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Related papers: Extracting Information from AGN Variability

200 papers

A damped random walk (DRW) process is often used to describe the temporal UV/optical continuum variability of active galactic nuclei (AGN). However, recent investigations have shown that this model fails to capture the full spectrum of AGN…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-10-21 Weixiang Yu , Gordon T. Richards , John J. Ruan , Michael S. Vogeley , Franz E. Bauer , Matthew J. Graham

Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are known for irregular variability on all time scales, down to intra-day variability with relative variations of a few percent within minutes to hours. On such short timescales, unexplored territory, such as…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-11-27 Taeseok Lee , Sascha Trippe , Junghwan Oh , Do-Young Byun , Bong-Won Sohn , Sang-Sung Lee

In the broad line region of AGN, acceleration occurs naturally when a cloud condenses out of the hot confining medium due to the increase in line opacity as the cloud cools. However, acceleration by radiation pressure is not very efficient…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2016-07-13 Tim Waters , Daniel Proga

We present a test of the emission statistics of active galactic nuclei (AGN), probing the connection between red-noise temporal power spectra and multi-modal flux distributions known from observations. We simulate AGN lightcurves under the…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-11 Jong-Ho Park , Sascha Trippe

We present results of recurrence analysis of 46 active galactic nuclei (AGN) using light curves from the 157-month catalog of the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) in the 14-150 keV band. We generate recurrence plots and compute recurrence…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-11-28 R. A. Phillipson , M. S. Vogeley , P. T. Boyd

The extremes of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) variability offer valuable new insights into the drivers and physics of AGN. We discuss some of the most extreme cases of AGN variability; the highest amplitudes, deep minima states, extreme…

Interband lags in the optical continua of active galactic nuclei (AGN) have been observed over years of monitoring, yet their physical origins remain unclear. While variable interband lags have been found in a few individual AGN…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-07-08 Zhen-Bo Su , Zhen-Yi Cai , Hengxiao Guo , Mouyuan Sun , Jun-Xian Wang

Gamma-ray flares from Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) show substantial variability on ultrafast timescales (i.e. shorter than the light crossing time of the AGN's supermassive black hole). We propose that ultrafast variability is a byproduct…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-04-12 Emanuele Sobacchi , Tsvi Piran , Luca Comisso

This paper investigates a new methodology to search for periods in light-curves of high-energy gamma-ray sources such as Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs). High-energy light curves have significant stochastic components, making period detection…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-07-27 Héctor Rueda , Jean-François Glicenstein , François Brun

We present the results from a detailed X-ray variability analysis of 66 AGN in the Lockman Hole, which have optical spectroscopic identifications. We compare, quantitatively, their variability properties with the properties of local AGN,…

This paper presents the results of a study of X-ray spectral and flux variability on time scales from months to years, of the 123 brightest objects (including 46 type-1 AGN and 28 type-2 AGN) detected with XMM-Newton in the Lockman Hole…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-13 S. Mateos , X. Barcons , F. J. Carrera , M. J. Page , M. T. Ceballos , G. Hasinger , A. C. Fabian

Many nearby AGNs display a significant short-term variability. In this work we re-analyze photometric data of four active galactic nuclei observed by Kepler in order to study the flickering activity, having as main goal that of searching…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-07-26 A. Dobrotka , V. Antonuccio-Delogu , I. Bajcicakova

We have used Kepler photometry to characterize variability in four radio-loud active galactic nuclei (three quasars and one object tentatively identified as a Seyfert 1.5 galaxy) on timescales from minutes to months, comparable to the light…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-06-15 Ann E. Wehrle , Paul J. Wiita , Stephen C. Unwin , Paolo Di Lorenzo , Mitchell Revalski , Daniel Silano , Dan Sprague

This paper presents light curves and the first systematic characterization of variability of the 106 objects in the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) Bright AGN Sample (LBAS). Weekly light curves obtained during the first 11 months of survey…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-05-18 A. A. Abdo

We examine the continuum variability of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) by analyzing the multi-epoch spectroscopic data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. To achieve this, we utilized approximately 2 million spectroscopy pairwise combinations…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-11-13 Minjin Kim , Suyeon Son , Luis C. Ho

Significant variability in broad emission line strengths of active galactic nuclei (AGN) over months to years has been observed, often accompanied by intrinsic continuum changes. Such spectral variability challenges the traditional AGN…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-07-22 Tek P. Adhikari , Santanu Mondal , Zhicheng He , Agata Rozanska , Krzysztof Hryniewicz

The unprecedented sensitivity of current X-ray telescopes allows for the first time to address the issue of the Fe K line complex variability patterns in bright, nearby AGNs. We examine XMM-Newton observations of the brightest sources of…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-05-13 B. De Marco , K. Iwasawa , M. Cappi , M. Dadina , F. Tombesi , G. Ponti , A. Celotti , G. Miniutti

Multi-wavelength observations of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) often reveal various time scales of variability. Among these phenomena, "changing-look AGNs" are extreme cases where broad emission lines become faint/bright or even…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2023-09-25 Keiichi Wada , Yuki Kudoh , Tohru Nagao

We have used photometry from the Kepler satellite to characterize the variability of four radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN) on timescales from years to minutes. The Kepler satellite produced nearly continuous high precision data sets…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-01-27 Mitchell Revalski , Dawid Nowak , Paul J. Wiita , Ann E. Wehrle , Stephen C. Unwin

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will monitor tens of millions of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) for a period of 10 years with an average cadence of 3 days in six broad photometric bands. This…