Summary: THE OPTICAL VARIABILITY OF
QUASARS: TESTING THE STARBURST,
ACCRETION DISK AND MICROLENSING
PARADIGMS
Stefano Cristiani 1 , Stefano Trentini 1 , Fabio La
Franca 2 , Itziar Aretxaga 3 & Paola Andreani 1
The long­term variability of a large, statistically
well defined sample of optically selected QSOs has been
studied. The variability­luminosity and variability­
redshift correlations, as well as the wavelength
dependence of the variability have been investigated
by means of statistical estimators that are ``robust''
and permit at the same time to eliminate the influence
of the measurement errors. The results obtained by
analysing both the ensemble structure function and the
individual variability indices in the QSOs rest frame
show that:
1. A negative correlation between variability and
luminosity is clearly present, in the sense that
more luminous QSOs show less variability

Source: Aretxaga, Itziar - Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica Óptica y Electrónica

Collections: Physics