Tracing Active Galactic Nuclei Properties Through a Changing-look Event

Abstract Changing-look transitions challenge our understanding of active galactic nuclei (AGN), exhibiting dramatic changes in broad-line emission and continuum flux on timescales of months to years. We present a detailed study of the spectroscopically confirmed changing-look AGN ZTF18abuamgo. Combining photometric survey data with spectroscopy spanning three epochs over 20 years, we identify a turn-on transition from a Type 1.5 to Type 1.2 AGN and estimate the timescale of this change to be as short as four years. Spectral analysis indicates that this transformation is driven by a rapid increase in accretion rate, with the Eddington ratio rising from 0.032 ± 0.005 in the dim state to 0.08 ± 0.01 in the bright state. For the first time in a changing-look AGN, we apply the Boltzmann plot method to the visible Balmer series emission, deriving broad line region electron temperatures of 11, 800 ± 900 K and 11, 900 ± 2, 400 K in 2022 and 2024, respectively. Applying single-epoch black hole mass estimation to the brightening Hα emission, we find a mass of (5.0 ± 0.4) × 107M⊙. The consistency in this estimate across all spectroscopic epochs suggest that even highly variable broad lines in CL-AGN do not bias the results derived using this method. Our results demonstrate that objects like ZTF18abuamgo provide a unique laboratory to study extreme AGN variability, probe the physical conditions in the broad line region, and assess the limitations of widely used black hole mass estimation methods.