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ABSTRACT: We report new Herschel observations of 25 z=4.8 extremely luminous optically
selected active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Five of the sources have extremely
large star forming (SF) luminosities, L_SF, corresponding to SF rates (SFRs) of
2800-5600 M_sol/yr assuming a Salpeter IMF. The remaining sources have only
upper limits on their SFRs but stacking their Herschel images results in a mean
SFR of 700 +/- 150 M_sol/yr. The higher SFRs in our sample are comparable to
the highest observed values so far, at any redshift. Our sample does not
contain obscured AGNs, which enables us to investigate several evolutionary
scenarios connecting super-massive black holes and SF activity in the early
universe. The most probable scenario is that we are witnessing the peak of SF
activity in some sources and the beginning of the post-starburst decline in
others. We suggest that all 25 sources, which are at their peak AGN activity,
are in large mergers. AGN feedback may be responsible for diminishing the SF
activity in 20 of them but is not operating efficiently in 5 others.
03/2012;
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ABSTRACT: We report on a population of X-ray weak quasars with similar UV emission-line
properties to those of the remarkable quasar PHL 1811. All radio-quiet PHL 1811
analogs are notably X-ray weak by a mean factor of ~13, with hints of heavy
X-ray absorption. Correlations between the X-ray weakness and UV emission-line
properties suggest that PHL 1811 analogs may have extreme wind-dominated broad
emission-line regions (BELRs). We propose an AGN geometry that can potentially
unify the PHL 1811 analogs and the general population of weak-line quasars.
01/2012;
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ABSTRACT: We use data from the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) to perform a
statistical study on the mid-infrared (IR) properties of a large number
($\sim10^2$) of BL Lac objects --- low-luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN)
with a jet beamed toward the Earth. As expected, many BL Lac objects are so
highly beamed that their jet synchrotron emission dominates their IR spectral
energy distributions. In other BL Lac objects, however, the jet is not strong
enough to completely dilute the rest of the AGN emission. We do not see
observational signatures of the dusty torus from these weakly beamed BL Lac
objects. The lack of observable torus emission is consistent with suggestions
that BL Lac objects are fed by radiatively inefficient accretion disks.
Implications for the "nature vs. nurture" debate for FR I and FR II radio
galaxies are briefly discussed. Our study supports the notion that, beyond
orientation, accretion rate plays an important role in AGN unification.
12/2011;
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ABSTRACT: We present Spitzer Space Telescope photometry of 18 Sloan Digital Sky Survey
(SDSS) quasars at 2.7 <= z <= 5.9 which have weak or undetectable
high-ionization emission lines in their rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) spectra
(hereafter weak-lined quasars, or WLQs). The Spitzer data are combined with
SDSS spectra and ground-based, near-infrared (IR) photometry of these sources
to produce a large inventory of spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of WLQs
across the rest-frame ~0.1-5 mum spectral band. The SEDs of our sources are
inconsistent with those of BL Lacertae objects which are dominated by
synchrotron emission due to a jet aligned close to our line-of-sight, but are
consistent with the SED of ordinary quasars with similar luminosities and
redshifts that exhibit a near-to-mid-IR 'bump', characteristic of hot dust
emission. This indicates that broad emission lines in WLQs are intrinsically
weak, rather than suffering continuum dilution from a jet, and that such
sources cannot be selected efficiently from traditional photometric surveys.
The Astrophysical Journal 09/2011; 743(2). · 6.02 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: We report the results from Chandra and XMM-Newton observations of a sample of 10 type 1 quasars selected to have unusual UV emission-line properties (weak and blueshifted high-ionization lines; strong UV Fe emission) similar to those of PHL 1811, a confirmed intrinsically X-ray weak quasar. These quasars were identified by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey at high redshift (z 2.2); eight are radio quiet while two are radio intermediate. All of the radio-quiet PHL 1811 analogs, without exception, are notably X-ray weak by a mean factor of 13. These sources lack broad absorption lines and have blue UV/optical continua, supporting the hypothesis that they are intrinsically X-ray weak like PHL 1811 itself. However, their average X-ray spectrum appears to be harder than those of typical quasars, which may indicate the presence of heavy intrinsic X-ray absorption. Our sample of radio-quiet PHL 1811 analogs supports a connection between an X-ray weak spectral energy distribution and PHL 1811-like UV emission lines; this connection provides an economical way to identify X-ray weak type 1 quasars. The fraction of radio-quiet PHL 1811 analogs in the radio-quiet quasar population is estimated to be 1.2%. We have investigated correlations between relative X-ray brightness and UV emission-line properties (e.g., C IV equivalent width and blueshift) for a sample combining our radio-quiet PHL 1811 analogs, PHL 1811 itself, and typical type 1 quasars. These correlation analyses suggest that PHL 1811 analogs may have extreme wind-dominated broad emission-line regions. Observationally, the radio-quiet PHL 1811 analogs appear to be a subset (30%) of radio-quiet weak-line quasars (WLQs). The existence of a subset of quasars in which high-ionization "shielding gas" covers most of the broad emission-line region (BELR), but little more than the BELR, could potentially unify the PHL 1811 analogs and WLQs. The two radio-intermediate PHL 1811 analogs are X-ray bright. X-ray spectral analyses and consideration of their multiwavelength properties suggest that one of them has jet-dominated X-ray emission, while the nature of the other remains unclear.
The Astrophysical Journal 06/2011; 736(1):28. · 6.02 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: We present new Gemini-North/NIRI and VLT/SINFONI H-band spectroscopy for a flux limited sample of 40 z~4.8 active galactic nuclei, selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The sample probably contains the most massive active black holes (BHs) at this redshift and spans a broad range in bolometric luminosity, 2.7x10^46< L_bol < 2.4x10^47 erg/sec. The high-quality observations and the accurate fitting of the MgII(2800A) line, enable us to study, systematically, the distribution of BH mass (M_BH) and normalized accretion rate (L/L_Edd) at z~4.8. We find that 10^8 < M_BH < 6.6x10^9 M_sun, with a median of ~8.4x10^8 M_sun. We also find that 0.2 < L/L_Edd < 3.9 with a median of ~0.6. Most of these sources had enough time to grow to their observed mass at z~4.8 from z=20, assuming a range of seed BH masses, with ~40% that are small enough to be stellar remnants. Compared to previously studied samples at z~2.4 and 3.3, the masses of the z~4.8 BHs are typically lower by ~0.5 dex. and their L/L_Edd is higher by a similar factor. The new z~4.8 sample can be considered as the progenitor population of the most massive BHs at z~2.4 and 3.3. Such an evolutionary interpretation requires that the growth of the BHs from z~4.8 to z~3.3 and z~2.4 proceeds with short duty cycles, of about 10-20%, depending on the particular growth scenario. Comment: 14 pages and 8 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ
12/2010;
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ABSTRACT: We have compiled a sample of 14 of the optically brightest radio-quiet quasars ($m_{i}$~$\le$~17.5 and $z$~$\ge$~1.9) in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 5 quasar catalog that have C IV mini-BALs present in their spectra. X-ray data for 12 of the objects were obtained via a Chandra snapshot survey using ACIS-S, while data for the other two quasars were obtained from archival XMM-Newton observations. Joint X-ray spectral analysis shows the mini-BAL quasars have a similar average power-law photon index ($\Gamma\approx1.9$) and level of intrinsic absorption ($N_H \lesssim 8\times 10^{21} \ {\rm cm}^{-2}$) as non-BMB (neither BAL nor mini-BAL) quasars. Mini-BAL quasars are more similar to non-BMB quasars than to BAL quasars in their distribution of relative X-ray brightness (assessed with $\Delta\alpha_{\rm ox}$). Relative colors indicate mild dust reddening in the optical spectra of mini-BAL quasars. Significant correlations between $\Delta\alpha_{\rm ox}$ and UV absorption properties are confirmed for a sample of 56 sources combining mini-BAL and BAL quasars with high signal-to-noise ratio rest-frame UV spectra, which generally supports models in which X-ray absorption is important in enabling driving of the UV absorption-line wind. We also propose alternative parametrizations of the UV absorption properties of mini-BAL and BAL quasars, which may better describe the broad absorption troughs in some respects. Comment: ApJ accepted; 21 pages, 11 figures, and 9 tables
09/2010;
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Ohad Shemmer,
Benny Trakhtenbrot,
Scott F. Anderson,
W. N. Brandt,
Aleksandar M. Diamond-Stanic,
Xiaohui Fan,
Paulina Lira,
Hagai Netzer,
Richard M. Plotkin,
Gordon T. Richards,
Donald P. Schneider,
Michael A. Strauss
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ABSTRACT: We present Gemini-North K-band spectra of two representative members of the class of high-redshift quasars with exceptionally weak rest-frame ultraviolet emission lines (WLQs), SDSS J114153.34+021924.3 at z=3.55 and SDSS J123743.08+630144.9 at z=3.49. In both sources we detect an unusually weak broad H_beta line and we place tight upper limits on the strengths of their [O III] lines. Virial, H_beta-based black-hole mass determinations indicate normalized accretion rates of L/L_Edd=0.4 for these sources, which is well within the range observed for typical quasars with similar luminosities and redshifts. We also present high-quality XMM-Newton imaging spectroscopy of SDSS J114153.34+021924.3 and find a hard-X-ray photon index of Gamma=1.91^{+0.24}_{-0.22} which supports the virial L/L_Edd determination in this source. Our results suggest that the weakness of the broad-emission lines in WLQs is not a consequence of an extreme continuum-emission source but instead due to abnormal broad-emission line region properties. Comment: 5 pages (emulateapj), 3 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters
The Astrophysical Journal Letters 09/2010; · 5.53 Impact Factor
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Richard M. Plotkin,
Scott F. Anderson,
W. N. Brandt,
Aleksandar M. Diamond-Stanic,
Xiaohui Fan,
Patrick B. Hall,
Amy E. Kimball,
Michael W. Richmond,
Donald P. Schneider, Ohad Shemmer, [......],
Donald G. York,
Neta A. Bahcall,
Stephanie Snedden,
Dmitry Bizyaev,
Howard Brewington,
Viktor Malanushenko,
Elena Malanushenko,
Dan Oravetz,
Kaike Pan,
and Audrey Simmons
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ABSTRACT: We present a sample of 723 optically selected BL Lac candidates from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (SDSS DR7) spectroscopic database encompassing 8250 deg2 of sky; our sample constitutes one of the largest uniform BL Lac samples yet derived. Each BL Lac candidate has a high-quality SDSS spectrum from which we determine spectroscopic redshifts for ~60% of the objects. Redshift lower limits are estimated for the remaining objects utilizing the lack of host galaxy flux contamination in their optical spectra; we find that objects lacking spectroscopic redshifts are likely at systematically higher redshifts. Approximately 80% of our BL Lac candidates match to a radio source in FIRST/NVSS, and ~40% match to a ROSAT X-ray source. The homogeneous multiwavelength coverage allows subdivision of the sample into 637 radio-loud BL Lac candidates and 86 weak-featured radio-quiet objects. The radio-loud objects broadly support the standard paradigm unifying BL Lac objects with beamed radio galaxies. We propose that the majority of the radio-quiet objects may be lower-redshift (z < 2.2) analogs to high-redshift weak line quasars (i.e., active galactic nucleus with unusually anemic broad emission line regions). These would constitute the largest sample of such objects, being of similar size and complementary in redshift to the samples of high-redshift weak line quasars previously discovered by the SDSS. However, some fraction of the weak-featured radio-quiet objects may instead populate a rare and extreme radio-weak tail of the much larger radio-loud BL Lac population. Serendipitous discoveries of unusual white dwarfs, high-redshift weak line quasars, and broad absorption line quasars with extreme continuum dropoffs blueward of rest-frame 2800 Å are also briefly described.
The Astronomical Journal 01/2010; 139(2):390. · 4.03 Impact Factor
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LSST Science Collaboration,
Paul A. Abell,
Julius Allison,
Scott F. Anderson,
John R. Andrew,
J. Roger P. Angel,
Lee Armus,
David Arnett,
S. J. Asztalos,
Tim S. Axelrod, [......],
Oliver Wiecha,
Benjamin F. Williams,
Beth Willman,
David Wittman,
Sidney C. Wolff,
W. Michael Wood-Vasey,
Przemek Wozniak,
Patrick Young,
Andrew Zentner,
Hu Zhan
[show abstract]
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ABSTRACT: A survey that can cover the sky in optical bands over wide fields to faint
magnitudes with a fast cadence will enable many of the exciting science
opportunities of the next decade. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST)
will have an effective aperture of 6.7 meters and an imaging camera with field
of view of 9.6 deg^2, and will be devoted to a ten-year imaging survey over
20,000 deg^2 south of +15 deg. Each pointing will be imaged 2000 times with
fifteen second exposures in six broad bands from 0.35 to 1.1 microns, to a
total point-source depth of r~27.5. The LSST Science Book describes the basic
parameters of the LSST hardware, software, and observing plans. The book
discusses educational and outreach opportunities, then goes on to describe a
broad range of science that LSST will revolutionize: mapping the inner and
outer Solar System, stellar populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies,
the structure of the Milky Way disk and halo and other objects in the Local
Volume, transient and variable objects both at low and high redshift, and the
properties of normal and active galaxies at low and high redshift. It then
turns to far-field cosmological topics, exploring properties of supernovae to
z~1, strong and weak lensing, the large-scale distribution of galaxies and
baryon oscillations, and how these different probes may be combined to
constrain cosmological models and the physics of dark energy.
12/2009;
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Aleksandar M. Diamond-Stanic,
Xiaohui Fan,
W. N. Brandt, Ohad Shemmer,
Michael A. Strauss,
Scott F. Anderson,
Christopher L. Carilli,
Robert R. Gibson,
Linhua Jiang,
J. Serena Kim,
Gordon T. Richards,
Gary D. Schmidt,
Donald P. Schneider,
Yue Shen,
Paul S. Smith,
Marianne Vestergaard,
and Jason E. Young
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ABSTRACT: We identify a sample of 74 high-redshift quasars (z > 3) with weak emission lines from the Fifth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and present infrared, optical, and radio observations of a subsample of four objects at z > 4. These weak emission-line quasars (WLQs) constitute a prominent tail of the Lyα + N v equivalent width distribution, and we compare them to quasars with more typical emission-line properties and to low-redshift active galactic nuclei with weak/absent emission lines, namely BL Lac objects. We find that WLQs exhibit hot (T ~ 1000 K) thermal dust emission and have rest-frame 0.1-5 μm spectral energy distributions that are quite similar to those of normal quasars. The variability, polarization, and radio properties of WLQs are also different from those of BL Lacs, making continuum boosting by a relativistic jet an unlikely physical interpretation. The most probable scenario for WLQs involves broad-line region properties that are physically distinct from those of normal quasars.
The Astrophysical Journal 06/2009; 699(1):782. · 6.02 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: We present Chandra observations of nine high-redshift quasars (z=2.7-5.9)
discovered by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey with weak or undetectable
high-ionization emission lines in their UV spectra (WLQs). Adding archival
X-ray observations of six additional sources of this class has enabled us to
place the strongest constraints yet on the X-ray properties of this remarkable
class of AGNs. Although our data cannot rule out the possibility that the
emission lines are overwhelmed by a relativistically boosted continuum, as
manifested by BL Lac objects, we find that WLQs are considerably weaker in the
X-ray and radio bands than the majority of BL Lacs found at much lower
redshifts. If WLQs are high-redshift BL Lacs, then it is difficult to explain
the lack of a large parent population of X-ray and radio bright weak-lined
sources at high redshift. We also consider the possibility that WLQs are
quasars with extreme properties, and in particular that the emission lines are
suppressed by high accretion rates. Using joint spectral fitting of the X-ray
spectra of 11 WLQs we find that the mean photon index in the hard X-ray band is
consistent with those observed in typical radio-quiet AGNs with no hint of an
unusually steep hard-X-ray spectrum. This result poses a challenge to the
hypothesis that WLQs have extremely high accretion rates, and we discuss
additional observations required to test this idea.
The Astrophysical Journal 02/2009; 696(1). · 6.02 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The well-known relationship between metallicity and luminosity in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is addressed by introducing new metallicity measurements (based on the method of Hamann & Ferland, hereafter HF) for a sample of narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1s). Our new results, based on a sample of 162 AGNs, including nine NLS1s, indicate that while broad-line AGNs trace a metallicity-luminosity power law with an index of ~0.2, NLS1s deviate significantly from this relationship at low luminosities. Adopting the HF method based on the N V/C IV line ratio, we find that NLS1 metallicities are similar to those of some high-redshift, high-luminosity quasars. We also examined the N IV]/C IV line ratio and compared it with N V/C IV in a sample of 30 sources including several NLS1s. We find that the two do not give a consistent answer regarding the N/C abundance ratio. This result is marginal because of the quality of the data. We suggest two alternative explanations to these results: (1) The HF metallicity-luminosity dependence is not a simple two-parameter dependence, and there is an additional hidden variable in this relationship that has not yet been discovered. The additional parameter may be the accretion rate, the age of the central stellar cluster, or perhaps something else. (2) The strong line ratios involving N V λ1240 suggested by HF are not adequate metallicity indicators for NLS1s and perhaps also for other AGNs for reasons that are not yet fully understood.
The Astrophysical Journal 12/2008; 567(1):L19. · 6.02 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: We present new Chandra observations of 21 z > 4 quasars, including 11 sources at z > 5. These observations double the number of X-ray-detected quasars at z > 5, allowing investigation of the X-ray spectral properties of a substantial sample of quasars at the dawn of the modern universe. By jointly fitting the spectra of 15 z > 5 radio-quiet quasars (RQQs), including sources from the Chandra archive, with a total of 185 photons, we find a mean X-ray power-law photon index of Γ = 1.95, and a mean neutral intrinsic absorption column density of NH 6 × 1022 cm-2. These results show that quasar X-ray spectral properties have not evolved up to the highest observable redshifts. We also find that the mean optical-X-ray spectral slope (αox) of optically selected z > 5 RQQs, excluding broad absorption line quasars, is αox = -1.69 ± 0.03, which is consistent with the value predicted from the observed relationship between αox and ultraviolet luminosity. Four of the sources in our sample are members of the rare class of weak emission-line quasars, and we detect two of them in X-rays. We discuss the implications our X-ray observations have for the nature of these mysterious sources and, in particular, whether their weak-line spectra are a consequence of continuum boosting or a deficit of high-ionization line-emitting gas.
The Astrophysical Journal 12/2008; 644(1):86. · 6.02 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: We study the hard-X-ray spectral properties of ten highly luminous radio-quiet (RQ) active galactic nuclei (AGNs) at z=1.3-3.2, including new XMM-Newton observations of four of these sources. We find a significant correlation between the normalized accretion rate (L/L_Edd) and the hard-X-ray photon index (Gamma) for 35 moderate-high luminosity RQ AGNs including our ten highly luminous sources. Within the limits of our sample, we show that a measurement of Gamma and L_X can provide an estimate of L/L_Edd and black-hole (BH) mass (M_BH) with a mean uncertainty of a factor of <~3 on the predicted values of these properties. This may provide a useful probe for tracing the history of BH growth in the Universe, utilizing samples of X-ray-selected AGNs for which L/L_Edd and M_BH have not yet been determined systematically. It may prove to be a useful way to probe BH growth in distant Compton-thin type 2 AGNs. We also find that the optical-X-ray spectral slope (a_ox) depends primarily on optical-UV luminosity rather than on L/L_Edd in a sample of RQ AGNs spanning five orders of magnitude in luminosity and over two orders of magnitude in L/L_Edd. We detect a significant Compton-reflection continuum in two of our highly luminous sources, and in the stacked X-ray spectrum of seven other sources with similar luminosities, we obtain a mean relative Compton reflection of R=0.9^{+0.6}_{-0.5} and an upper limit on the rest-frame equivalent width of a neutral Fe Ka line of 105 eV. We do not detect a significant steepening of the X-ray power-law spectrum below rest-frame 2 keV in any of our highly luminous sources, suggesting that a soft-excess feature, commonly observed in local AGNs, either does not depend strongly on L/L_Edd, or is not accessible at high redshifts using current X-ray detectors. [Abridged] Comment: 13 pages (emulateapj), 6 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ
04/2008;
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ABSTRACT: We present new H and K bands spectroscopy of 15 high luminosity active galactic nuclei (AGNs) at redshifts 2.3-3.4 obtained on Gemini South. We combined the data with spectra of additional 29 high-luminosity sources to obtain a sample with 10^{45.2}<\lambda L_{\lambda}(5100A)<10^{47.3} ergs/sec and black hole (BH) mass range, using reverberation mapping relationships based on the H_beta method, of 10^{8.8}-10^{10.7} M_sun. We do not find a correlation of L/L_Edd with M_BH but find a correlation with \lambda L_{\lambda}(5100A) which might be due to selection effects. The L/L_Edd distribution is broad and covers the range ~0.07-1.6, similar to what is observed in lower redshift, lower luminosity AGNs. We suggest that this consistently measured and calibrated sample gives the best representation of L/L_Edd at those redshifts and note potential discrepancies with recent theoretical and observational studies. The lower accretion rates are not in accord with growth scenarios for BHs at such redshifts and the growth times of many of the sources are longer than the age of the universe at the corresponding epochs. This suggests earlier episodes of faster growth at z>~3 for those sources. The use of the C IV method gives considerably different results and a larger scatter; this method seems to be a poor M_BH and L/L_Edd estimator at very high luminosity. Comment: 8 pages (emulateapj), 4 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ
08/2007;
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ABSTRACT: We present new XMM-Newton observations of two luminous and high accretion-rate radio-quiet active galactic nuclei (AGNs) at z~2. Together with archival X-ray and rest-frame optical spectra of three sources with similar properties as well as 25 moderate-luminosity radio-quiet AGNs at z<0.5, we investigate, for the first time, the dependence of the hard (>~2 keV) X-ray power-law photon index on the broad H_beta emission-line width and on the accretion rate across ~3 orders of magnitude in AGN luminosity. Provided the accretion rates of the five luminous sources can be estimated by extrapolating the well-known broad-line region size-luminosity relation to high luminosities, we find that the photon indices of these sources, while consistent with those expected from their accretion rates, are significantly higher than expected from the widths of their H_beta lines. We argue that, within the limits of our sample, the hard-X-ray photon index depends primarily on the accretion rate. Comment: 4 pages (emulateapj), 2 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters
06/2006;
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ABSTRACT: We present preliminary results from a reverberation mapping program to measure the Broad Line Region size in high-redshift, high-luminosity quasars. The observations are carried out at the Hobby-Eberly Telescope and at the Wise Observatory. The data cover 8 yr of photometric monitoring of 11 quasars, and 2.5 yr of spectrophotometric monitoring of 7 of these sources. Thus far we detected continuum variations but no line variations. We find that the continua of the high-luminosity quasars have smaller variability amplitudes and longer variability timescales compared with low-luminosity AGNs.
11/2002;
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ABSTRACT: Supernova (SN) 2002ap in M74 was discovered on January 29, 2002. Being one of the nearest (10 Mpc) SN events in the last decades, and spectroscopically similar to the so-called ``hypernovae'' 1997ef and 1998bw, both possibly associated with gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), it is of great interest. Shortly after its discovery, we launched an intensive photometric and spectroscopic monitoring campaign of this event, and here we report the results of the first month of observations. We use our UBVRI photometry to estimate the magnitudes at, and dates of, peak brightness. Our data suggest that this object reached its peak B-band luminosity on Feb. 7.1(-1.3)(+2) UT. Based on its similarity to SN 1998bw, we estimate the range of possible dates for a GRB that may have been associated with SN 2002ap. We find that it may include dates outside the time frame for which all available gamma-ray data have been intensively scanned, according to recent reports. The absolute magnitude at peak brightness of SN 2002ap (M_B = -16.9) shows that it was significantly fainter than SN 1998bw, or normal type-Ia SNe, but similar to SN 1997ef. Our spectroscopic observations confirm that SN 2002ap is strikingly similar to SNe 1998bw and 1997ef. We briefly describe the spectral evolution of this object. To assist other observers and to stimulate theoretical models, we make our entire data set publicly available in digital form. Comment: 5 pages, including 4 figures. MNRAS (pink pages) in press. Data available electronically from http://wise-obs.tau.ac.il/~avishay/local.html
03/2002;
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ABSTRACT: We report the preliminary results of a spectrophotometric monitoring program of Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 galaxies conducted at the Wise Observatory in 1999. The data we collected will be used to evaluate the line-to-continuum time lag in an attempt to test the idea that the accretion rate in NLS1s is larger than in other Seyfert 1 galaxies.
06/2000;
