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Spectral variability of a sample of extreme variability quasars and implications for the MgII broad-line region

Journal Article · · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
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  1. Department of Astronomy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
  2. Department of Astronomy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
  3. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, PO Box 500, Batavia, IL 60510, USA
  4. Instituto de Fisica Teorica UAM/CSIC, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, E-28049 Madrid, Spain
  5. CNRS, Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, UMR 7095, F-75014, Paris, France; Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, UMR 7095, F-75014, Paris, France
  6. Department of Physics & Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
  7. Laboratório Interinstitucional de e-Astronomia - LIneA, Rua Gal. José Cristino 77, Rio de Janeiro, RJ - 20921-400, Brazil; Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT), 28040 Madrid, Spain
  8. Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Campus UAB, E-08193 Bellaterra, Spain
  9. Laboratório Interinstitucional de e-Astronomia - LIneA, Rua Gal. José Cristino 77, Rio de Janeiro, RJ - 20921-400, Brazil; Observatório Nacional, Rua Gal. José Cristino 77, Rio de Janeiro, RJ - 20921-400, Brazil
  10. Department of Physics, IIT Hyderabad, Kandi, Telangana 502285, India
  11. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, PO Box 500, Batavia, IL 60510, USA; Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
  12. Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC), 08193 Barcelona, Spain; Institute of Space Sciences (ICE, CSIC), Campus UAB, Carrer de Can Magrans, s/n, E008193 Barcelona, Spain
  13. Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA; Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
  14. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA; Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics & Cosmology, Stanford University, PO Box 2450, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
  15. Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
  16. Department of Physics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA; Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
  17. Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Giessenbachstrasse, D-85748 Garching, Germany; Fakultät für Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität MünchenUniversitäts-Sternwarte, Scheinerstr. 1, D-81679 München, Germany
  18. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
  19. Department of Astronomy/Steward Observatory, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721-0065, USA
  20. Australian Astronomical Observatory, North Ryde, NSW 2113, Australia
  21. The Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University, ACT 2601, Australia
  22. Laboratório Interinstitucional de e-Astronomia - LIneA, Rua Gal. José Cristino 77, Rio de Janeiro, RJ - 20921-400, Brazil; Departamento de Física Matemática, Instituto de Física, Universidade de São Paulo, CP 66318, São Paulo, SP, 05314-970, Brazil
  23. George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
  24. Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA; Department of Astronomy, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
  25. Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Campus UAB, E-08193 Bellaterra, Spain; Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, E-08010 Barcelona, Spain
  26. Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Peyton Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544, US
  27. Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT), 28040 Madrid, Spain
  28. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA
  29. Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
  30. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK
  31. Department of Physics, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02453, USA
  32. Laboratório Interinstitucional de e-Astronomia - LIneA, Rua Gal. José Cristino 77, Rio de Janeiro, RJ - 20921-400, Brazil; Instituto de Física Gleb Wataghin, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 13083-859 Campinas, SP, Brazil
  33. Computer Science and Mathematics Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, US, Oak Ridge, TN 37831
  34. National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
  35. Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Lemont, IL 60439, USA
  36. Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Casilla 603, La Serena, Chile
+ Show Author Affiliations
In this paper, we present new Gemini/GMOS optical spectroscopy of 16 extreme variability quasars (EVQs) that dimmed by more than 1.5 mag in the g band between the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the Dark Energy Survey epochs (separated by a few years in the quasar rest frame). These EVQs are selected from quasars in the SDSS Stripe 82 region, covering a redshift range of 0.5 < z < 2.1. Nearly half of these EVQs brightened significantly (by more than 0.5 mag in the g band) in a few years after reaching their previous faintest state, and some EVQs showed rapid (non-blazar) variations of greater than 1–2 mag on time-scales of only months. To increase sample statistics, we use a supplemental sample of 33 EVQs with multi-epoch spectra from SDSS that cover the broad Mg II λ2798 line. Leveraging on the large dynamic range in continuum variability between the multi-epoch spectra, we explore the associated variations in the broad Mg II line, whose variability properties have not been well studied before. The broad Mg II flux varies in the same direction as the continuum flux, albeit with a smaller amplitude, which indicates at least some portion of Mg II is reverberating to continuum changes. However, the full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of Mg II does not vary accordingly as continuum changes for most objects in the sample, in contrast to the case of the broad Balmer lines. Using the width of broad Mg II to estimate the black hole mass with single epoch spectra therefore introduces a luminosity-dependent bias.
Research Organization:
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States); Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA); National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR); USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
Contributing Organization:
DES Collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11359; AC02-76SF00515; AC05-00OR22725; SC0019193
OSTI ID:
1545091
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1726004
OSTI ID: 1756926
OSTI ID: 1638225
OSTI ID: 1659579
OSTI ID: 1785456
Report Number(s):
DES--2018-0434; FERMILAB-PUB--19-177-AE; Fermilab-PUB--37631V; arXiv:1904.10912; oai:inspirehep.net:1731110
Journal Information:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Journal Name: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 493; ISSN 0035-8711
Publisher:
Royal Astronomical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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