Related papers: Deep modeling of quasar variability
Aims. The main purpose of this paper is to study time delays between the light variations in different wavebands for a sample of quasars. Measuring a reliable time delay for a large number of quasars may help constraint the models of their…
We study the optical light curves - primarily probing the variable emission from the accretion disk - of ~ 900 extreme variability quasars (EVQs, with maximum flux variations more than 1 mag) over an observed-frame baseline of ~ 16 years…
Continuously-observed event occurrences, often exhibit self- and mutually-exciting effects, which can be well modeled using temporal point processes. Beyond that, these event dynamics may also change over time, with certain periodic trends.…
We present a new and simple technique for selecting extensive, complete and pure quasar samples, based on their intrinsic variability. We parametrize the single-band variability by a power-law model for the light-curve structure function,…
Variational autoencoders (VAEs) have been used extensively to discover low-dimensional latent factors governing neural activity and animal behavior. However, without careful model selection, the uncovered latent factors may reflect noise in…
In our second paper on long-term quasar variability, we employ a much larger database of quasars than in de Vries, Becker & White. This expanded sample, containing 35165 quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 2, and 6413…
In a given scene, humans can often easily predict a set of immediate future events that might happen. However, generalized pixel-level anticipation in computer vision systems is difficult because machine learning struggles with the…
We analyze 1598 serendipitous Chandra X-ray observations of 462 radio-quiet quasars to constrain the frequency of extreme amplitude X-ray variability that is intrinsic to the quasar corona and innermost accretion flow. The quasars in this…
We perform a systematic search for long-term extreme variability quasars (EVQs) in the overlapping Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and 3-Year Dark Energy Survey (DES) imaging, which provide light curves spanning more than 15 years. We…
We characterize the optical variability of quasars in the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF) and Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) surveys. We re-calibrate the $r$-band light curves for $\sim$28,000 luminous, broad-line AGNs from…
We use a sample of 3791 quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Early Data Release (EDR), and compare their photometry to historic plate material for the same set of quasars in order to study their variability properties. The time…
Quasars are variable on timescales from days to years in UV/optical, and generally appear bluer while they brighten. The physics behind the variations in fluxes and colors remains unclear. Using SDSS g and r band photometric monitoring data…
When a flux-limited quasar sample is observed at later times, there will be more dimmed quasars than brightened ones, due to a selection bias induced at the time of sample selection. Quasars are continuously varying and there are more…
We have recently demonstrated that the non-linear relation between ultraviolet and X-ray luminosity in quasars is very tight (with an intrinsic dispersion of ~0.2 dex), once contaminants (e.g. dust reddening, X-ray absorption), variability,…
After decades of searching, cosmological time dilation was recently identified in the timescale of variability seen in distant quasars. Here, we expand on the previous analysis to disentangle this cosmological signal from the influence of…
The variability of active galactic nuclei (AGN) has long held the promise of shedding light on their detailed structure, and possibly other astrophysical phenonema. Different emission mechanisms lead to different patterns of variability in…
We present variability and multi-wavelength photometric information for the 933 known quasars in the QUEST Variability Survey. These quasars are grouped into variable and non-variable populations based on measured variability confidence…
Inverse problems aim to determine model parameters of a mathematical problem from given observational data. Neural networks can provide an efficient tool to solve these problems. In the context of Bayesian inverse problems, Uncertainty…
The optical/ultraviolet (UV) variability of quasars has been discovered to be correlated with other quasar properties, such as luminosity, black hole mass and rest-frame wavelength. However,the origin of variability has been a puzzle so…
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…