Related papers: Quasar bolometric corrections: theoretical conside…
(abridged) We have spectrophotometrically monitored a well-defined sample of 28 Palomar-Green quasars in order to obtain measurements of their BLRs and to investigate the relationships between quasar luminosity, central black hole mass, and…
We investigate the accretion rate, bolometric luminosity, black hole (BH) growth time and BH spin in a large AGN sample under the assumption that all such objects are powered via thin or slim accretion discs (ADs). We use direct estimates…
The orientation-dependence of the optical continuum emission in radio-loud quasars is investigated using a new, complete sample of low-frequency-selected quasars, the Molonglo Quasar Sample (MQS). The optical continuum is found to be highly…
We measure the spectral properties of a representative sub-sample of 187 quasars, drawn from the Parkes Half-Jansky, Flat-radio-spectrum Sample (PHFS). Quasars with a wide range of rest-frame optical/UV continuum slopes are included in the…
We use the high magnification event seen in the 1999 OGLE campaign light curve of image C of the quadruply imaged gravitational lens Q2237+0305 to study the structure of the quasar engine. We have obtained g'- and r'-band photometry at the…
In this Letter, the properties of the extended radio emission form SDSS DR7 quasars with $0.4<z<0.8$ is studied. This low redshift sample is useful since any corresponding FIRST radio observations are sensitive enough to detect extended…
We use the microlensing variability observed for nine gravitationally lensed quasars to show that the accretion disk size at 2500 Angstroms is related to the black hole mass by log(R_2500/cm) = (15.6+-0.2) + (0.54+-0.28)log(M_BH/10^9M_sun).…
We present accretion disk size measurements for 15 luminous quasars at $0.7 \leq z \leq 1.9$ derived from $griz$ light curves from the Dark Energy Survey. We measure the disk sizes with continuum reverberation mapping using two methods,…
We study the BELs in a sample of 11 gravitationally lensed quasars with at least two epochs of observation to identify intrinsic variability and to disentangle it from microlensing. To improve our statistical significance we also include 15…
Spectra observed with the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES) on the European Southern Observatory's VLT exhibit long-range wavelength distortions. These distortions impose a systematic error on high-precision measurements of…
Gravitational microlensing is a powerful tool to probe the inner structure of strongly lensed quasars and to constrain parameters of the stellar mass function of lens galaxies. This is done by analysing microlensing light curves between the…
Quasars are ideal targets to use for astrometric calibration of large scale astronomical surveys as they have negligible proper motion and parallax. The forthcoming 4-m International Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT) will survey the sky that…
We have calculated the spectrum and polarization of a standard thin accretion disk with parameters appropriate for a bright quasar. This model improves upon previous work by including ultraviolet metal line opacities, assumed for now to be…
Recent estimates of the scale of structures at the heart of quasars suggest that the region responsible for the broad line emission are smaller than previously thought. With this revision of scale, the broad line region is amenable to the…
HST observations of some QSOs show a strong, abrupt increase in polarization at rest wavelength about 750 A, suggestive of a connection with the Lyman edge of hydrogen. Blaes and Agol (1996) have proposed an explanation in terms of stellar…
The kinematics and morphology of the broad emission line region (BELR) of quasars are the subject of significant debate. The two leading methods for constraining BELR properties are microlensing and reverberation mapping. Here we combine…
Optical quasar spectra can be used to trace variations of the fine-structure constant alpha. Controversial results that have been published in last years suggest that in addition to to wavelength calibration problems systematic errors might…
We aim at characterizing the X-ray-to-optical/near-infrared broad-band emission of luminous QSOs in the first Gyr of cosmic evolution to understand whether they exhibit differences compared to the lower-\textit{z} QSO population. Our goal…
The radio/X-ray correlation is one of the most important pieces of observational evidence of the disk-jet connection in accreting compact objects. However, a growing number of X-ray binaries seem to present deviations from the universal…
The development line of bolometric corrections within the brief history of photometry was described from the perspective of the Kuhnian philosophy of science. The luminous efficiency and heat index were two previous concepts to imply visual…