Related papers: Efficient Identification of Broad Absorption Line …
We present the results of a new spectroscopic survey for dusty intervening absorption systems, particularly damped Ly$\alpha$ absorbers (DLAs), towards reddened quasars. The candidate quasars are selected from mid-infrared photometry from…
Quasar outflows have long been recognized as potential contributors to the co-evolution between supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and their host galaxies. The role of outflows in AGN feedback processes can be better understood by placing…
We present an analysis of the variability of broad absorption lines (BALs) in a quasar SDSS J141955.26+522741.1 at $z=2.145$ with 72 observations from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 16 (SDSS DR16). The strong correlation between…
We introduce a deep machine learning approach to studying quasar microlensing light curves for the first time by analyzing hundreds of thousands of simulated light curves with respect to the accretion disc size and temperature profile. Our…
Broad absorption line (BAL) quasars are often considered X-ray weak relative to their optical/UV luminosity, whether intrinsically (i.e., the coronal emission is fainter) or due to large column densities of absorbing material. The SDSS-V is…
We report on the results of XMM-Newton observations of two Broad Absorption Line Quasars (BAL QSOs), Q1246-057 and SBS 1542+541. Unprecedented sensitivity of XMM allows spectral analysis of these X-ray weak sources. The X-ray spectral data…
We introduce QuasarNET, a deep convolutional neural network that performs classification and redshift estimation of astrophysical spectra with human-expert accuracy. We pose these two tasks as a \emph{feature detection} problem: presence or…
We present details regarding the construction of a composite spectrum of quasar (QSO) absorption line systems. In this composite spectrum we identify more than 70 absorption lines, and observe oxygen and hydrogen emission features at a…
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.…
In this paper we present an analysis of absorption line variability in mini-BAL quasar LBQS 1206+1052. The SDSS spectrum demonstrates that the absorption troughs can be divided into two components of blueshift velocities of $\sim$700 km…
We present a new approach to capturing the broad diversity of emission line and continuum properties in quasar spectra. We identify populations of spectrally similar quasars through pixel-level clustering on 12,968 high signal-to-noise…
Broad Absorption Lines indicate gas outflows with velocities from thousands km/s to about 0.2 the speed of light, which may be present in all quasars and may play a major role in the evolution of the host galaxy. The variability of…
We have searched the broad-absorption-line quasar (BAL QSO) sample presented by Reichard et al. for objects exhibiting the so-called `ghost of Lyman alpha'. This ghost manifests as a hump near -5900kms in the troughs of the broad absorption…
High-dimensional data sets are often analyzed and explored via the construction of a latent low-dimensional space which enables convenient visualization and efficient predictive modeling or clustering. For complex data structures, linear…
We select a sample of $\sim 4200$ traditionally defined broad absorption line quasars (BALQs) from the Fifth Data Release quasar catalog of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. For a statistically homogeneous quasar sample with $1.7\le z\le 4.2$,…
We report the results of statistical tests performed on a sample of 139 broad absorption line (BAL) QSOs with good quality optical spectra and/or optical polarization data. Correlations between optical indices and the polarization degree…
We present measurements of the optical/UV emission lines for a large homogeneous sample of 993 quasars from the Large Bright Quasar Survey. Our largely automated technique accounts for continuum breaks and galactic reddening, and we perform…
We report on the discovery of broad Balmer absorption lines variability in the QSO SDSS J125942.80+121312.6, based on the optical and near-infrared spectra taken from the SDSS-I, SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), and…
The uncertain origin of the recently-discovered `changing-looking' quasar phenomenon -- in which a luminous quasar dims significantly to a quiescent state in repeat spectroscopy over ~10 year timescales -- may present unexpected challenges…
We have obtained a 110 ksec Chandra ACIS-S exposure of UM425, a pair of QSOs at z=1.47 separated by 6.5 arcsec, which show remarkably similar emission and broad absorption line (BAL) profiles in the optical/UV. Our 5000 count X-ray spectrum…