Collaborative Research: Accretion Revelations from Changing-Look Quasars

合作研究：变化类星体的吸积启示

• 批准号: 1715121
• 负责人: Scott Anderson
• 金额: $ 18.42万
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-09-01 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1715121&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Accretion; Revelations; Changing

Quasars are brilliant but tiny emitters of light. Being so tiny, it is hard to fathom how they work. Astronomers suspect the brilliance is caused by gas flooding toward a massive black hole. Curiously, a few, rare quasars have dramatically dimmed. These are the changing-look quasars (CLQs), and they offer clues about how the floodgates can close. The team will use optical observations to find more CLQs and study their details. Senior team members will train junior team members from underrepresented groups. The team will convert their light-based data to sound so that they can share their research with the blind or visually impaired.The team will (1) conduct archival and directed searches in multi-epoch SDSS optical spectra, to produce a large and well-defined statistical sample of new CLQs, (2) select new CLQ candidates for spectroscopic follow-up based on dramatic variability observed in their photometric light curves, and (3) investigate the spectroscopic and photometric variability properties of this sample of at least about 80 CLQs, to characterize and understand the phenomenon.

类星体是明亮但微小的光发射体。 由于如此微小，很难理解它们是如何工作的。 天文学家怀疑这种亮度是由大量气体涌向一个巨大的黑洞造成的。 奇怪的是，一些罕见的类星体已经戏剧性地变暗了。 这些是变化外观类星体（CLQ），它们提供了关于闸门如何关闭的线索。 该团队将使用光学观测来寻找更多的CLQ并研究它们的细节。 高级团队成员将培训来自代表性不足群体的初级团队成员。 该团队将把基于光的数据转换成声音，以便与盲人或视障人士分享他们的研究成果。该团队将（1）在多历元SDSS光谱中进行存档和定向搜索，以产生新CLQ的大型和定义明确的统计样本，（2）根据光度光变曲线中观察到的显著变化选择新CLQ候选者进行光谱跟踪，以及（3）研究至少约80个CLQ的该样本的光谱和光度变化特性，以表征和理解该现象。

项目成果

Changing-look Quasar Candidates: First Results from Follow-up Spectroscopy of Highly Optically Variable Quasars

• DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab05e2
• 发表时间: 2018-09
• 期刊: The Astrophysical Journal
• 作者: C. MacLeod;P. Green;S. Anderson;A. Bruce;M. Eracleous;M. Graham;D. Homan;A. Lawrence;Amy Lebleu

The Analogous Structure of Accretion Flows in Supermassive and Stellar Mass Black Holes: New Insights from Faded Changing-look Quasars

• DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab3c1a
• 发表时间: 2019-03
• 期刊: The Astrophysical Journal
• 作者: J. Ruan;S. Anderson;M. Eracleous;P. Green;D. Haggard;C. MacLeod;J. Runnoe;M. Sobolewska

The Time-domain Spectroscopic Survey: Target Selection for Repeat Spectroscopy

• DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/aa99da
• 发表时间: 2017-06
• 期刊: The Astronomical Journal
• 作者: C. MacLeod;P. Green;S. Anderson;M. Eracleous;J. Ruan;J. Runnoe;W. Brandt;C. Badenes;J. Greene-J.