Related papers: A Search for Blazar Activity in Broad-Absorption-L…
We report the first systematic search for blazars among broad-absorption-line (BAL) quasars. This is based on our intranight optical monitoring of a well-defined sample of 10 candidates selected on the criteria of a flat spectrum and an…
This is continuation of our programme to search for the elusive radio-quiet BL Lacs, by carrying out a systematic search for intranight optical variability (INOV) in a subset of `weak-line quasars' which are already designated as…
This is continuation of our search for the elusive radio-quiet blazars, by carrying out a systematic programme to detect intranight optical variability (INOV) in a subset of `Weak-Lines-Quasars' (WLQs) which are designated as `high…
We report an extension of our program to search for radio-quiet BL Lac candidates using intra-night optical variability (INOV) as a probe. The present INOV observations cover a well-defined representative set of 10 `radio-quiet…
Variability studies of active galactic nuclei are a powerful diagnostic tool in understanding the physical processes occurring in disk-jet regions, unresolved by direct imaging with currently available techniques. Here, we report the first…
Based on a recently started programme, we report the first search for intranight optical variability among radio-quiet weak-line-quasars (RQWLQs). Eight members of this class were observed on 13 nights in the R-band, such that each source…
We present results of a multi-epoch intra-night optical monitoring of eleven blazars consisting of six BL Lac objects and five radio core-dominated quasars (CDQs). These densely sampled and sensitive R-band CCD observations, carried out…
We report the first results obtained from our campaign to characterize the intranight-optical variability (INOV) properties of {\it Fermi}~detected blazars, using the observations from the recently commissioned 1.3 m J C Bhattacharya…
We present the results of an optical photometric monitoring program of 10 extremely radio loud broad absorption line quasars (RL-BALQSOs) with radio-loudness parameter, R, greater than 100 and magnitude g_i < 19. Over an observing run of…
We present the results of a comparative study of the intra-night optical variability (INOV) characteristics of radio-loud and radio-quiet quasars, which involves a systematic intra-night optical monitoring of seven sets of high luminosity…
We report optical monitoring observations of 20 high-luminosity AGN, 12 of which are radio-quiet quasars (RQQs). Intra-night optical variability (INOV) was detected for 13 of the 20 objects, including 5 RQQs. The variations are distinctly…
We explore the potential of the ongoing Zwicky-Transient-Facility (ZTF) survey for studying Intra-Night Optical Variability (INOV) of active galactic nuclei (AGN), in particular for picking rare events of large INOV amplitudes, whose…
In this first systematic attempt to characterise the intranight optical variability (INOV) of TeV detected blazars, we have monitored a well defined set of 9 TeV blazars on total 26 nights during 2004-2010. In this R (or V)-band monitoring…
We present results of a programme of multi-epoch, intra-night optical monitoring of a sample of non-blazar type AGN, which includes seven radio-quiet QSOs (RQQs) and an equal number of radio-loud, lobe-dominated quasars (LDQs), covering a…
We report the results of our intensive intranight optical monitoring of 8 `radio-intermediate quasars' (RIQs) having flat or inverted radio spectra. The monitoring was carried out in {\it R-} band on 25 nights during 2005-09. An intranight…
BL Lac objects detected at TeV energies preferentially belong to the subclass called 'high-frequency-peaked' BL Lacs (HBLs). Parsec-scale radio jets in these TeV-HBLs often show dominant, slow moving radio knots that are at most mildly…
This overview provides a historical perspective highlighting the pioneering role which the fairly modest observational facilities of ARIES have played since the 1990s in systematically characterizing the optical variability on hour-like…
If broad absorption line (BAL) quasars represent a high covering fraction evolutionary state (even if this is not the sole factor governing the presence of BALs), it is expected that they should show an excess of mid-infrared radiation…
Although well established for BL Lac objects and radio-loud quasars, the occurrence of intra-night optical variability (INOV) in radio-quiet quasars is still debated, primarily since only a handful of INOV events with good statistical…
We present absorption variability results for 134 bona fide \mgii\ broad absorption line (BAL) quasars at 0.46~$\lesssim z \lesssim$~2.3 covering days to $\sim$ 10 yr in the rest frame. We use multiple-epoch spectra from the Sloan Digital…