Related papers: Quasar Selection Based on Photometric Variability
We present an empirical investigation of the colors of quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) photometric system. The sample studied includes 2625 quasars with SDSS photometry. The quasars are distributed in a 2.5 degree wide stripe…
We introduce a technique to measure gravitational lensing magnification using the variability of type I quasars. Quasars' variability amplitudes and luminosities are tightly correlated, on average. Magnification due to gravitational lensing…
We present initial results from the first systematic survey of luminous $z\sim 5.5$ quasars. Quasars at $z \sim$ 5.5, the post-reionization epoch, are crucial tools to explore the evolution of intergalactic medium, quasar evolution and the…
In the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) quasars are targeted using colors and anything that can cause the identifying characteristics of the colors to disappear can create problems in the source selection process. Quasar spectra contain…
Machine learning techniques, specifically the k-nearest neighbour algorithm applied to optical band colours, have had some success in predicting photometric redshifts of quasi-stellar objects (QSOs): Although the mean of differences between…
Feature or variable selection is a problem inherent to large data sets. While many methods have been proposed to deal with this problem, some can scale poorly with the number of predictors in a data set. Screening methods scale linearly…
We present a method of selecting quasars up to redshift $\approx$ 6 with random forests, a supervised machine learning method, applied to Pan-STARRS1 and WISE data. We find that, thanks to the increasing set of known quasars we can assemble…
Studies of the most luminous quasars at high redshift directly probe the evolution of the most massive black holes in the early Universe and their connection to massive galaxy formation. However, extremely luminous quasars at high redshift…
Context. The identification of bright QSOs is of great importance to probe the intergalactic medium and address open questions in cosmology. Several approaches have been adopted to find such sources in currently available photometric…
Understanding the faint end of quasar luminosity function at a high redshift is important since the number density of faint quasars is a critical element in constraining ultraviolet (UV) photon budgets for ionizing the intergalactic medium…
We conduct a systematic search for quasars with periodic variations from the archival photometric data of the Zwicky Transient Facility by cross-matching with the quasar catalogs of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and V{\'e}ron-Cetty \&…
White dwarf stars are ubiquitous in the Galaxy, and are essential to understanding stellar evolution. While most white dwarfs are photometrically stable and reliable flux standards, some can be highly variable, which can reveal unique…
We analyze the X-ray variability of 264 Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectroscopic quasars using the Chandra public archive. This data set consists of quasars with spectroscopic redshifts out to z~5 and covers rest-frame time scales up to Delta…
We have used the KPNO 4-meter Mayall telescope to image 0.83 square degrees of sky in six fields at high galactic latitude in six filters spanning 3000-10000\AA\ to magnitude limits ranging from 22.1 to 23.8. As a first use of this…
We demonstrate that gravitationally lensed quasars are easily recognized using image subtraction methods as time variable sources that are spatially extended. For Galactic latitudes |b|>20 deg, lensed quasars dominate the population of…
We present a method to reliably select variable white dwarfs from large area time domain surveys and apply this method in a pilot study to search for pulsating white dwarfs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Stripe 82. From a sample 400…
Variable stars, or particularly eclipsing binaries, are very essential astronomical occurrence. Surveys are the backbone of astronomy, and many discoveries of variable stars are the results of surveys. All-Sky Automated Survey (ASAS) is one…
Combining radio observations with optical and infrared color selection -- demonstrated in our pilot study to be an efficient selection algorithm for finding red quasars -- we have obtained optical and infrared spectroscopy for 120 objects…
We have compiled a catalog of 903 candidates for type 1 quasars at redshifts 3<z<5.5 selected among the X-ray sources of the serendipitous XMM-Newton survey presented in the 3XMM-DR4 catalog (the median X-ray flux is 5x10^{-15} erg/s/cm^2…
The first step when investigating time varying data is the detection of any reliable changes in star brightness. This step is crucial to decreasing the processing time by reducing the number of sources processed in later, slower steps.…