Related papers: Testing microvariability in quasar differential li…
The detection of rapid variability on a time-scale of hours in radio-quiet quasars (RQQSOs) could be a powerful discriminator between starburst, accretion disc and relativistic jet models of these sources. This paper contains an account of…
The rest-frame UV/optical variability of the quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Stripe 82 is used to test the Corona-Heated Accretion-disk Reprocessing (CHAR) model of Sun et al. 2020. We adopt our CHAR model and the observed…
Using a sample of over 25000 spectroscopically confirmed quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we show how quasar variability in the rest frame optical/UV regime depends upon rest frame time lag, luminosity, rest wavelength, redshift,…
A new method for examining the possible space-time variation of the fine structure constant ($\alpha$) is proposed. The technique uses a relatively simple measurement with an optical resonator to compare atom-stabilized optical frequency…
We present a new method to estimate time delays from light curves of lensed quasars. The method is based on chi^2 minimization between the data and a numerical model light curve. A linear variation can be included in order to correct for…
Automatic classification methods applied to sky surveys have revolutionized the astronomical target selection process. Most surveys generate a vast amount of time series, or \quotes{lightcurves}, that represent the brightness variability of…
It has been found that some quasars are undergoing quasi-periodic variations (most of them with damped amplitudes) in optical bands from long-term monitoring campaigns, but how to explain the origin of such light curve variations still…
A selection of statistically stable (robust) algorithms for data variance calculating has been made. Their properties have been analyzed via computer simulation. These algorithms would be useful if adopted in radio astronomy observations in…
A number of deep, wide-field, near-infrared surveys employing new infrared cameras on 4m-class telescopes are about to commence. These surveys have the potential to determine the fraction of luminous dust-obscured quasars that may have…
Visual photometry, the estimation of stellar brightness by eye, continues to provide valuable data even in this highly-instrumented era. However, the eye-brain system functions differently from electronic sensors and its products can be…
Microlensing perturbations to the magnification of gravitationally lensed quasar images are dependent on the angular size of the quasar. If quasar variability at visible wavelengths is caused by a change in the area of the accretion disk,…
As the hunt for an Earth-like exoplanets has intensified in recent years, so has the effort to characterise and model the stellar signals that can hide or mimic small planetary signals. Stellar variability arises from a number of sources,…
Mass and radius measurements of stars are important inputs for models of stellar structure. Binary stars are of particular interest in this regard, because astrometry and spectroscopy of a binary together provide the masses of both stars as…
In this study, we demonstrate some of the caveats in common statistical methods used for analysing astronomical variability timescales. We consider these issues specifically in the context of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and use a more…
The variability of quasars across multiple wavelengths is a useful probe of physical conditions in active galactic nuclei. In particular, variable accretion rates, instabilities, and reverberation effects in the accretion disk of a…
Several cosmological measurements have attained significant levels of maturity and accuracy over the last decade. Continuing this trend, future observations promise measurements of the statistics of the cosmic mass distribution at an…
Microlensing studies of quasars can reveal dark matter lumps over a broad mass spectrum; we highlight the importance of monitoring quasars which are seen through the halos of low-redshift galaxies. For these configurations microlensing by…
We consider testing the equality of two high-dimensional covariance matrices by carrying out a multi-level thresholding procedure, which is designed to detect sparse and faint differences between the covariances. A novel U-statistic…
With the advent of high-cadence and multi-band photometric monitoring facilities, continuum reverberation mapping is becoming of increasing importance to measure the physical size of quasar accretion disks. The method is based on the…
The re-analysis of the data reported by Mateo et al. (1998) allowed us to obtain a partially different set of frequencies for the 20 short period variable stars discovered in the Carina dSph galaxy. They are subdivided into 6…