30 Years of Multifrequency Quasar Variability: A Personal Journey

I outline the history of and progress in observing and understanding quasar multi-frequency and multi-messenger variability from the point of view of someone who has been working in the field for over 30 years. I will present some important references for the evolution from optical monitoring to multi-frequency cooperative programs that revealed the true multi-frequency/multi-timescale nature of variability in these objects. Quasar observations began with separate radio and optical monitoring programs; then the optical and radio observations w ere combined. This was followed by expanding the analyses to include far IR, UV, X-rays, and finally adding gamma rays. This progression yielded simultaneous multi-frequency spectra of these objects and light curves over 15 decades in frequency. The future is adding particle (neutrino) and gravitational waves to the picture. I also present long-term (50 years) optical light curves, and discuss optical variability at all timescales from minutes to tens of years in some selected objects for which we have reliable long-term monitoring observations.

COSMOGRAIL

We present the results of 15 years of monitoring lensed quasars, which was conducted by the COSMOGRAIL programme at the Leonhard Euler 1.2 m Swiss Telescope. The decade-long light curves of 23 lensed systems are presented for the first time. We complement our data set with other monitoring data available in the literature to measure the time delays in 18 systems, among which nine reach a relative precision better than 15% for at least one time delay. To achieve this, we developed an automated version of the curve-shifting toolbox PyCS to ensure robust estimation of the time delay in the presence of microlensing, while accounting for the errors due to the imperfect representation of microlensing. We also re-analysed the previously published time delays of RX J1131−1231 and HE 0435−1223, by adding six and two new seasons of monitoring, respectively, and confirming the previous time-delay measurements. When the time delay measurement is possible, we corrected the light curves of the lensed images from their time delay and present the difference curves to highlight the microlensing signal contained in the data. To date, this is the largest sample of decade-long lens monitoring data, which is useful to measure H0 and the size of quasar accretion discs with microlensing as well as to study quasar variability.

Correlation between optical and UV variability of a large sample of quasars

ABSTRACT The variability of quasars across multiple wavelengths is a useful probe of physical conditions in active galactic nuclei. In particular, variable accretion rates, instabilities, and reverberation effects in the accretion disc of a supermassive black hole are expected to produce correlated flux variations in ultraviolet (UV) and optical bands. Recent work has further argued that binary quasars should exhibit strongly correlated UV and optical periodicities. Strong UV–optical correlations have indeed been established in small samples of (N ≲ 30) quasars with well-sampled light curves, and have extended the ‘bluer-when-brighter’ trend previously found within the optical bands. Here, we further test the nature of quasar variability by examining the observed-frame UV–optical correlations among bright quasars extracted from the Half Million Quasars (HMQ) catalogue. We identified a large sample of 1315 quasars in HMQ with overlapping UV and optical light curves from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer and the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey, respectively. We find that strong correlations exist in this much larger sample, but we rule out, at ∼95 per cent confidence, the simple hypothesis that the intrinsic UV and optical variations of all quasars are fully correlated. Our results therefore imply the existence of physical mechanism(s) that can generate uncorrelated optical and UV flux variations.

Spectral energy distributions of candidate periodically variable quasars: testing the binary black hole hypothesis

ABSTRACT Periodic quasars are candidates for binary supermassive black holes (BSBHs) efficiently emitting low-frequency gravitational waves. Recently, ∼150 candidates were identified from optical synoptic surveys. However, they may be false positives caused by stochastic quasar variability given the few cycles covered (typically 1.5). To independently test the binary hypothesis, we search for evidence of truncated or gapped circumbinary accretion discs (CBDs) in their spectral energy distributions (SEDs). Our work is motivated by CBD simulations that predict flux deficits as cut-offs from central cavities opened by secondaries or notches from minidiscs around both BHs. We find that candidate periodic quasars show SEDs similar to those of control quasars matched in redshift and luminosity. While seven of 138 candidates show a blue cut-off in the IR–optical–UV SED, six of which may represent CBDs with central cavities, the red SED fraction is similar to that in control quasars, suggesting no correlation between periodicity and SED anomaly. Alternatively, dust reddening may cause red SEDs. The fraction of extremely radio-loud quasars, e.g. blazars (with R > 100), is tentatively higher than that in control quasars (at 2.5σ). Our results suggest that, assuming most periodic candidates are robust, IR–optical–UV SEDs of CBDs are similar to those of accretion discs of single BHs, if the periodicity is driven by BSBHs; the higher blazar fraction may signal precessing radio jets. Alternatively, most current candidate periodic quasars identified from few-cycle light curves may be false positives. Their tentatively higher blazar fraction and lower Eddington ratios may both be caused by selection biases.

Exploiting flux ratio anomalies to probe warm dark matter in future large-scale surveys

ABSTRACT Flux ratio anomalies in strong gravitationally lensed quasars constitute a unique way to probe the abundance of non-luminous dark matter haloes, and hence the nature of dark matter. In this paper, we identify double-imaged quasars as a statistically efficient probe of dark matter, since they are 20 times more abundant than quadruply imaged quasars. Using N-body simulations that include realistic baryonic feedback, we measure the full distribution of flux ratios in doubly imaged quasars for cold (CDM) and warm dark matter (WDM) cosmologies. Through this method, we fold in two key systematics – quasar variability and line-of-sight structures. We find that WDM cosmologies predict a ∼6 per cent difference in the cumulative distribution functions of flux ratios relative to CDM, with CDM predicting many more small ratios. Finally, we estimate that ∼600 doubly imaged quasars will need to be observed in order to be able to unambiguously discern between CDM and the two WDM models studied here. Such sample sizes will be easily within reach of future large-scale surveys such as Euclid. In preparation for this survey data, we require discerning the scale of the uncertainties in modelling lens galaxies and their substructure in simulations, plus a strong understanding of the selection function of observed lensed quasars.

Time-dependent behaviour of quasar proximity zones at z ∼ 6

ABSTRACT Since the discovery of z ∼ 6 quasars two decades ago, studies of their Ly α-transparent proximity zones have largely focused on their utility as a probe of cosmic reionization. But even when in a highly ionized intergalactic medium, these zones provide a rich laboratory for determining the time-scales that govern quasar activity and the concomitant growth of their supermassive black holes. In this work, we use a suite of 1D radiative transfer simulations of quasar proximity zones to explore their time-dependent behaviour for activity time-scales from ∼103 to 108 yr. The sizes of the simulated proximity zones, as quantified by the distance at which the smoothed Ly α transmission drops below 10 per cent (denoted Rp), are in excellent agreement with observations, with the exception of a handful of particularly small zones that have been attributed to extremely short ≲104 lifetimes. We develop a physically motivated semi-analytic model of proximity zones which captures the bulk of their equilibrium and non-equilibrium behaviour, and use this model to investigate how quasar variability on ≲105 yr time-scales is imprinted on the distribution of observed proximity zone sizes. We show that large variations in the ionizing luminosity of quasars on time-scales of ≲104 yr are disfavoured based on the good agreement between the observed distribution of Rp and our model prediction based on ‘lightbulb’ (i.e. steady constant emission) light curves.

Time-Domain Instrumentation at ESO

Over the years the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has offered a number of time-domain instruments that enable the user to achieve time resolution as small as milliseconds. They have been used for a wide range of applications, from binary studies with Lunar occultations, characterisation of X-ray binaries and exoplanet transits, to quasar variability. Furthermore, ESO provides a target-of-opportunity (ToO) rapid-response-mode (RRM) channel to trigger quick follow-up observations within as little delay as minutes after a transient has been detected. This talk reviewed the available time-domain observing modes and instruments at ESO, giving priority to FORS2, HAWKI and UltraCam. It described the ToO and RRM, and gave examples of the most common science cases that take advantage of those channels and capabilities.