The bright radio source S5 0716+714, which is usually classified as a BL Lac object, is one of the most intensively studied blazar. S5 0716+714 demonstrates extremely peculiar properties, such as the shortest time-scale of optical and polarimetric variations observed in blazars. In the given talk, we present the results of 8-h polarimetric monitoring of S5 0716+714 with a $\sim70$-sec resolution carried out using the 6-m telescope BTA of the SAO RAS. The observation data analysis reveals the variability both in total and polarized light on the 1.5-hour timescales that specifies the size of the unresolved emitting region. The numerical model of polarization in jet with the helical structure of the magnetic field is suggested, and fitting the model reveals a magnetic field precession with a period of about 15 days.
We monitored BL Lacertae simultaneously in the optical B, V, R and I bands for 13 nights during the period 2012-2016. The variations were well correlated in all bands and the source showed significant intraday variability (IDV). We also studied its optical flux and colour behaviour, and searched for inter-band time lags. A strong bluer-when-brighter chromatism was found on the intra-night time-scale. The spectral changes are not sensitive to the host galaxy contribution. Cross-correlation analysis revealed possible time delay of about 10 min between variations in the V and R bands. We interpre…
Intraday Optical Variability of BL Lacertae during its Highly Active 2020-2024 Phase
National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG)（国家天文与地球物理研究所）；Istanbul University, Faculty of Science, Department of Astronomy and Space Sciences（伊斯坦布尔大学理学院天文学与空间科学系）；Institute of Astronomy and NAO, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences（保加利亚科学院天文学与国立天文台研究所）；Atatürk University, Faculty of Science, Department of Astronomy and Space Science（阿塔图尔克大学理学院天文学与空间科学系）；Atatürk University, Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics（阿塔图尔克大学自然与应用科学学院天文学与天体物理学系）；Pacif Institute of Cosmology and Selfology (PICS)（帕西夫宇宙学与自我学研究所）；Türkiye National Observatories, TUG（土耳其国家天文台）
We have monitored the BL Lacertae object S5 0716+714 in the optical bands during 2012 January and February with long time spans on intraday timescales ($>$5 hr) and high time resolutions. During this monitoring period, the object shows violent flaring activity both in short and intraday timescales. The object has high value of duty cycle. The light curves detected as intraday variability (IDV) show variability of various shapes. The variability amplitude is from 12.81 per cent to 33.22 per cent, and the average value $19.92\pm5.87$ per cent. The overall magnitude variabilities are $\bigtriangl…
This study aims to search for the existence of intraday variability (IDV) of BL Lac object S5 0716+714 at high radio frequencies for which the interstellar scintillation effect is not significant. Using the 21-meter radio telescope of the Korean VLBI Network (KVN), we present results of multi-epoch simultaneous dual-frequency radio observations. Single-dish observations of S5 0716+714 were simultaneously conducted at 21.7 GHz (K-band) and 42.4 GHz (Q-band), with a high cadence of 30-60 minute intervals.We observed four epochs between December 2009 and June 2010. Over the whole set of observati…
We monitored BL Lacertae in the B, V, R and I bands for 14 nights during the period of 2016-2018. The source showed significant intraday variability on 12 nights. We performed colour-magnitude analysis and found that the source exhibited bluer-when-brighter chromatism. This bluer-when-brighter behavior is at least partly caused by the larger variation amplitude at shorter wavelength. The variations at different wavelengths are well correlated and show no inter-band time lag.
The bright radio source S5 0716+714, that is usually classified as BL Lac object, is one of the most intensively studied. S5 0716+714 demonstrates extremely peculiar properties such as the shortest time-scale of optical and polarimetric variations observed in blazars. In given paper, the results of 9-hour polarimetric monitoring of S5 0716+714 with the $\sim$70-second resolution, carried out by the 6-m telescope BTA of SAO RAS, are presented. The observation data analysis reveals the variability both in total and polarized light on the 1-1.5-hour time-scale. Since polarization is generated by …
Here we present the evidence for periodicity of an optical emission detected in several AGN. Significant periodicity is found in light curves and radial velocity curves. We discuss possible mechanisms that could produce such periodic variability and their implications. The results are consistent with possible detection of the orbital motion in proximity of the AGN central supermassive black holes.
The IceCube instrument detected a high-energy cosmic neutrino event on 2017 September 22 (IceCube_170922A, IceCube Collaboration 2018), which the electromagnetic follow-up campaigns associated with the flaring $γ$-ray blazar TXS 0506$+$056 (e.g., Padovani et al., 2018). We investigated the mid-infrared variability of the source by using the available single exposure data of the WISE satellite at $3.4$ and $4.6μ$m. TXS 0506$+$056 experienced a $\sim 30$% brightening in both of these bands a few days prior to the neutrino event. Additional intraday infrared variability can be detected in 2010. S…
We present a framework to link and describe AGN variability on a wide range of timescales, from days to billions of years. In particular, we concentrate on the AGN variability features related to changes in black hole fuelling and accretion rate. In our framework, the variability features observed in different AGN at different timescales may be explained as realisations of the same underlying statistical properties. In this context, we propose a model to simulate the evolution of AGN light curves with time based on the probability density function (PDF) and power spectral density (PSD) of the …
To gain insights into long-term Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) variability, we analyze an AGN sample from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and compare their photometry with observations from the Hyper Suprime-Cam survey (HSC) observed $\langle 14.85 \rangle$ years after SDSS. On average, the AGN are fainter in HSC than SDSS. We demonstrate that the difference is not due to subtle differences in the SDSS versus HSC filters or photometry. The decrease in mean brightness is redshift dependent, consistent with expectations for a change that is a function of the rest-frame time separation between …
We study the X-ray properties of a sample of 14 optically-selected low-mass AGN whose masses lie within the range 1E5 -2E6 M(solar) with XMM-Newton. Only six of these low-mass AGN have previously been studied with sufficient quality X-ray data, thus, we more than double the number of low-mass AGN observed by XMM-Newton with the addition of our sample. We analyze their X-ray spectral properties and variability and compare the results to their more massive counterparts. The presence of a soft X-ray excess is detectable in all five objects which were not background dominated at 2-3 keV. Combined …
This article focuses on certain variability and emission characteristics of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), especially their radio-loud subset consisting of quasars, BL Lacs and $γ$-ray detected narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies, all of which exhibit relativistically beamed jets of nonthermal radiation. Several striking trends and correlations, including some that have received scant attention, drawn from the available comparatively recent literature are highlighted. These can provide very useful inputs to models of AGN and be probed at a deeper level using the optical telescopes recently set up at…
We present an analysis of the long-term optical variability for $\sim50,000$ nearby (z<0.055) galaxies from the NASA-Sloan Atlas, $35,000$ of which are low-mass ($M_{\ast}<10^{10}~M_{\odot}$). We use difference imaging of Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) R-band observations to construct light curves with typical baselines of several years. We then search for subtle variations in the nuclear light output. We determine whether detected variability is AGN-like by assessing the fit quality to a damped random walk model. We identify 424 variability-selected AGN, including 244 with stellar masses bet…
We present the first short time-scale ($\sim$hours to days) optical variability study of a large sample of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) observed with the Kepler/K2 mission. The sample contains 252 AGN observed over four campaigns with $\sim 30$ minute cadence selected from the Million Quasar Catalogue with R magnitude $< 19$. We performed time series analysis to determine their variability properties by means of the power spectral densities (PSDs) and applied Monte Carlo techniques to find the best model parameters that fit the observed power spectra. A power-law model is sufficient to describ…
Here we investigate the connection of broad emission line shapes and continuum light curve variability time scales of type-1 Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). We developed a new model to describe optical broad emission lines as an accretion disk model of a line profile with additional ring emission. We connect ring radii with orbital time scales derived from optical light curves, and using Kepler's third law, we calculate mass of central supermassive black hole (SMBH). The obtained results for central black hole masses are in a good agreement with {other methods. This indicates that the variabilit…
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 with 8, 10, 13, and 15 epochs over three years in the $g$, $r$, $i$, and $z$ bands, respectively. We identified 491 robust variable AGN candidates, down to $i=25$ mag and with redshift up to $4.26$. Ninety percent of the variability-selected AGNs are individually identified with the X-ray sources detected in the Chandra COSMOS Legacy survey. We investigate …
From Variability to SED Modeling: A Multiwavelength Study of the Neutrino Blazar TXS 0506+056
School of Physics and Astronomy, Beijing Normal University（北京师范大学物理学院）；Institute for Frontiers in Astronomy and Astrophysics, Beijing Normal University（北京师范大学前沿天文与天体物理研究所）；College of Intelligent Systems Science and Engineering, Hubei Minzu University（湖北民族大学智能系统科学与工程学院）
Simultaneous Multi-band Optical Follow-up Observations of a Gamma-Ray Flare in BL Lacertae
South-Western Institute for Astronomy Research, Yunnan Key Laboratory of Survey Science, Yunnan University（西南天文研究所，云南省巡天科学重点实验室，云南大学）；Yunnan Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院云南天文台）；Key Laboratory of Colleges and Universities in Yunnan Province for High-energy Astrophysics, Department of Physics, Yunnan Normal University（云南省高能天体物理高校重点实验室，云南师范大学物理系）；Guangxi Key Laboratory for the Relativistic Astrophysics（广西相对论天体物理学重点实验室）；Janusz Gil Institute of Astronomy, University of Zielona Góra（齐尔纳格拉大学扬努什·吉尔天文学研究所）；CAS Key Laboratory of Space Astronomy and Technology, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院空间天文与技术重点实验室，中国科学院国家天文台）
The fraction of Compton thick sources is one of the main uncertainties left in understanding the AGN population. The Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) all-sky survey, for the first time gives us an unbiased sample of AGN for all but the most heavily absorbed sources (log NH > 25). Still, the BAT spectra (14 - 195 keV) are time-averaged over months of observations and therefore hard to compare with softer spectra from the Swift XRT or other missions. This makes it difficult to distinguish between Compton-thin and Compton-thick models. With Suzaku, we have obtained simultaneous hard (> 15 keV) a…
The source J 1128+5925 was found recently to show strong intraday variability at radio wavelengths and its radio variability may come from interstellar scintillation. In optical, the object was quiet in our 2007 monitoring session. Here we report the results of our new optical monitoring of this source in 2008. In addition to confirm our 2007 results, that the object did not display any clear variation on timescales from hour--day to month, we provide evidence that the object does not vary on timescale of one year, and it is probably intrinsically quiet in optical domain. Its very different be…
Variability studies hold information on otherwise unresolvable regions in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). Population studies of large samples likewise have been very productive for our understanding of AGN. These two themes are coming together in the idea of systematic variability studies of large samples - with SDSS, PanSTARRS, and soon, LSST. I summarise what we have learned about the optical and UV variability of AGN, and what it tells us about accretion discs and the BLR. The most exciting recent results have focused on rare large-scale outbursts and collapses - Tidal Disruption Events, chan…
We have developed two metrics related to AGN variability observables (time-lags, periodicity, and Structure Function (SF)) to evaluate LSST OpSim FBS 1.5, 1.6, 1.7 performance in AGN time-domain analysis. For this purpose, we generate an ensemble of AGN light curves based on AGN empirical relations and LSST OpSim cadences. Although our metrics show that denser LSST cadences produce more reliable time-lag, periodicity, and SF measurements, the discrepancies in the performance between different LSST OpSim cadences are not drastic based on Kullback-Leibler divergence. This is complementary to Yu …
Complexity and Multifractal Variability in Multi-Band Emission of Seyfert AGN
Universidade de Pernambuco（伯南布哥联邦大学）；Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco（伯南布哥联邦农村大学）；Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias（加那利群岛天体物理研究所）；ESO（欧洲南方天文台）；Universidad de La Laguna（拉古纳大学）
We present an analysis of the nuclear variability of $\sim28,000$ nearby ($z<0.15$) galaxies with Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) spectroscopy in Stripe 82. We construct light curves using difference imaging of SDSS g-band images, which allows us to detect subtle variations in the central light output. We select variable AGN by assessing whether detected variability is well-described by a damped random walk model. We find 135 galaxies with AGN-like nuclear variability. While most of the variability-selected AGNs have narrow emission lines consistent with the presence of an AGN, a small fractio…
We present a numerical framework for the variability of active galactic nuclei (AGN), which links the variability of AGN over a broad range of timescales and luminosities to the observed properties of the AGN population as a whole, and particularly the Eddington ratio distribution function (ERDF). We have implemented our framework on GPU architecture, relying on previously published time series generating algorithms. After extensive tests that characterise several intrinsic and numerical aspects of the simulations, we describe some applications used for current and future time domain surveys a…
We present a study of galaxies showing mid-infrared variability in the deepest Spitzer/MIPS 24 $μ$m surveys in the GOODS-South field. We divide the dataset in epochs and subepochs to study the long-term (months-years) and the short-term (days) variability. We use a $χ^2$-statistics method to select AGN candidates with a probability $\leq$ 1% that the observed variability is due to statistical errors alone. We find 39 (1.7% of the parent sample) sources that show long-term variability and 55 (2.2% of the parent sample) showing short-term variability. We compare our candidates with AGN selected …
We present our statistical analysis of the connection between active galactic nuclei (AGN) variability and physical properties of the central supermassive black hole (SMBH). We constructed optical light curves using data from the QUEST-La Silla AGN variability survey. To model the variability, we used the structure function, among the excess variance and the amplitude from Damp Random Walk (DRW) modeling. For the measurement of SMBH physical properties, we used public spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Our analysis is based on an original sample of 2345 sources detected in both …
Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) variability can be used to study the physics of the region in the vicinity of the central black hole. In this paper, we investigated intra-night optical variability of AGN in the COSMOS field in order to understand the AGN instability at the smallest scale. Observations were performed using the KMTNet on three separate nights for 2.5-5 hour at a cadence of 20-30 min. We find that the observation enables the detection of the short-term variability as small as $\sim$ 0.02 and 0.1 mag for $R \sim$ 18 and 20 mag sources, respectively. Using four selection methods (X-r…
We present results of recurrence analysis of 46 active galactic nuclei (AGN) using light curves from the 157-month catalog of the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) in the 14-150 keV band. We generate recurrence plots and compute recurrence plot metrics for each object. We use the surrogate data method to compare all derived recurrence-based quantities to three sets of stochastic light curves with identical power spectrum, flux distribution, or both, in order to determine the presence of determinism, non-linearity, entropy, and non-stationarity. We compare these quantities with known physical c…
We perform long-term ($\approx 15$ yr, observed-frame) X-ray variability analyses of the 68 brightest radio-quiet active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in the 6 Ms $Chandra$ Deep Field-South (CDF-S) survey; the majority are in the redshift range of $0.6-3.1$, providing access to penetrating rest-frame X-rays up to $\approx 10-30$ keV. Twenty-four of the 68 sources are optical spectral type I AGNs, and the rest (44) are type II AGNs. The time scales probed in this work are among the longest for X-ray variability studies of distant AGNs. Photometric analyses reveal widespread photon-flux variability: $9…
We present a study of galaxies showing mid-infrared variability in data taken in the deepest Spitzer/MIPS 24 $μ$m surveys in the GOODS-South field. We divide the dataset in epochs and subepochs to study the long-term (months-years) and the short-term (days) variability. We use a $χ^2$-statistics method to select AGN candidates with a probability $\leq$ 1% that the observed variability is due to statistical errors alone. We find 39 (1.7% of the parent sample) sources that show long-term variability and 55 (2.2% of the parent sample) showing short-term variability. That is, 0.03 sources $\times$…
We present the first attempt to select AGN using long-term NIR variability. By analysing the K-band light curves of all the galaxies in the UKIDSS Ultra Deep Survey, the deepest NIR survey over ~1 sq degree, we have isolated 393 variable AGN candidates. A comparison to other selection techniques shows that only half of the variable sources are also selected using either deep Chandra X-ray imaging or IRAC colour selection, suggesting that using NIR variability can locate AGN that are missed by more standard selection techniques. In particular, we find that long-term NIR variability identifies A…
We measure the optical variability in $\sim$ 16500 low-redshift (z $\sim$ 0.1) galaxies to map the relations between AGN activity and galaxy stellar mass, specific star-formation rate, half-light radius and bulge-to-total ratio. To do this, we use a reduced $χ^2$ variability measure on > 10 epoch lightcurves from the Zwicky Transient Facility and combine with spectroscopic data and derived galaxy parameters from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We find that below stellar mass of $10^{11} M_\odot$, galaxies classed as star-forming via the BPT diagram have higher mean variabilities than AGN or comp…
Low luminosity active galactic nuclei (LLAGN) probe accretion physics in the low Eddington regime and can provide additional clues about galaxy evolution. AGN variability is ubiquitous and thus provides a reliable tool for finding AGN. We analyze the All-Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae light curves of 1218 galaxies with $g<14$ mag and Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectra in search of AGN. We find 37 objects that are both variable and have AGN-like structure functions, which is about 3% of the sample. The majority of the variability selected AGN are LLAGN with Eddington ratios ranging from $10^…
Impact of Baseline, Cadence, and Host Contamination on AGN Variability Metrics: A Systematic Study with ZTF
Astronomy Department, Universidad de Concepción（康塞普西翁大学天文学系）；Millennium Nucleus on Transversal Research and Technology to Explore Supermassive Black Holes (TITANs)（探索超大质量黑洞跨学科研究与技术千年核心（TITANs））；Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS)（天体物理学千年研究所（MAS））；International Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab（国际双子星天文台/美国国家光学红外天文研究实验室）
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 intrinsic physical quantities. A useful dataset is provided by the Catalina Surveys Data Release 2 (CSDR2), which encompasses almost a decade of photometric measurements of $\sim500$ million objects repeatedly observed hundreds of times. We aim to investigate the individual optical variability properties of 795 AGNs originally included in the Multi-Epoch XMM Serend…
We used data from the QUEST-La Silla Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) variability survey to construct light curves for 208,583 sources over $\sim 70$ deg$^2$, with a a limiting magnitude $r \sim 21$. Each light curve has at least 40 epochs and a length of $\geq 200$ days. We implemented a Random Forest algorithm to classify our objects as either AGN or non-AGN according to their variability features and optical colors, excluding morphology cuts. We tested three classifiers, one that only includes variability features (RF1), one that includes variability features and also $r-i$ and $i-z$ colors (RF…
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 other is the variation of accretion rate. In this paper, we report the detection of large amplitude variations in the mid-infrared luminosity during the transitions in 10 changing look AGNs using WISE and newly released NEOWISE-R data. The mid-infrared light curves of 10 objects echoes the variability in the optical band with a time lag expected for dust repr…
We study the properties of 975 active galactic nuclei (AGN) selected by variability in the Pan-STARRS1 Medium-Deep Survey. Using complementary multi wavelength data from the ultraviolet to the far-infrared, we use SED fitting to determine the AGN and host properties at $z<1$, and compare to a well-matched control sample. We confirm the trend previously observed that the variability amplitude decreases with AGN luminosity, but on the other hand, we observe that the slope of this relation steepens with wavelength resulting in a "redder when brighter" trend at low luminosities. Our results show t…
The morphological study is crucial to investigate the connections between active galactic nuclei (AGN) activities and the evolution of galaxies. Substantial studies have found that radiative-mode AGNs primarily reside in disk galaxies, questioning the merger-driven mechanism of AGN activities. In this study, through S{é}rsic profile fitting and non-parametric morphological parameter measurements, we investigated the morphology of host galaxies of 485 optical variability-selected low luminosity AGNs at $z\lesssim4.26$ in the COSMOS field. We analyzed high-resolution images of the Hubble Space T…
We present our statistical study of near infrared (NIR) variability of X-ray selected Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) in the COSMOS field, using UltraVISTA data. This is the largest sample of AGN light curves in YJHKs bands, making possible to have a global description of the nature of AGN for a large range of redshifts, and for different levels of obscuration. To characterize the variability properties of the sources we computed the Structure Function. Our results show that there is an anti-correlation between the Structure Function $A$ parameter (variability amplitude) and the wavelength of emi…
Unlocking AGN Variability with Custom ZTF Photometry for High-Fidelity Light Curves and Robust Selection
Universidad de Valparaíso（瓦尔帕莱索大学）；Millennium Nucleus on Transversal Research and Technology to Explore Supermassive Black Holes (TITANS)（探索超大质量黑洞跨学科研究与技术千年核）；Universidad de Chile（智利大学）；Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS)（天体物理千年研究所）；European Southern Observatory（欧洲南方天文台）；Universidad de Tarapacá（塔拉帕卡大学）
We investigate the effect of active galactic nucleus (AGN) variability on the observed connection between star formation and black hole accretion in extragalactic surveys. Recent studies have reported relatively weak correlations between observed AGN luminosities and the properties of AGN hosts, which has been interpreted to imply that there is no direct connection between AGN activity and star formation. However, AGNs may be expected to vary significantly on a wide range of timescales (from hours to Myr) that are far shorter than the typical timescale for star formation (>~100 Myr). This vari…
The spectral variability of active galactic nuclei (AGN) is one of their key features that enables us to study in more details the structure of AGN emitting regions. Especially, the broad line profiles, that vary both in flux and shape, give us invaluable information about the kinematics and geometry of the broad line region (BLR) where these lines are originating from. We give here a comparative review of the line shape variability in a sample of five type 1 AGN, those with broad emission lines in their spectra, of the data obtained from the international long-term optical monitoring campaign…
