The variability structure function of the highest luminosity quasars on short time-scales

ABSTRACT The stochastic photometric variability of quasars is known to follow a random-walk phenomenology on emission time-scales of months to years. Some high-cadence rest-frame optical monitoring in the past has hinted at a suppression of variability amplitudes on shorter time-scales of a few days or weeks, opening the question of what drives the suppression and how it might scale with quasar properties. Here, we study a few thousand of the highest luminosity quasars in the sky, mostly in the luminosity range of $L_{\rm bol}$$=[46.4, 47.3]$ and redshift range of $z=[0.7, 2.4]$. We use a data set from the NASA/Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System facility with nightly cadence, weather permitting, which has been used before to quantify strong regularity in longer term rest-frame-UV variability. As we focus on a careful treatment of short time-scales across the sample, we find that a linear function is sufficient to describe the UV variability structure function. Although the result can not rule out the existence of breaks in some groups completely, a simpler model is usually favoured under this circumstance. In conclusion, the data are consistent with a single-slope random walk across rest-frame time-scales of $\Delta t=[10, 250]$ d.

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Publication Details

Journal
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Published
2024-11-04
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae2479
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.37

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article

The variability structure function of the highest luminosity quasars on short time-scales

Christian Wolf, J. Tonry, Ji-Jia Tang
1 citations
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation
0.37
article

The variability structure function of the highest luminosity quasars on short time-scales

Christian Wolf, J. Tonry, Ji-Jia Tang
article en
1 citations

Abstract

ABSTRACT The stochastic photometric variability of quasars is known to follow a random-walk phenomenology on emission time-scales of months to years. Some high-cadence rest-frame optical monitoring in the past has hinted at a suppression of variability amplitudes on shorter time-scales of a few days or weeks, opening the question of what drives the suppression and how it might scale with quasar properties. Here, we study a few thousand of the highest luminosity quasars in the sky, mostly in the luminosity range of $L_{\rm bol}$$=[46.4, 47.3]$ and redshift range of $z=[0.7, 2.4]$. We use a data set from the NASA/Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System facility with nightly cadence, weather permitting, which has been used before to quantify strong regularity in longer term rest-frame-UV variability. As we focus on a careful treatment of short time-scales across the sample, we find that a linear function is sufficient to describe the UV variability structure function. Although the result can not rule out the existence of breaks in some groups completely, a simpler model is usually favoured under this circumstance. In conclusion, the data are consistent with a single-slope random walk across rest-frame time-scales of $\Delta t=[10, 250]$ d.

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical SocietyVol. 535(3)
Australian National University (AU), University of Hawaii System (US), National Taiwan University (TW), Mount Stromlo Observatory (AU), ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (AU)
Smithsonian Institution, U.S. Department of Energy, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Yale University, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Entomological Society of America, Vanderbilt University, New York University, Ohio State University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Utah, University of Washington, Johns Hopkins University, University of Arizona, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Notre Dame, Pennsylvania State University, University of Virginia, University of Hawai'i, University of Portsmouth, New Mexico State University, Space Telescope Science Institute, Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition, European Space Agency, University of Oxford, Queen's University Belfast, Academia Sinica, Queen's University, Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação, Nuclear Safety and Security Commission, Ministry of Education, India, University of Tokyo, National Taiwan University, National Science and Technology Council, Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Office of Science, University of Colorado Boulder, Leibniz-Gemeinschaft, Division of Arctic Sciences
Openalex Percentile: Top 42%
Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation
0.37
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