Related papers: The Color Variability of Quasars
It is currently unknown whether the Universe was reionized by quasars or stars at z>5. We point out that quasars can be best distinguished from stellar systems by their X-ray emission. Based on a simple hierarchical CDM model, we predict…
We constrain the average episodic quasar lifetime (as in steady-state accretion) using two statistics of quasars that are recently turned off (i.e., dimmed by a large factor): 1) the fraction of turned-off quasars in a statistical sample…
Recent work has found evidence for a difference in the bias and dark matter halo masses of WISE-selected obscured and unobscured quasars, implying a distinction between these populations beyond random line-of-sight effects. However, the…
We present an improved photometric error analysis for the 7,100 CRTS (Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey) optical light curves for quasars from the SDSS (Sloan Digital Sky Survey) Stripe 82 catalogue. The SDSS imaging survey has provided a…
We report on the second installment of an X-ray monitoring project of seven luminous radio-quiet quasars (RQQs). New {\sl Chandra} observations of four of these, at $4.10\leq z\leq4.35$, yield a total of six X-ray epochs, per source, with…
Jet launching in radio loud (RL) quasars is one of the fundamental problems in astrophysics. Exploring the differences in the inner accretion disk properties between RL and radio quiet (RQ) quasars might yield helpful clues to this puzzle.…
We investigate the spectro-photometric variability of quasars due to lensing of small mass substructure (from several tens to several hundreds solar masses). The aim of this paper is to explore the milli/microlensing influence on the flux…
Broad absorption lines (BALs) in quasar spectra identify high velocity outflows that likely exist in all quasars and could play a major role in feedback to galaxy evolution. The variability of BALs can help us understand the structure,…
We report a detection of statistically significant color variations for a sample of 7,531 multiply observed asteroids that are listed in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Moving Object Catalog. Using 5-band photometric observations accurate to…
A Fourier transform analysis of 2.5 million spectra in the SDSS survey was carried out to detect periodic modulations contained in their intensity versus frequency spectrum. A statistically significant signal was found for 223 galaxies…
Broad Absorption Lines indicate gas outflows with velocities from thousands km/s to about 0.2 the speed of light, which may be present in all quasars and may play a major role in the evolution of the host galaxy. The variability of…
We measure long (2200-4000 ang) and short (1450-2200 ang) wavelength spectral slopes \alpha (F_\nu proportional to \nu^\alpha) for quasar spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The long and short wavelength slopes are computed from 3646…
We present new Gemini/GMOS optical spectroscopy of 16 extreme variability quasars (EVQs) that dimmed by more than 1.5 mag in the $g$ band between the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the Dark Energy Survey (DES) epochs (separated by a…
Quasars serve as important cosmological probes and constructing accurate luminosity relations for them is essential for their use in cosmology. If the coefficients of quasar's luminosity relation vary with redshift, it could introduce…
We explore the form of extragalactic reddening toward quasars using a sample of 9566 quasars with redshifts 0<z<2.2, and accurate optical colors from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We confirm that dust reddening is the primary…
We investigate the luminosity dependence of quasar clustering, inspired by numerical simulations of galaxy mergers that incorporate black hole growth. These simulations have motivated a new interpretation of the quasar luminosity function.…
Using the light curve time series data for more than 11.7 million variable sources published in the Gaia Data Release 3, the average magnitudes, colors, and variability parameters have been computed for 0.836 million Gaia CRF objects, which…
Quasar emission lines are often shifted from the systemic velocity due to various dynamical and radiative processes in the line-emitting region. The level of these velocity shifts depends both on the line species and on quasar properties.…
We use 62185 quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 5 sample to explore the relationship between black hole mass and luminosity. Black hole masses were estimated based on the widths of their H{\beta}, MgII and CIV lines and…
Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are well-known to exhibit flux variability across a wide range of wavelength regimes, but the precise origin of the variability at different wavelengths remains unclear. To investigate the relatively unexplored…