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Changing look active-galatic-nuclei (CL AGNs) can yield considerable insight into accretion physics as well as the co-evolution of black holes and their host galaxies. A large sample of these CL AGNs is essential to achieve the latter goal.…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2020-02-05 Zhenfeng Sheng , Tinggui Wang , Ning Jiang , Jiani Ding , Zheng Cai , Hengxiao Guo , Luming Sun , Liming Dou , Chenwei Yang

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…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-10 W. H. de Vries , R. H. Becker , R. L. White , C. Loomis

We present second epoch optical spectra for 30 changing-look (CL) candidates found by searching for Type-1 optical variability in a sample of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) spectroscopically classified as Type 2. We use a random-forest-based…

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…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-06-28 Roberto Serafinelli , Fausto Vagnetti , Riccardo Middei

The variability of the continuum spectral energy distribution has been analyzed for a complete magnitude-limited sample of quasars in Selected Area 57, observed at two epochs in the photographic $U$, $B_J$, $F$ and $N$ bands with the Mayall…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-10-31 Dario Trevese , Richard G. Kron , Alessandro Bunone

Changing-look active galactic nuclei (CLAGNs) show the appearance and disappearance of broad emission lines in their UV/optical spectra on timescales of months to decades. Here, we investigate how CL transitions depend on several AGN…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-01-08 A. Jana , C. Ricci , M. J. Temple , H. -K. Chang , E. Shablovinskaya , B. Trakhtenbrot , Y. Diaz , D. Ilic , P. Nandi , M. Koss

Most of the variability studies of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are based on ensemble analyses. Nevertheless, it is interesting to provide estimates of the individual variability properties of each AGN, in order to relate them with…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2020-11-17 M. Laurenti , F. Vagnetti , R. Middei , M. Paolillo

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…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-11-16 Gopal-Krishna , Paul J. Wiita

The growth of active galactic nuclei (AGN) occurs under some form of obscuration in a large fraction of the population. The difficulty in constraining this population leads to high uncertainties in cosmic X-ray background and galaxy…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2024-01-05 Claire Greenwell , Poshak Gandhi , Daniel Stern , George Lansbury , Vincenzo Mainieri , Peter Boorman , Yoshiki Toba

We present a systematic investigation of extremely X-ray variable active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the $\approx 5.3~{\rm deg}^2$ XMM-SERVS XMM-LSS region. Eight variable AGNs are identified with rest-frame 2 keV flux density variability…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-03-03 Zijian Zhang , Bin Luo , Linhua Jiang , W. N. Brandt , Jian Huang , Qingling Ni

Changing-look active galactic nuclei (CL-AGNs) exhibit dramatic spectral variability on unexpectedly short timescales, challenging standard accretion flow models. Despite growing samples, the physical drivers of this extreme variability,…

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

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…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2014-03-05 John J. Ruan , Scott F. Anderson , Jason Dexter , Eric Agol

Periodic variability in active galactic nuclei (AGN) light curves has been proposed as a signature of close supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries. Recently, 181 candidate SMBH binaries were identified in Gaia DR3 based on apparently…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2026-01-28 Kareem El-Badry , David W. Hogg , Hans-Walter Rix

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…

We develop a simple method to search for changing-look (CL) active galactic nucleus (AGN) candidates, and conduct a test run. In this method, optical variations of AGNs are monitored and CL-AGNs may appear to have a pattern of being bluer…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2024-12-18 Li-tao Zhu , Zhongxiang Wang , P. U. Devanand , Alok C. Gupta , Karan Dogra , Jie Li , Ju-Jia Zhang , Shun-hao Ji , Si-si Sun

It is known that some active galactic nuclei (AGNs) transited from type 1 to type 2 or vice versa. There are two explanations for the so-called changing look AGNs: one is the dramatic change of the obscuration along the line-of-sight, the…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-09-01 Zhenfeng Sheng , Tinggui Wang , Ning Jiang , Chenwei Yang , Lin Yan , Liming Dou , Bo Peng

The maximum number density of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs), as deduced from X-ray studies, occurs at z<~1, with lower luminosity objects peaking at smaller redshifts. Optical studies lead to a different evolutionary behaviour, with a…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-13 D. Trevese , F. Vagnetti , S. Puccetti , F. Fiore , M. Tomei , M. A. Bershady

Type II quasars are the long-sought luminous analogs of type II (narrow emission line) Seyfert galaxies, suggested by unification models of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and postulated to account for an appreciable fraction of the cosmic…

Accreting supermassive black holes (SMBHs) can exhibit variable emission across the electromagnetic spectrum and over a broad range of timescales. The variability of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the ultraviolet and optical is usually at…