Related papers: Colour changes in quasar light curves
Owing to the advent of large area photometric surveys, the possibility to use broad band photometric data, instead of spectra, to measure the size of the broad line region of active galactic nuclei, has raised a large interest. We describe…
We use numerical simulations to test a broad range of plausible observational strategies designed to measure the time delay between the images of gravitationally lensed quasars. Artificial quasar light curves are created along with…
We have recently found fundamental differences in the radio properties of red quasars when compared to typical blue quasars. In this paper we use X-shooter data, providing spectral coverage from $\sim 3000-25000$ Ang, of a sample of 40 red…
To search for optical variability on a wide range of timescales, we have carried out photometric monitoring of two flat spectrum radio quasars, 3C 454.3 and 3C 279, plus one BL Lac, S5 0716+714, all of which have been exhibiting remarkably…
The rest-frame UV/optical variability of the quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Stripe 82 is used to test the Corona-Heated Accretion-disk Reprocessing (CHAR) model of Sun et al. 2020. We adopt our CHAR model and the observed…
The passage of stars through the beam of a lensed quasar can induce violent fluctuations in its apparent brightness. The fluctuations observed in the Huchra lens, (2237+0305), are taken to be the first evidence of this ``microlensing''…
The recently-finished Edinburgh UVX quasar survey at B < 18 is used together with other complete samples to estimate the shape and evolution of the optical luminosity function in the redshift range 0.3 < z < 2.2. There is a significantly…
The power of asteroseismology relies on the ability to infer the stellar structure from the unambiguous frequency identification of the corresponding pulsation mode. Hence, the use of a Fourier transform is in the basis of asteroseismic…
A key to understanding quasar unification paradigms is the emission properties of broad absorption line quasars (BALQs). The fact that only a small fraction of quasar spectra exhibit deep absorption troughs blueward of the broad permitted…
We examine the relationship between source position stability and astrophysical properties of radio-loud quasars making up the International Celestial Reference Frame. Understanding this relationship is important for improving quasar…
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…
In our world the standard model of particle physics contains within it the fairly intractable theory called QCD. A toy version with two colours is often studied as a model confining and chiral symmetry breaking field theory. Here we…
This paper summarises two recently developed techniques in power spectral analysis and their application to a sample of X-ray light curves of accreting collapsed objects in active galactic nuclei and X-ray binaries. The first technique is…
The observed optical colors of quasars are generally interpreted in one of two frameworks: unified models which attribute color to random orientation of the accretion disk along the line-of-sight, and evolutionary models which invoke…
By observing the high galactic latitude equatorial sky in drift scan mode with the QUEST (QUasar Equatorial Survey Team) Phase 1 camera, multi-bandpass photometry on a large strip of sky, resolved over a large range of time scales (from…
We present variability and multi-wavelength photometric information for the 933 known quasars in the QUEST Variability Survey. These quasars are grouped into variable and non-variable populations based on measured variability confidence…
Broad absorption lines (BALs) in quasar spectra identify high velocity outflows that likely exist in all quasars and could play a major role in feedback to galaxy evolution. The variability of BALs can help us understand the structure,…
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…
Intensive monitoring campaigns have recently attempted to measure the time delays between multiple images of gravitational lenses. Some of the resulting light-curves show puzzling low-level, rapid variability which is unique to individual…
Context: Quasar variability has proven to be a powerful tool to constrain the properties of their inner engine and the accretion process onto supermassive black holes. Correlations between UV/optical variability and physical properties have…