Browsing by Author "Temple, Matthew J."
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- ItemA Transient "Changing-look" Active Galactic Nucleus Resolved on Month Timescales from First-year Sloan Digital Sky Survey V Data(2022) Zeltyn, Grisha; Trakhtenbrot, Benny; Eracleous, Michael; Runnoe, Jessie; Trump, Jonathan R.; Stern, Jonathan; Shen, Yue; Hernandez-Garcia, Lorena; Bauer, Franz E.; Yang, Qian; Dwelly, Tom; Ricci, Claudio; Green, Paul; Anderson, Scott F.; Assef, Roberto J.; Guolo, Muryel; MacLeod, Chelsea; Davis, Megan C.; Fries, Logan; Gezari, Suvi; Grogin, Norman A.; Homan, David; Koekemoer, Anton M.; Krumpe, Mirko; LaMassa, Stephanie; Liu, Xin; Merloni, Andrea; Martinez-Aldama, Mary Loli; Schneider, Donald P.; Temple, Matthew J.; Brownstein, Joel R.; Ibarra-Medel, Hector; Burke, Jamison; Pellegrino, Craig; Kollmeier, Juna A.We report the discovery of a new "changing-look" active galactic nucleus (CLAGN) event, in the quasar SDSS J162829.17+432948.5 at z = 0.2603, identified through repeat spectroscopy from the fifth Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-V). Optical photometry taken during 2020-2021 shows a dramatic dimming of Delta g approximate to 1 mag, followed by a rapid recovery on a timescale of several months, with the less than or similar to 2 month period of rebrightening captured in new SDSS-V and Las Cumbres Observatory spectroscopy. This is one of the fastest CLAGN transitions observed to date. Archival observations suggest that the object experienced a much more gradual dimming over the period of 2011-2013. Our spectroscopy shows that the photometric changes were accompanied by dramatic variations in the quasar-like continuum and broad-line emission. The excellent agreement between the pre- and postdip photometric and spectroscopic appearances of the source, as well as the fact that the dimmest spectra can be reproduced by applying a single extinction law to the brighter spectral states, favor a variable line-of-sight obscuration as the driver of the observed transitions. Such an interpretation faces several theoretical challenges, and thus an alternative accretion-driven scenario cannot be excluded. The recent events observed in this quasar highlight the importance of spectroscopic monitoring of large active galactic nucleus samples on weeks-to-months timescales, which the SDSS-V is designed to achieve.
- ItemBASS XXXII: Studying the Nuclear Millimeter-wave Continuum Emission of AGNs with ALMA at Scales ≲100-200 pc(2022) Kawamuro, Taiki; Ricci, Claudio; Imanishi, Masatoshi; Mushotzky, Richard F.; Izumi, Takuma; Ricci, Federica; Bauer, Franz E.; Koss, Michael J.; Trakhtenbrot, Benny; Ichikawa, Kohei; Rojas, Alejandra F.; Smith, Krista Lynne; Shimizu, Taro; Oh, Kyuseok; den Brok, Jakob S.; Baba, Shunsuke; Balokovic, Mislay; Chang, Chin-Shin; Kakkad, Darshan; Pfeifle, Ryan W.; Privon, George C.; Temple, Matthew J.; Ueda, Yoshihiro; Harrison, Fiona; Powell, Meredith C.; Stern, Daniel; Urry, Meg; Sanders, David B.To understand the origin of nuclear (less than or similar to 100 pc) millimeter-wave (mm-wave) continuum emission in active galactic nuclei (AGNs), we systematically analyzed subarcsecond resolution Band-6 (211-275 GHz) Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array data of 98 nearby AGNs (z < 0.05) from the 70 month Swift/BAT catalog. The sample, almost unbiased for obscured systems, provides the largest number of AGNs to date with high mm-wave spatial resolution sampling (similar to 1-200 pc), and spans broad ranges of 14-150 keV luminosity {40< log [L-14(-150)/(erg s(-1))] < 45}, black hole mass [5 < log(M-BH/M-circle dot) < 10], and Eddington ratio (-4 < log lambda(Edd) < 2). We find a significant correlation between 1.3 mm (230 GHz) and 14-150 keV luminosities. Its scatter is approximate to 0.36 dex, and the mm-wave emission may serve as a good proxy of the AGN luminosity, free of dust extinction up to N-H similar to 10(26) CM-2. While the mm-wave emission could be self-absorbed synchrotron radiation around the X-ray corona according to past works, we also discuss different possible origins of the mm-wave emission: AGN-related dust emission, outflow-driven shocks, and a small-scale (<200 pc) jet. The dust emission is unlikely to be dominant, as the mm-wave slope is generally flatter than expected. Also, due to no increase in the mm-wave luminosity with the Eddington ratio, a radiation-driven outflow model is possibly not the common mechanism Furthermore, we find independence of the mm-wave luminosity on indicators of the inclination angle from the polar axis of the nuclear structure, which is inconsistent with a jet model whose luminosity depends only on the angle.
- ItemBASS XXXIX: Swift-BAT AGN with changing-look optical spectra(2023) Temple, Matthew J.; Ricci, Claudio; Koss, Michael J.; Trakhtenbrot, Benny; Bauer, Franz E.; Mushotzky, Richard; Rojas, Alejandra F.; Caglar, Turgay; Harrison, Fiona; Oh, Kyuseok; Gonzalez, Estefania Padilla; Powell, Meredith C.; Ricci, Federica; Riffel, Rogerio; Stern, Daniel; Urry, C. MeganChanging-look (CL) AGN are unique probes of accretion onto supermassive black holes (SMBHs), especially when simultaneous observations in complementary wavebands allow investigations into the properties of their accretion flows. We present the results of a search for CL behaviour in 412 Swift-BAT detected AGN with multiple epochs of optical spectroscopy from the BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey (BASS). 125 of these AGN also have 14-195 keV ultra-hard X-ray light curves from Swift-BAT which are contemporaneous with the epochs of optical spectroscopy. Eight CL events are presented for the first time, where the appearance or disappearance of broad Balmer line emission leads to a change in the observed Seyfert type classification. Combining with known events from the literature, 21 AGN from BASS are now known to display CL behaviour. Nine CL events have 14-195 keV data available, and five of these CL events can be associated with significant changes in their 14-195 keV flux from BAT. The ultra-hard X-ray flux is less affected by obscuration and so these changes in the 14-195 keV band suggest that the majority of our CL events are not due to changes in line-of-sight obscuration. We derive a CL rate of 0.7-6.2 per cent on 10-25 yr time-scales, and show that many transitions happen within at most a few years. Our results motivate further multiwavelength observations with higher cadence to better understand the variability physics of accretion onto SMBHs.
- ItemBASS-XL: X-ray variability properties of unobscured active galactic nuclei(2023) Tortosa, Alessia; Ricci, Claudio; Arevalo, Patricia; Koss, Michael J.; Bauer, Franz E.; Trakhtenbrot, Benny; Mushotzky, Richard; Temple, Matthew J.; Ricci, Federica; Lilayu, Alejandra Rojas; Kawamuro, Taiki; Caglar, Turgay; Liu, Tingting; Harrison, Fiona; Oh, Kyuseok; Powell, Meredith Clark; Stern, Daniel; Urry, Claudia MeganWe investigate the X-ray variability properties of Seyfert 1 Galaxies belonging to the BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey (BASS). The sample includes 151 unobscured (N-H < 10(22) cm(-2)) AGNs observed with XMM-Newton for a total exposure time of similar to 27 ms, representing the deepest variability study done so far with high signal-to-noise XMM-Newton observations, almost doubling the number of observations analysed in previous works. We constrain the relation between the normalized excess variance and the 2-10 keV AGN luminosities, black hole masses, and Eddington ratios. We find a highly significant correlation between sigma(2)(NXS) and M-BH, with a scatter of similar to 0.85 dex. For sources with high L2-10 this correlation has a lower normalization, confirming that more luminous (higher mass) AGNs show less variability. We explored the sigma(2)(NXS) versus M-BH relation for the sub-sample of sources with M-BH estimated via the 'reverberation mapping' technique, finding a tighter anticorrelation, with a scatter of similar to 0.65 dex. We examine how the sigma(2)(NXS) changes with energy by studying the relation between the variability in the hard (3-10 keV) and the soft (0.2-1 keV)/medium (1-3 keV) energy bands, finding that the spectral components dominating the hard energy band are more variable than the spectral components dominating in softer energy bands, on time-scales shorter than 10 ks.
- ItemBASS. XXII. The BASS DR2 AGN Catalog and Data(2022) Koss, Michael J. ; Ricci, Claudio ; Trakhtenbrot, Benny ; Oh, Kyuseok ; den Brok, Jakob S. ; Mejía-Restrepo, Julian E. ; Stern, Daniel ; Privon, George C. ; Treister, Ezequiel ; Powell, Meredith C.; Mushotzky, Richard ; Bauer, Franz Erik; Ananna, Tonima T. ; Baloković, Mislav ; Bär, Rudolf ; Becker, George ; Bessiere, Patricia ; Burtscher, Leonard ; Caglar, Turgay ; Congiu, Enrico ; Evans, Phil ; Harrison, Fiona ; Heida, Marianne ; Ichikawa, Kohei ; Kamraj, Nikita; Lamperti, Isabella; Pacucci, Fabio ; Ricci, Federica ; Riffel, Rogério; Rojas, Alejandra F. ; Schawinski, Kevin ; Temple, Matthew J. ; Urry, C. Megan ; Veilleux, Sylvain ; Williams, Jonathan
- ItemBASS. XXXIV. A Catalog of the Nuclear Millimeter-wave Continuum Emission Properties of AGNs Constrained on Scales ≤ 100-200 pc(IOP Publishing Ltd, 2023) Kawamuro, Taiki; Ricci, Claudio; Mushotzky, Richard F.; Imanishi, Masatoshi; Bauer, Franz Erik; Ricci, Federica; Koss, Michael J.; Privon, George C.; Trakhtenbrot, Benny; Izumi, Takuma; Ichikawa, Kohei; Rojas, Alejandra F.; Smith, Krista Lynne; Shimizu, Taro; Oh, Kyuseok; den Brok, Jakob S.; Baba, Shunsuke; Balokovic, Mislav; Chang, Chin-Shin; Kakkad, Darshan; Pfeifle, Ryan W.; Temple, Matthew J.; Ueda, Yoshihiro; Harrison, Fiona; Powell, Meredith C.; Stern, Daniel; Urry, Meg; Sanders, David B.We present a catalog of the millimeter-wave (mm-wave) continuum properties of 98 nearby (z < 0.05) active galactic nuclei (AGNs) selected from the 70 month Swift/BAT hard-X-ray catalog that have precisely determined X-ray spectral properties and subarcsecond-resolution Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array Band 6 (211-275 GHz) observations as of 2021 April. Due to the hard-X-ray (>10 keV) selection, the sample is nearly unbiased for obscured systems at least up to Compton-thick-level obscuration, and provides the largest number of AGNs with high-physical-resolution mm-wave data (less than or similar to 100-200 pc). Our catalog reports emission peak coordinates, spectral indices, and peak fluxes and luminosities at 1.3 mm (230 GHz). Additionally, high-resolution mm-wave images are provided. Using the images and creating radial surface brightness profiles of mm-wave emission, we identify emission extending from the central sources and isolated blob-like emission. Flags indicating the presence of these emission features are tabulated. Among 90 AGNs with significant detections of nuclear emission, 37 AGNs (approximate to 41%) appear to have both or one of extended or blob-like components. We, in particular, investigate AGNs that show well-resolved mm-wave components and find that these seem to have a variety of origins (i.e., a jet, radio lobes, a secondary AGN, stellar clusters, a narrow-line region, galaxy disk, active star formation regions, or AGN-driven outflows), and some components have currently unclear origins.
- ItemExploring Changing-look Active Galactic Nuclei with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey V: First Year Results(2024) Zeltyn, Grisha; Trakhtenbrot, Benny; Eracleous, Michael; Yang, Qian; Green, Paul; Anderson, Scott F.; LaMassa, Stephanie; Runnoe, Jessie; Assef, Roberto J.; Bauer, Franz E.; Brandt, W. N.; Davis, Megan C.; Frederick, Sara E.; Fries, Logan B.; Graham, Matthew J.; Grogin, Norman A.; Guolo, Muryel; Hernandez-Garcia, Lorena; Koekemoer, Anton M.; Krumpe, Mirko; Liu, Xin; Martinez-Aldama, Mary Loli; Ricci, Claudio; Schneider, Donald P.; Shen, Yue; Sniegowska, Marzena; Temple, Matthew J.; Trump, Jonathan R.; Xue, Yongquan; Brownstein, Joel R.; Dwelly, Tom; Morrison, Sean; Bizyaev, Dmitry; Pan, Kaike; Kollmeier, Juna A."Changing-look" active galactic nuclei (CL-AGNs) challenge our basic ideas about the physics of accretion flows and circumnuclear gas around supermassive black holes. Using first-year Sloan Digital Sky Survey V (SDSS-V) repeated spectroscopy of nearly 29,000 previously known active galactic nuclei (AGNs), combined with dedicated follow-up spectroscopy, and publicly available optical light curves, we have identified 116 CL-AGNs where (at least) one broad emission line has essentially (dis-)appeared, as well as 88 other extremely variable systems. Our CL-AGN sample, with 107 newly identified cases, is the largest reported to date, and includes similar to 0.4% of the AGNs reobserved in first-year SDSS-V operations. Among our CL-AGNs, 67% exhibit dimming while 33% exhibit brightening. Our sample probes extreme AGN spectral variability on months to decades timescales, including some cases of recurring transitions on surprisingly short timescales (less than or similar to 2 months in the rest frame). We find that CL events are preferentially found in lower-Eddington-ratio (f Edd) systems: Our CL-AGNs have a f Edd distribution that significantly differs from that of a carefully constructed, redshift- and luminosity-matched control sample (Anderson-Darling test yielding p AD approximate to 6 x 10-5; median f Edd approximate to 0.025 versus 0.043). This preference for low f Edd strengthens previous findings of higher CL-AGN incidence at lower f Edd, found in smaller samples. Finally, we show that the broad Mg ii emission line in our CL-AGN sample tends to vary significantly less than the broad H beta emission line. Our large CL-AGN sample demonstrates the advantages and challenges in using multi-epoch spectroscopy from large surveys to study extreme AGN variability and physics.
- ItemProbing the Structure and Evolution of BASS Active Galactic Nuclei through Eddington Ratios(2022) Ananna, Tonima Tasnim; Urry, C. Megan; Ricci, Claudio; Natarajan, Priyamvada; Hickox, Ryan C.; Trakhtenbrot, Benny; Treister, Ezequiel; Weigel, Anna K.; Ueda, Yoshihiro; Koss, Michael J.; Bauer, F. E.; Temple, Matthew J.; Balokovic, Mislav; Mushotzky, Richard; Auge, Connor; Sanders, David B.; Kakkad, Darshan; Sartori, Lia F.; Marchesi, Stefano; Harrison, Fiona; Stern, Daniel; Oh, Kyuseok; Caglar, Turgay; Powell, Meredith C.; Podjed, Stephanie A.; Mejia-Restrepo, Julian E.We constrain the intrinsic Eddington ratio (lambda(Edd)) distribution function for local active galactic nuclei (AGN) in bins of low and high obscuration [log(N-H/cm(-2)) <= 22 and 22 < log(N-H/cm(-2)) < 25], using the Swift Burst Alert Telescope 70 month/BASS DR2 survey. We interpret the fraction of obscured AGN in terms of circumnuclear geometry and temporal evolution. Specifically, at low Eddington ratios (log lambda(Edd) < -2), obscured AGN outnumber unobscured ones by a factor of similar to 4, reflecting the covering factor of the circumnuclear material (0.8, or a torus opening angle of similar to 34 degrees). At high Eddington ratios (log lambda(Edd) > - 1), the trend is reversed, with <30% of AGN having log(N-H/cm(-2)) > 22, which we suggest is mainly due to the small fraction of time spent in a highly obscured state. Considering the Eddington ratio distribution function of narrow-line and broad-line AGN from our prior work, we see a qualitatively similar picture. To disentangle temporal and geometric effects at high lambda(Edd), we explore plausible clearing scenarios such that the time-weighted covering factors agree with the observed population ratio. We find that the low fraction of obscured AGN at high lambda(Edd) is primarily due to the fact that the covering factor drops very rapidly, with more than half the time spent with <10% covering factor. We also find that nearly all obscured AGN at high-lambda(Edd) exhibit some broad lines. We suggest that this is because the height of the depleted torus falls below the height of the broad-line region, making the latter visible from all lines of sight.