Related papers: Identification of quasars variable over long time …
We have monitored with the RXTE PCA the variability pattern of the 2-20 keV flux in four PG quasars (QSOs) from the Laor et al. (1994) sample. Six observations of each target at regular intervals of 1 day were performed. The sample…
A wide range of phenomena, from explosive transients to active galactic nuclei, exhibit variability at radio wavelengths on timescales of a few years. Characterizing the rate and scale of variability in the radio sky can provide keen…
The physics and demographics of type 2 quasars remain poorly understood, and new samples of such objects selected in a variety of ways can give insight into their physical properties, evolution, and relationship to their host galaxies. We…
We characterize the optical variability of quasars in the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF) and Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) surveys. We re-calibrate the $r$-band light curves for $\sim$28,000 luminous, broad-line AGNs from…
A sample of quasars has been recently assembled to investigate the non-linear relation between their monochromatic luminosities at 2500{\AA}, and 2 keV and to exploit quasars as a new class of standardized candles. The use of this technique…
High-redshift quasars are important tracers of structure and evolution in the early universe. However, they are very rare and difficult to find when using color selection because of contamination from late-type dwarfs. High-redshift quasar…
Development of fundamental physics relies on the constancy of various fundamental quantities such as the fine structure constant. Detecting or constraining the possible time variations of these fundamental physical quantities is an…
We present the results of a search for variability in the equivalent widths (EWs) of narrow, associated (Delta v < 5,000 km/s) absorption lines found in the UV spectra of z < 1.5 quasars. The goal of this search was to use variability as a…
We present the results of the first long-term (2.2 years) spectroscopic monitoring of a gravitationally lensed quasar, namely the Einstein Cross Q2237+0305. The goal of this paper is to present the observational facts to be compared in…
We have compiled the first all-sky mid-infrared variable-star catalog based on Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) five-year survey data. Requiring more than 100 detections for a given object, 50,282 carefully and robustly selected…
We compare quasar selection techniques based on their optical variability using data from the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey (CRTS). We introduce a new technique based on Slepian wavelet variance (SWV) that shows comparable or better…
Quasars are often considered to be point-like objects. This is largely true and allows for an excellent alignment of the optical positional reference frame of the ongoing ESA mission Gaia with the International Celestial Reference Frame.…
We characterize the optical variability properties of eight lobe-dominated radio quasars (QSOs): B2 0709$+$37, FBQS J095206.3$+$235245, PG 1004$+$130, [HB89] 1156$+$631, [HB89] 1425$+$267, [HB89] 1503$+$691, [HB89] 1721$+$343, 4C $+$74.26,…
The variability of blazars in the X-ray and optical regions informs both the physics of their emitting region and places demands on the observer if a program requires that the object be bright or faint. The extensive simultaneous X-ray and…
We present a new method to measure the episodic lifetime of quasars with current and future large-scale sky surveys. Future photometric observations of large samples of confirmed quasars can provide a direct measurement (or interesting…
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…
The infrared properties of blazars can be studied from the statistical point of view with the help of sky surveys, like that provided by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS). However,…
We introduce a technique to measure gravitational lensing magnification using the variability of type I quasars. Quasars' variability amplitudes and luminosities are tightly correlated, on average. Magnification due to gravitational lensing…
We demonstrate that gravitationally lensed quasars are easily recognized using image subtraction methods as time variable sources that are spatially extended. For Galactic latitudes |b|>20 deg, lensed quasars dominate the population of…
Reverberation mapping of nearby active galactic nuclei has led to estimates of broad-line-region (BLR) sizes and central-object masses for some 37 objects to date. However, successful reverberation mapping has yet to be performed for…