J/ApJS/263/16 13yr of R-band monitoring for 8 FRII quasars (Kuzmicz+, 2022)
Optical variability of eight FRII-type quasars with 13yr photometric light
curves.
Kuzmicz A., Goyal A., Zola S., Jamrozy M., Drozdz M., Ogloza W., Siwak M.,
Reichart D.E., Kouprianov V.V., Caton D.B.
<Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser., 263, 16 (2022)>
=2022ApJS..263...16K 2022ApJS..263...16K
ADC_Keywords: QSOs; Photometry; Optical; Redshifts; Radio sources
Keywords: Quasars ; Galaxy photometry ; Active galaxies ; Radio loud quasars
Abstract:
We characterize the optical variability properties of eight
lobe-dominated radio quasars (QSOs): B2 0709+37,
FBQS J095206.3+235245, PG 1004+130, [HB89] 1156+631, [HB89] 1425+267,
[HB89] 1503+691, [HB89] 1721+343, and 4C +74.26, systematically
monitored for a duration of 13yr since 2009. The quasars are
radio-loud objects with extended radio lobes that indicate their
orientation close to the sky plane. Five of the eight QSOs are
classified as giant radio quasars. All quasars showed variability
during our monitoring, with magnitude variations between 0.3 and 1mag
for the least variable and the most variable QSOs, respectively. We
performed both structure function (SF) analysis and power spectral
density (PSD) analysis for the variability characterization and search
for characteristic timescales and periodicities. As a result of our
analysis, we obtained relatively steep SF slopes (α ranging from
0.49 to 0.75) that are consistent with the derived PSD slopes (∼2-3).
All the PSDs show a good fit to single power-law forms, indicating a
red-noise character of variability between timescales of ∼13yr and
weeks. We did not measure reliable characteristic timescales of
variability from the SF analysis, which indicates that the duration of
the gathered data is too short to reveal them. The absence of bends in
the PSDs (change of slope from ≥1 to ∼0) on longer timescales
indicates that optical variations are most likely caused by thermal
instabilities in the accretion disk.
Description:
The optical monitoring of the source sample began in 2009 March as
part of the Krakow Quasar Monitoring program. Observations have been
gathered mainly from two telescopes: the 60cm one at Mount Suhora
Observatory of the Pedagogical University (65.7%) and the 50cm
Cassegrain telescope of the Astronomical Observatory of the
Jagiellonian University (21.3%).
Supplementary observations were carried out using robotic telescopes
operated by the SKYNET Robotic Telescope Network, which constituted
13% of the observations. In particular, we used the 50cm CDK telescope
of the Astronomical Observatory of the Jagiellonian University, the
40cm telescope of the Dark Sky Observatory (DSO), the 60cm Rapid
Response Robotic Telescope (RRRT) of the Fan Mountain Observatory, the
60cm and 100cm telescopes of the Yerkes Observatory (YERKES), the 40cm
telescope of the Northern Skies Observatory (NSO), the 40cm telescope
of the Montana Learning Center (MLC), the 40cm telescope of the Perth
Observatory (RCOP), the 40cm telescope of the Mars Desert Research
Station (MDRS), and the 40cm telescope of the Dolomiti Astronomical
Observatory (DAO).
The quasars in our sample were observed in the R band taking
∼10 frames per source each clear night. The integration times varied
between 1 and 3 minutes depending on the quasar brightness and weather
conditions.
Each target was observed two to four times per month, occasionally
with a denser coverage, uniformly covering a ∼13yr period.
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
table1.dat 81 8 Sample properties
tableb1.dat 70 3494 Differential R-band magnitude light curves for
studied quasars; table updated by the author
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See also:
VIII/65 : 1.4GHz NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) (Condon+ 1998)
J/ApJS/126/133 : The FIRST bright quasar survey. II. (White+, 2000)
J/AJ/121/1872 : FIRST radio-selected QSOs (Helfand+, 2001)
J/MNRAS/375/989 : Quasar variability (Wold+, 2007)
J/ApJ/698/895 : Variations in QSOs optical flux (Kelly+, 2009)
J/ApJ/728/26 : QSO selection based on phot. variability (Macleod+, 2011)
J/MNRAS/426/851 : Giant Radio Quasars properties (Kuzmicz+, 2012)
J/ApJ/753/106 : Quasar variability with SDSS & POSS imaging (MacLeod+, 2012)
J/A+A/620/A185 : Long-term optical monitoring of TeV Blazars (Nilsson+, 2018)
J/A+A/642/A153 : SAGAN. I. New sample & multi-wavelength data (Dabhade+, 2020)
J/ApJS/253/25 : Giant radio quasars from SDSS, FIRST & NVSS (Kuzmicz+, 2021)
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table1.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 21 A21 --- Name Quasar identifier
23- 24 I2 h RAh Hour of right ascension (J2000)
26- 27 I2 min RAm Minute of right ascension (J2000)
29- 33 F5.2 s RAs Second of right ascension (J2000)
35 A1 --- DE- Sign of declination (J2000)
36- 37 I2 deg DEd Degree of declination (J2000)
39- 40 I2 arcmin DEm Arcminute of declination (J2000)
42- 45 F4.1 arcsec DEs Arcsecond of declination (J2000)
47- 51 F5.3 --- z [0.1/0.97] Spectroscopic redshift
53- 56 F4.2 Mpc Dist [0.38/1.21] Projected linear size of radio
structure (1)
58- 62 F5.2 mag rmag [14.46/17.78] r-band SDSS magnitude (2)
64 A1 --- f_rmag Flag on rmag
66- 67 I2 deg Inc [45/90] Inclination angle (3)
69- 73 F5.2 W/Hz logLtot [25.67/27.03] Total radio luminosity
at 1.4GHz (4)
75- 79 F5.2 W/Hz logLc [24.38/26.64] Core radio luminosity
at 1.4GHz (4)
81 A1 --- Ref Reference for source selection (5)
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Note (1): Assuming H0=71km/s/Mpc, ΩM=0.27, Ωvac=0.73
Note (2): Flag as follows:
a = The PSF r-band magnitudes from the Pan-STARRS data archive.
Note (3): Inclination angle from Zola+ (2012ASInC...7..239Z 2012ASInC...7..239Z) calculated as in
Kuzmicz & Jamrozy (2012, J/MNRAS/426/851)
Note (4): Total and core radio luminosity at 1.4GHz from
Kuzmicz & Jamrozy (2012, J/MNRAS/426/851 and 2021, J/ApJS/253/25)
Note (5): Reference code as follows:
a = White et al. (2000, J/ApJS/126/133);
b = Condon et al. (1998, VIII/65 ; NVSS)
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: tableb1.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 21 A21 --- Name Quasar identifier
23- 35 F13.5 d HJD Heliocentric Julian Date
37- 42 F6.3 mag V-C [-0.46/2.94] Differential R-band magnitude (1)
44- 49 F6.3 mag e_V-C [0.004/0.3] Uncertainty in V-C
51- 56 F6.3 mag C-C1 [-0.78/0.73] Differential R-band magnitude (2)
58- 63 F6.3 mag e_C-C1 [0.001/0.2] Uncertainty in C-C1
65- 70 A6 --- Tel Telescope code (3)
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Note (1): Between QSO (denoted as V) and comparison star (denoted as C).
Note (2): Between comparison and check star (denoted as C1); listed in Table A1.
Note (3): Telescope as follows:
KR50 = 50cm telescope of the Astronomical Observatory of
the Jagiellonian University;
SUH = 60cm telescope at the Mt. Suhora Astronomical Observatory;
CDK = 50cm telescope of the Astronomical Observatory of
the Jagiellonian University (Skynet);
DSO = 40cm telescope of the Dark Sky Observatory (Skynet);
RRRT = 60cm Rapid Response Robotic Telescope of the Fan
Mountain Observatory (Skynet);
YERKES = 60cm or 100 cm telescope of the Yerkes Observatory (Skynet);
NSO = 40cm telescope of the Northern Skies Observatory (Skynet);
MLC = 40cm telescope of the Montana Learning Center (Skynet);
RCOP = 40cm telescope of the Perth Observatory (Skynet);
MDRS = 40cm telescope of the Mars Desert Research Station (Skynet);
DAO = 40cm telescope of the Dolomiti Astronomical Observatory.
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History:
From electronic version of the journal;
Updated version for Table B1 with data for [HB89] 1425+267 added.
Acknowledgements:
Agnieszka Kuzmicz [cygnus at oa.uj.edu.pl]
(End) Prepared by [AAS], Emmanuelle Perret [CDS] 29-Nov-2022