Related papers: A Search for Optical Variability of Type 2 Quasars…
To understand the Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) phenomenon and their impact on the evolution of galaxies, a complete AGN census is required; however, finding heavily obscured AGNs is observationally challenging. Here we use the deep and…
There is a large degree of variety in the optical variability of quasars and it is unclear whether this is all attributable to a single (set of) physical mechanism(s). We present the results of a systematic search for major flares in AGN in…
We discuss 76 large amplitude transients (Delta-m>1.5) occurring in the nuclei of galaxies, nearly all with no previously known Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN). They have been discovered as part of the Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) 3pi survey, by…
Many open questions in X-ray astronomy are limited by the relatively small number of objects in uniform optically-identified samples, especially when rare subclasses are considered, or subsets isolated to search for evolution or…
The dependence of the long-term optical/UV variability on the spectral and the fundamental physical parameters for radio-quiet active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is investigated. The multi-epoch repeated photometric scanning data in the…
Since the discovery of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and their subclasses, a unification scheme of AGN has been long sought. Orientation-based unified models predict that some of the diversity within AGN subclasses can be explained by the…
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…
Reddened Type-1 quasars offer a unique window into the structure and evolution of active galactic nuclei (AGN), yet their physical origin and the source of their reddening remain uncertain. Optical surveys often miss these dust-obscured…
We are carrying out sensitive X-ray observations with Chandra and XMM of type II quasars selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey based on their optical emission line properties. We present observations of four objects at redshifts 0.4 <…
We report on a NuSTAR and XMM-Newton program that has observed a sample of three extremely luminous, heavily obscured WISE-selected AGN at z~2 in a broad X-ray band (0.1 - 79 keV). The parent sample, selected to be faint or undetected in…
We compared optical spectroscopic and photometric data for 18 AGN galaxies over 2 to 3 epochs, with time intervals of typically 5 to 10 years. We used the Multi-Object Double Spectrograph (MODS) at the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) and…
Using archival SDSS multi-epoch imaging data (Stripe 82), we have searched for the tidal disruption of stars by super-massive black holes in non-active galaxies. Two candidate tidal disruption events (TDEs) are identified. They have optical…
The goal of this work is to study the obscuration properties of mid-infrared (mid-IR) selected AGN. For that purpose, we use {\it{WISE}} sources in the Stripe 82-XMM area to identify mid-IR AGN candidates, applying the Assef et al.…
We develop a method for separating quasars from other variable point sources using SDSS Stripe 82 light curve data for ~10,000 variable objects. To statistically describe quasar variability, we use a damped random walk model parametrized by…
Optical broad-band polarimetry is presented for near-infrared color-selected AGN classified QSOs based on their K-band luminosity. More than 10% of a sample of 70 QSOs discovered in the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) with J-K > 2 and M_K…
We present a small sample of Chandra X-ray sources selected from the fields of ACIS observations which probe fluxes around the break in the hard band source counts. The targets of these fields include 9 nearby galaxy clusters, 1 distant…
A sample of X-ray and optically selected narrow emission-line galaxies (769 sources) from the 3XMM catalogue cross-correlated with SDSS (DR9) catalogue has been studied. Narrow-emission line active galactic nuclei (AGN; type-2) have been…
Variability is a main property of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and it was adopted as a selection criterion using multi epoch surveys conducted for the detection of supernovae (SNe). We have used two SN datasets. First we selected the AXAF…
Observations of 226 AGNs in the near-infrared $J$, $H$, and $K'$ bands are presented along with the analysis of the observations for variability. Our sample consists mainly of Seyfert 1 AGNs and QSOs. About a quarter of the objects in each…
The changing-look active galactic nucleus (CL-AGN), an extraordinary subpopulation of supermassive black holes, has attracted growing attention for understanding its nature. We present an analysis of the spectral properties of 203…