Related papers: A Sample Bias in Quasar Variability Studies

We model the time variability of ~9,000 spectroscopically confirmed quasars in SDSS Stripe 82 as a damped random walk. Using 2.7 million photometric measurements collected over 10 years, we confirm the results of Kelly et al. (2009) and…

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…

We analyze a sample of optical light curves for 100 quasars, 70 of which have black hole mass estimates. Our sample is the largest and broadest used yet for modeling quasar variability. The sources in our sample have z < 2.8 and 10^6 < M_BH…

We investigate the UV-optical (longward of Ly$\alpha$ 1216\AA) spectral variability of nearly 9000 quasars ($0<z<4$) using multi-epoch photometric data within the SDSS Stripe 82 region. The regression slope in the flux-flux space of a…

In recent work done by Sun et. al., the color variation of quasars, namely the bluer-when-brighter trend, was found to be timescale-dependent using SDSS $g/r$ band light curves in the Stripe 82. Such timescale dependence, i.e., bluer…

Significant progress in the description of quasar variability has been recently made by employing SDSS and POSS data. Common to most studies is a fundamental assumption that photometric observations at two epochs for a large number of…

We quantify quasar color-variability using an unprecedented variability database - ugriz photometry of 9093 quasars from SDSS Stripe 82, observed over 8 years at ~60 epochs each. We confirm previous reports that quasars become bluer when…

Variations of the X-ray spectral slope have been found in many Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) at moderate luminosities and redshifts, typically showing a "softer when brighter" behaviour. However, similar studies are not usually performed for…

Quasars are variable and their variability can both constrain their physical properties and help to identify them. We look for ways to efficiently identify quasars exhibiting consistent variability over multi-year time-scales, based on a…

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…

We present results from a monitoring program of 42 quasars from the Palomar Green sample. The objects were observed for 7 years at the Wise Observatory, as part of a long term effort to monitor AGN of various types. This is the most…

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 timescale of quasar variability is widely expected to show the effects of time dilation. In this paper we analyse the Fourier power spectra of a large sample of quasar light curves to look for such an effect. We find that the timescale…

Quasar microlensing analyses implicitly generate a model of the variability of the source quasar. The implied source variability may be unrealistic yet its likelihood is generally not evaluated. We used the damped random walk (DRW) model…

In Lyman-alpha forest measurements it is generally assumed that quasars are mere background light sources which are uncorrelated with the forest. Gravitational lensing of the quasars violates this assumption. This effect leads to a…

The gravitational field of a galaxy can act as a lens and deflect the light emitted by a more distant object such as a quasar. Strong gravitational lensing causes multiple images of the same quasar to appear in the sky. Since the light in…

The well-known bluer-when-brighter trend observed in quasar variability is a signature of the complex processes in the accretion disk, and can be a probe of the quasar variability mechanism. Using a sample of 604 variable quasars with…

In the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) quasars are targeted using colors and anything that can cause the identifying characteristics of the colors to disappear can create problems in the source selection process. Quasar spectra contain…

In order to investigate the dependence of quasar optical-UV variability on fundamental physical parameters like black hole mass, we have matched quasars from the QUEST1 variability survey with broad-lined objects from the SDSS. Black hole…

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…