Hum Chand

The origin of UV-optical variability in AGN and test of disc models: XMM-Newton and ground-based observations of NGC 4395

The origin of short timescale (weeks/months) variability of AGN, whether due to intrinsic disc variations or reprocessing of X-ray emission by a surrounding accretion disc, has been a puzzle for many years. However recently a number of observational programmes, particularly of NGC 5548 with Swift, have shown that the UV/optical variations lag behind the X-ray variations in a manner strongly supportive of X-ray reprocessing. Somewhat surprisingly, the implied size of the accretion disc is ?3 times greater than expected from a standard, smooth, Shakura-Sunyaev thin disc model. Although the difference may be explained by a clumpy accretion disc, it is not clear whether the difference will occur in all AGN or whether it may change as, eg, a function of black hole mass, accretion rate, or disc temperature. Measurements of interband lags for most AGN require long timescale monitoring, which is hard to arrange. However for low mass (<106 M?) AGN, the combination of XMM-Newton EPIC (X-rays) with the optical monitor in fast readout mode allows an X-ray/UV-optical lag to be measured within a single long observation. Here we summarise previous related observations and report on XMM-Newton observations of NGC 4395 (mass 100 times lower, accretion rate ?20 times lower than for NGC 5548). We find that the UVW1 lags the X-rays by ?470 s. Simultaneous observations at 6 different ground based observatories also allowed the g-band lag (?800 s) to be measured. These observations are in agreement with X-ray reprocessing but initial analysis suggests that, for NGC 4395, they do not differ markedly from the predictions of the standard thin disc model

Optical microvariability properties of BALQSOs

We present optical light curves of 19 radio-quiet (RQ) broad absorption line (BAL) quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) and study their rapid variability characteristics. Systematic CCD observations, aided by a careful data analysis procedure, have allowed us to clearly detect any such microvariability exceeding 0.01–0.02 mag. Our observations cover a total of 13 nights (∼72 h) with each quasar monitored for about 4 h on a given night. Our sample size is a factor of 3 larger than the number of RQ BALQSOs previously searched for microvariability. We introduce a scaled F-test statistic for evaluating the presence of optical microvariability and demonstrate why it is generally preferable to the statistics usually employed for this purpose. Considering only unambiguous detections of microvariability we find that ∼11 per cent of RQ BALQSOs (two out of 19 sources) show microvariability for an individual observation length of about 4 h. This new duty cycle of 11 per cent is similar to the usual low microvariability fraction of normal radio-quiet QSOs (RQQSOs) with observation lengths similar to those of ours. This result provides support for models where RQ BALQSO do not appear to be a special case of the RQQSOs in terms of their microvariability properties.

Dependence of residual rotation measure on intervening Mg ii absorbers at cosmic distances

We investigate the dependence of residual rotation measure (RRM) on intervening absorption systems at cosmic distances by using a large sample of 539 SDSS quasars in conjunction with the available rotation measure catalog at around 21cm wavelength. We found an excess extragalactic contribution in standard deviation of observed RRM of about 8.11+/-4.83 Rad/m^2 in our sample with intervening MgII absorber as compare to the sample without MgII absorber. Our results suggest that intervening absorbers could contribute to the enhancement of RRM at around 21cm wavelength, as was found earlier for RM measurements at around 6cm wavelength.

INCIDENCE OF Mg II ABSORPTION SYSTEMS TOWARD FLAT-SPECTRUM RADIO QUASARS

The conventional wisdom that the rate of incidence of Mg II absorption systems, dN/dz (excluding associated systems having a velocity {beta}c relative to the active galactic nucleus (AGN) of less than {approx}5000 km s{sup -1}), is totally independent of the background AGNs has been challenged by a recent finding that dN/dz for strong Mg II absorption systems toward distant blazars is 2.2 {+-} {sup 0.8}{sub 0.6} times the value known for normal optically selected quasars (QSOs). This has led to the suggestion that a significant fraction of even the absorption systems with {beta} as high as {approx}0.1 may have been ejected by the relativistic jets in the blazars, which are expected to be pointed close to our direction. Here, we investigate this scenario using a large sample of 115 flat-spectrum radio-loud quasars (FSRQs) that also possess powerful jets, but are only weakly polarized. We show, for the first time, that dN/dz toward FSRQs is, on the whole, quite similar to that known for QSOs and that the comparative excess of strong Mg II absorption systems seen toward blazars is mainly confined to {beta} < 0.15. The excess relative to FSRQs probably results from a likely closer alignment of blazar jetsmorexa0» with our direction; hence, any gas clouds accelerated by them are more likely to be on the line of sight to the active quasar nucleus.«xa0less

Intranight optical variability of radio-loud broad absorption line quasars

We present the results of an optical photometric monitoring program of 10 extremely radio loud broad absorption line quasars (RL-BALQSOs) with radio-loudness parameter, R, greater than 100 and magnitude g_i < 19. Over an observing run of about 3.5-6.5 hour we found a clear detection of variability for one of our 10 radio-loud BALQSOs with the INOV duty cycle of 5.1 per cent, while on including the probable variable cases, a higher duty cycle of 35.1 per cent is found; which are very similar to the duty cycle of radio quiet broad absorption line quasars (RQ-BALQSOs). This low duty cycle of clear variability per cent in radio-loud sub-class of BALQSOs can be understood under the premise where BALs outflow may arise from large variety of viewing angles from the jet axis or perhaps being closer to the disc plane.

Probing spectral properties of radio-quiet quasars searched for optical microvariability

In the context of active galactic nucleus (AGN) unification schemes, rapid variability properties play an important role in understanding any intrinsic differences between sources in different classes. In this respect, any clue based on spectral properties will be very useful toward understanding the mechanisms responsible for the origin of rapid small-scale optical variations or microvariability. Here we have added spectra of 46 radio-quiet quasars (RQQSOs) and Seyfert 1 galaxies to those of our previous sample of 37 such objects, all of which had been previously searched for microvariability. We took new optical spectra of 33 objects and obtained 13 others from the literature. Their Hβ and Mg II emission lines were carefully fitted to determine line widths (FWHM) as well as equivalent widths (EW) due to the broad emissionline components. The line widths were used to estimate black hole masses and Eddington ratios, � . Both EW and FWHM are anticorrelated with � . Nearly all trends were in agreement with our previous work, although the tendency for sources exhibiting microvariability to be of lower luminosity was not confirmed. Most importantly, this whole sample of EW distributions provides no evidence for the hypothesis that a weak jet component in radio-quiet AGNs is responsible for their microvariability.

X-ray/UV/optical variability of NGC 4593 with Swift: reprocessing of X-rays by an extended reprocessor

We report the results of intensive X-ray, UV, and optical monitoring of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 4593 with Swift. There is no intrinsic flux-related spectral change in any variable component with small apparent variations being due to contamination by a constant hard (reflection) component in the X-rays and the red host galaxy in the UV/optical. Relative to the shortest wavelength band, UVW2, the lags of the other UV/optical bands mostly agree with the predictions of reprocessing of high energy emission by an accretion disc. The U-band lag is, however, larger than expected, probably because of reprocessed Balmer continuum emission from the distant broad line region (BLR). The UVW2 band is well correlated with the X-rays but lags by ∼6× more than expected if the UVW2 results only from reprocessing of X-rays by the disc. However, if the light curves are filtered to remove variations on time-scales >5 d, the lag approaches the expectation from disc reprocessing. MEMECHO analysis shows that direct X-rays can be the driver of most of the UV/optical variations if the response functions have tails up to 10 d, from BLR reprocessing, together with strong peaks at short lag (<1 d) from disc reprocessing. For the 5 AGN monitored so far, the observed UVW2 to V-band lags are ∼<2 of disc reprocessing expectations and vary little between AGN. However, the X-ray to UVW2 lags greatly exceed disc reprocessing expectations and differ between AGN. The two most absorbed AGN have the largest excesses, so absorption and scattering may affect these lags, but there is no simple relationship between excess and absorption.

Intranight optical variability of radio-quiet weak emission line quasars – III

We report an extension of our program to search for radio-quiet BL Lac candidates using intra-night optical variability (INOV) as a probe. The present INOV observations cover a well-defined representative set of 10 `radio-quiet weak-emission-line quasars (RQWLQs), selected from a newly published sample of 46 such sources, derived from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (Data release 7). Intra-night CCD monitoring of the 10 RQWLQs was carried out in 18 sessions lasting at least 3.5 hours. For each session, differential light curves (DLCs) of the target RQWLQ were derived relative to two steady comparison stars monitored simultaneously. Combining these new data with those already published by us for 15 RQWLQs monitored in 30 sessions, we estimate an INOV duty cycle of

Signature of outflows in strong Mg ii absorbers in quasar sightlines

sim 3%

Probing Magnetic Fields with Square Kilometre Array and its Precursors

for the RQWLQs, which appears inconsistent with BL Lacs. However, the observed INOV events (which occurred in just two of the sessions) are strong (with a fractional variability amplitude