English
Related papers

Related papers: Optical Variability in Active Galactic Nuclei: Sta…

200 papers

We reexamine the hypothesis that the optical/UV/soft X-ray continuum of Active Galactic Nuclei is thermal emission from an accretion disk. Previous studies have shown that fitting the spectra with the standard, optically thick and…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-10-28 Ewa Szuszkiewicz , Matthew A. Malkan , Marek A. Abramowicz

We study the structure of accretion disks around supermassive black holes in the radial range $30\sim 100$ gravitational radii, using a three dimensional radiation magneto-hydrodynamic simulation. For typical conditions in this region of…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2020-09-02 Yan-Fei Jiang , Omer Blaes

Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are known to be variable across all wavelengths. Significant observational efforts have been invested in the last decade in studying their ultraviolet (UV) and optical variability. Long and densely sampled,…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2024-09-17 M. Papoutsis , I. E. Papadakis , C. Panagiotou , M. Dovčiak , E. Kammoun

Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are prominent environments for stellar capture, growth and formation. These environments may catalyze stellar mergers and explosive transients, such as thermonuclear and core-collapse supernovae (SNe). SN…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-07-13 Evgeni Grishin , Alexey Bobrick , Ryosuke Hirai , Ilya Mandel , Hagai B. Perets

In this paper, standard accretion disk models of AGNs are tested using light curves of 26 objects well observed for reverberation mapping. Time scales of variations are estimated by the most common definition of the variability time scale…

Astrophysics · Physics 2014-01-10 H. T. Liu , J. M. Bai , X. H. Zhao , L. Ma

The X-ray variability of the Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) has been most often investigated with studies of individual, nearby, sources, and only a few ensemble analyses have been applied to large samples in wide ranges of luminosity and…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2011-12-21 F. Vagnetti , S. Turriziani , D. Trevese

The variability of quasars across multiple wavelengths is a useful probe of physical conditions in active galactic nuclei. In particular, variable accretion rates, instabilities, and reverberation effects in the accretion disk of a…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2020-05-13 Chengcheng Xin , Maria Charisi , Zoltán Haiman , David Schiminovich

We study the photocenter position variability due to variations in the quasar inner structure. We consider variability in the accretion disk emissivity and torus structure variability due to different illumination by the central source. We…

We study variability of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) by using the deep optical multiband photometry data obtained from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC SSP) survey in the COSMOS field. The images analyzed here were taken…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2020-05-13 Yuki Kimura , Toru Yamada , Mitsuru Kokubo , Naoki Yasuda , Tomoki Morokuma , Tohru Nagao , Yoshiki Matsuoka

The origin of short timescale (weeks/months) variability of AGN, whether due to intrinsic disc variations or reprocessing of X-ray emission by a surrounding accretion disc, has been a puzzle for many years. However recently a number of…

We investigate and quantify the observed scatter in the empirical relationship between the broad line region size R and the luminosity of the active galactic nucleus (AGN), in order to better understand its origin. This study is motivated…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-02-25 E. Kilerci Eser , M. Vestergaard , B. M. Peterson , K. D. Denney , M. C. Bentz

We investigate the use of optical variability to identify and study Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) in the GOODS-South field. A sample of 22 mid-infrared power law sources and 102 X-ray sources with optical counterparts in the HST ACS images…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-06-23 Alison Klesman , Vicki Sarajedini

Accreting supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies are the engine of active galactic nuclei (AGN). X-ray light curves of unabsorbed AGN show dramatic random variability on timescales ranging from seconds to years. The power…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-10-29 Mehdy Lefkir , Simon Vaughan , Mike Goad , Daniela Huppenkothen , Phil Uttley

Both long and short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are expected to occur in the dense environments of active galactic nuclei (AGN) accretion disks. As these bursts propagate through the disks they live in, they photoionize the medium causing…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-03-29 Michael Ray , Davide Lazzati , Rosalba Perna

Accretion disk winds are commonly observed in active galactic nuclei (AGN). The winds may be associated with the changing spectral properties of such sources, yet such connections have not been studied in detail so far. This paper presents…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-04-29 Hagai Netzer

Changing-look active galactic nuclei (CLAGN) feature order-of-magnitude variability in both the continuum and broad line luminosities on months-to-years long timescales, and are currently unexplained. Simulations have demonstrated that…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-05-12 Nicholas Kaaz , Matthew Liska , Charlotte Ward , Jordy Davelaar

We study the black hole mass $-$ host galaxy stellar mass relation, $M_{\rm{BH}}-M_{\ast}$, of a sample of $z<4$ optically-variable AGNs in the COSMOS field. The parent sample of 491 COSMOS AGNs were identified by optical variability from…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2024-07-10 Colin J. Burke , Yichen Liu , Charlotte A. Ward , Xin Liu , Priyamvada Natarajan , Jenny E. Greene

Changing-look phenomenon observed now in a growing number of active galaxies challenges our understanding of the accretion process close to a black hole. We propose a simple explanation for the sources where multiple semi-periodic outbursts…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2020-09-30 M. Sniegowska , B. Czerny , E. Bon , N. Bon

We study the optical variability of a sample of candidate low-mass (dwarf ang Seyfert) active galactic nuclei (AGNs) using Zwicky Transient Facility g-band light curves. Our sample is compiled from broad-line AGNs in dwarf galaxies reported…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2023-04-11 Z. Franklin Wang , Colin J. Burke , Xin Liu , Yue Shen

In order to study the growth and evolution of circumstellar disks around classical Be stars, we analyze optical time-series photometry from the KELT survey with simultaneous infrared and visible spectroscopy from the APOGEE survey and BeSS…