoisier , S. Paltani

Physical processes such as re-ignition, enhancement, and fading of active galactic nuclei (AGN) are not entirely understood because the timeline of these events is expected to last many years. However, it is well known that the differences…

Observations and theoretical simulations suggest that the large scale environment plays a significant role in how galaxies form and evolve and, in particular, whether and when galaxies host an actively accreting supermassive black hole in…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-07-16 Anish S. Aradhey , Anca Constantin , Michael S. Vogeley , Kelly A. Douglass

Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) variability can be used to study the physics of the region in the vicinity of the central black hole. In this paper, we investigated intra-night optical variability of AGN in the COSMOS field in order to…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2018-09-12 Joonho Kim , Marios Karouzos , Myungshin Im , Changsu Choi , Dohyeong Kim , Hyunsung D. Jun , Joon Hyeop Lee , Mar Mezcua

Graham et al. found a sample of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and quasars from the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey (CRTS) that have long-term periodic variations in optical continuum, the nature of the periodicity remains uncertain. We…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2016-04-20 Kai-Xing Lu , Yan-Rong Li , Shao-Lan Bi , Jian-Min Wang

Hard X-ray ($\geq 10$ keV) observations of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) can shed light on some of the most obscured episodes of accretion onto supermassive black holes. The 70-month Swift/BAT all-sky survey, which probes the 14-195 keV…

We present the observed fraction of galaxies with an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) as a function of environment in the Early Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Using 4921 galaxies between 0.05 <= z <= 0.095, and brighter…

We present the first short time-scale ($\sim$hours to days) optical variability study of a large sample of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) observed with the Kepler/K2 mission. The sample contains 252 AGN observed over four campaigns with $\sim…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2018-03-14 E. Aranzana , E. Kording , P. Uttley , S. Scaringi , S. Bloemen

The ensemble optical/ultraviolet variability of narrow-line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) type active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is investigated, based on a sample selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Stripe-82 region with multi-epoch…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-12 Y. L. Ai , W. Yuan , H. Zhou , T. G. Wang , X. -B. Dong , J. G. Wang , H. L. Lu

We present the first systematic study of short-timescale X-ray variability in radio-quiet active galactic nuclei (AGN), utilizing archival Chandra observations of approximately 3,000 broad-line AGN selected from the SDSS and DESI…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-12-09 Xiurui Zhao , Luca Comisso , Stefano Marchesi , Marco Ajello , Elias Kammoun , Yue Shen , Qiaoya Wu

Current X-ray observatories, archival X-ray data, and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) represent a powerful combination for addressing key questions about active galactic nuclei (AGN). We describe a few selected issues at the forefront…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 W. N. Brandt , D. P. Schneider , C. Vignali

Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are supermassive black holes with luminous accretion disks found in some galaxies, and are thought to play an important role in galaxy evolution. However, traditional optical spectroscopy for identifying AGN…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2022-12-16 Ziting Guo , John F. Wu , Chelsea E. Sharon

We use the VST-COSMOS survey to identify, via their optical broadband variability, 30 AGN in nearby (z<0.4) dwarf (10^8 MSun < M < 10^10 MSun) galaxies. VST-COSMOS offers a 1 deg^2 survey footprint, a single visit depth of 24.6 mag and 68…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-11-20 S. Kaviraj , D. De Cicco , I. Lazar , B. Bichang'a , A. E. Watkins , G. Martin , S. Koudmani