Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aas...21342206k&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #213, #422.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.241
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
We analyze a sample of optical light curves for 100 quasars, 70 of which have black hole mass estimates. Our sample is the largest and broadest used yet for modeling quasar variability. We model the light curves as a continuous time stochastic process, providing a natural means of modeling the characteristic time scale and amplitude of quasar variations. We employ a Bayesian approach to estimate the characteristic time scale and amplitude of flux variations; our approach is not affected by biases introduced from finite sampling effects. We find that the characteristic time scales strongly correlate with black hole mass and luminosity, and are consistent with disk orbital or thermal time scales. In addition, the amplitude of short time scale variations is significantly anti-correlated with black hole mass and luminosity. We interpret the luminosity variations as resulting from thermal fluctuations that are driven by an underlying stochastic process, such as turbulence driven by a time-varying magnetic field. In addition, the intranight variations in optical flux implied by our stochastic model are 0.01 mag, consistent with current studies. Our stochastic model is therefore able to unify both long and short time scale optical variations.
Bechtold Jill
Kelly Brandon C.
Siemiginowska Aneta
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