Related papers: Variability in Quasar Light Curves: using quasars …
Astronomers measure cosmic distances to objects beyond our own galaxy using standard candles: objects of known intrinsic brightness, whose apparent brightnesses in the sky are then taken as an indication of their distances from the…
We analyze the properties of quasar variability using repeated SDSS imaging data in five UV-to-far red photometric bands, accurate to 0.02 mag, for 13,000 spectroscopically confirmed quasars. The observed time lags span the range from 3…
Motivated by the idea of using quasars as standardizable candles for cosmology, we examine the relation between X-ray (at 2 keV, $L_{\rm 2keV}$) and ultraviolet (at 2500 Angstrom, $L_{\rm 2500}$) monochromatic luminosities of quasars using…
Gravitational waves detected from well-localized inspiraling binaries would allow us to determine, directly and independently, binary luminosity and redshift. In this case, such systems could behave as "standard candles" providing an…
We conduct a pilot investigation to determine the optimal combination of color and variability information to identify quasars in current and future multi-epoch optical surveys. We use a Bayesian quasar selection algorithm (Richards et al.…
We use the anticorrelation between the equivalent width (EW) of the C\,\textsc{iv} 1549 {\AA} emission line and the continuum luminosity in the quasars rest frame (Baldwin effect) to measure their luminosity distance as well as estimate…
Two recent discoveries have made it possible for us to begin using high-z quasars as standard candles to construct a Hubble Diagram (HD) at z > 6. These are (1) the recognition from reverberation mapping that a relationship exists between…
Strongly lensed quasars with time-delay measurements are well known to provide the "time-delay distances" $D_{\Delta t}=(1+z_L)D_LD_S/D_{LS}$ and the angular diameter distances to lens galaxies $D_L$. These two kinds of distances give…
The spectrum of a quasar contains important information about its properties. Thus, it can be expected that two quasars with similar spectra will have similar properties, but just how similar has not before been quantified. Here we compare…
The last 25 years saw a major step forward in the analysis of optical and UV spectroscopic data of large quasar samples. Multivariate statistical approaches have led to the definition of systematic trends in observational properties that…
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…
In this work, we obtain measurements of the Hubble constant in the context of modified gravity theories. We set up our theoretical framework by considering viable cosmological $f(R)$ and $f(T)$ models, and we analyzed them through the use…
Cosmological distances are fundamental observables in cosmology. The luminosity ($D_L$), angular diameter ($D_A$) and gravitational wave ($D_{\rm GW}$) distances are all trivially related in General Relativity assuming no significant…
We use measurements of 59/58 quasars (QSOs), over a redshift range $0.0041\leq z \leq 1.686$, to do a comparative study of the radius--luminosity ($R-L$) and X-ray$-$UV luminosity ($L_X-L_{UV}$) relations and the implication of these…
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…
The observation of redshift-dependent coherent orientations of quasar polarisation vectors over cosmological distances in some regions of the sky is reviewed. Based on a good-quality sample of 355 measured quasars, this observation seems to…
Quasars provide our farthest-reaching view of the Universe. The Sloan Survey now contains over 100,000 quasar candidates. A careful look at the angular distribution of quasar magnitudes shows a surprising intensity enhancement with a "bulls…
Last year (2013) was more or less the 50th anniversary of the discovery of quasars. It is an interesting time to review what we know (and don't know) about them both empirically and theoretically. These compact sources involving line…
A most desirable feature of a standard candle to estimate astronomical distances is robustness against changes in metallicity and age. It is argued that the radii of main sequence stars with spectral types from solar to A0 show predictable…
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…