Collaborative Research: Accretion Revelations from Changing-Look Quasars

Smithsonian Institution Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

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.