The damped random walk (DRW) process is one of the most commonly used and simplest stochastic models to describe variability of active galactic nuclei (AGN). An AGN light curve can be converted to ...just two DRW model parameters - the signal decorrelation timescale τ and the asymptotic amplitude SF∞. In principle, these two model parameters may be correlated with the physical parameters of AGN. By simulation means, we have recently shown that in order to measure the decorrelation timescale accurately, the experiment or the light curve length must be at least 10 times the underlying decorrelation timescale. In this paper, we investigate the origin of this requirement and find that typical AGN light curves do not sufficiently represent the intrinsic stationary process. We simulated extremely long (10 000τ) AGN light curves using DRW, and then measured the variance and the mean of short light curves spanning 1-1000τ. We modeled these light curves with DRW to obtain both the signal decorrelation timescale τ and the asymptotic amplitude SF∞. The variance in light curves shorter than ≈30τ is smaller than that of the input process, as estimated by both a simple calculation from the light curve and by DRW modeling. This means that while the simulated stochastic process is intrinsically stationary, short light curves do not adequately represent the stationary process. Since the variance and timescale are correlated, underestimated variances in short light curves lead to underestimated timescales as compared to the input process. It seems, that a simulated AGN light curve does not fully represent the underlying DRW process until its length reaches even ≈30 decorrelation timescales. Modeling short AGN light curves with DRW leads to biases in measured parameters of the model - the amplitude being too small and the timescale being too short.
We present the most extensive and detailed reddening maps of the Magellanic Clouds (MCs) derived from the color properties of Red Clump (RC) stars. The analysis is based on the deep photometric maps ...from the fourth phase of the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE-IV), covering approximately 670 deg2 of the sky in the Magellanic System region. The resulting maps provide reddening information for 180 deg2 in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and 75 deg2 in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), with a resolution of 1 7 × 1 7 in the central parts of the MCs, decreasing to approximately 27′ × 27′ in the outskirts. The mean reddening is E(V − I) = 0.100 0.043 mag in the LMC and E(V − I) = 0.047 0.025 mag in the SMC. We refine methods of calculating the RC color to obtain the highest possible accuracy of reddening maps based on RC stars. Using spectroscopy of red giants, we find the metallicity gradient in both MCs, which causes a slight decrease of the intrinsic RC color with distance from the galaxy center of ∼0.002 mag/deg in the LMC and between 0.003 and 0.009 mag/deg in the SMC. The central values of the intrinsic RC color are 0.886 and 0.877 mag in the LMC and SMC, respectively. The reddening map of the MCs is available both in downloadable form and as an interactive interface.
We use gravitational microlensing of the four images of the z = 0.658 quasar RXJ 1131-1231 to measure the sizes of the optical and X-ray emission regions of the quasar. The (face-on) scale length of ...the optical disk at rest frame 400 nm is R{sub l}ambda{sub ,O} = 1.3 x 10{sup 15} cm, while the half-light radius of the rest frame 0.3-17 keV X-ray emission is R{sub 1/2,X} = 2.3 x 10{sup 14} cm. The formal uncertainties are factors of 1.6 and 2.0, respectively. With the exception of the lower limit on the X-ray size, the results are very stable against any changes in the priors used in the analysis. Based on the Hbeta line width, we estimate that the black hole mass is M{sub 1131} approx = 10{sup 8} M{sub sun}, which corresponds to a gravitational radius of r{sub g} approx = 2 x 10{sup 13} cm. Thus, the X-ray emission is emerging on scales of approx10r{sub g} and the 400 nm emission on scales of approx70r{sub g} . A standard thin disk of this size should be significantly brighter than observed. Possible solutions are to have a flatter temperature profile or to scatter a large fraction of the optical flux on larger scales after it is emitted. While our calculations were not optimized to constrain the dark matter fraction in the lens galaxy, dark matter-dominated models are favored. With well-sampled optical and X-ray light curves over a broad range of frequencies, there will be no difficulty in extending our analysis to completely map the structure of the accretion disk as a function of wavelength.
We model the time variability of {approx}9000 spectroscopically confirmed quasars in SDSS Stripe 82 as a damped random walk (DRW). Using 2.7 million photometric measurements collected over 10 yr, we ...confirm the results of Kelly et al. and Kozlowski et al. that this model can explain quasar light curves at an impressive fidelity level (0.01-0.02 mag). The DRW model provides a simple, fast (O(N) for N data points), and powerful statistical description of quasar light curves by a characteristic timescale ({tau}) and an asymptotic rms variability on long timescales (SF{sub {infinity}}). We searched for correlations between these two variability parameters and physical parameters such as luminosity and black hole mass, and rest-frame wavelength. Our analysis shows SF{sub {infinity}} to increase with decreasing luminosity and rest-frame wavelength as observed previously, and without a correlation with redshift. We find a correlation between SF{sub {infinity}} and black hole mass with a power-law index of 0.18 {+-} 0.03, independent of the anti-correlation with luminosity. We find that {tau} increases with increasing wavelength with a power-law index of 0.17, remains nearly constant with redshift and luminosity, and increases with increasing black hole mass with a power-law index of 0.21 {+-} 0.07. The amplitude of variability is anti-correlated with the Eddington ratio, which suggests a scenario where optical fluctuations are tied to variations in the accretion rate. However, we find an additional dependence on luminosity and/or black hole mass that cannot be explained by the trend with Eddington ratio. The radio-loudest quasars have systematically larger variability amplitudes by about 30%, when corrected for the other observed trends, while the distribution of their characteristic timescale is indistinguishable from that of the full sample. We do not detect any statistically robust differences in the characteristic timescale and variability amplitude between the full sample and the small subsample of quasars detected by ROSAT. Our results provide a simple quantitative framework for generating mock quasar light curves, such as currently used in LSST image simulations.
Abstract
Long secondary periods (LSPs), observed in a third of pulsating red giant stars, are the only unexplained type of large-amplitude stellar variability known at this time. Here we show that ...this phenomenon is a manifestation of a substellar or stellar companion orbiting the red giant star. Our investigation is based on a sample of about 16,000 well-defined LSP variables detected in the long-term OGLE photometric database of the Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds, combined with the mid-infrared data extracted from the NEOWISE-R archive. From this collection, we selected about 700 objects with stable, large-amplitude, well-sampled infrared light curves and found that about half of them exhibit secondary eclipses, thus presenting an important piece of evidence that the physical mechanism responsible for LSPs is binarity. Namely, the LSP light changes are due to the presence of a dusty cloud orbiting the red giant together with the companion and obscuring the star once per orbit. The secondary eclipses, visible only in the infrared wavelength, occur when the cloud is hidden behind the giant. In this scenario, the low-mass companion is a former planet that has accreted a significant amount of mass from the envelope of its host star and grown into a brown dwarf.
We present an upgrade of the OGLE Collection of RR Lyrae stars in the Galactic bulge and disk. The size of our sample has been doubled and reached 78 350 RR Lyr variables, of which 56 508 are ...fundamental-mode pulsators (RRab stars), 21 321 pulsate solely in the first-overtone (RRc stars), 458 are classical double-mode pulsators (RRd stars), and 63 are anomalous RRd variables (including six triple-mode pulsators). For all the newly identified RR Lyr stars, we publish time-series photometry obtained during the OGLE Galaxy Variability Survey. We present the spatial distribution of RR Lyr stars on the sky, provide a list of globular clusters hosting RR Lyr variables, and discuss the Petersen diagram for multimode pulsators. We find new RRd stars belonging to a compact group in the Petersen diagram (with period ratios P 1O/PF≈0.74 and fundamental-mode periods P F≈0.44$ d) and we show that their spatial distribution is roughly spherically symmetrical around the Milky Way center.
We report the discovery of a giant planet in the OGLE-2017-BLG-1522 microlensing event. The planetary perturbations were clearly identified by high-cadence survey experiments despite the relatively ...short event timescale of tE ∼ 7.5 days. The Einstein radius is unusually small, θE = 0.065 mas, implying that the lens system either has very low mass or lies much closer to the microlensed source than the Sun, or both. A Bayesian analysis yields component masses and source-lens distance , implying that this is a brown-dwarf/Jupiter system that probably lies in the Galactic bulge, a location that is also consistent with the relatively low lens-source relative proper motion = 3.2 0.5 mas yr−1. The projected companion-host separation is , indicating that the planet is placed beyond the snow line of the host, i.e., asl ∼ 0.12 au. Planet formation scenarios combined with the small companion-host mass ratio q ∼ 0.016 and separation suggest that the companion could be the first discovery of a giant planet that formed in a protoplanetary disk around a brown-dwarf host.
We present here a new major part of the OGLE Collection of Variable Stars - OGLE Collection of Galactic Cepheids. The new dataset was extracted from the Galaxy Variability Survey images - a dedicated ...large-scale survey of the Galactic disk and outer bulge conducted by the OGLE project since 2013. The OGLE collection contains 2721 Cepheids of all types - classical, type II and anomalous. It more than doubles the number of known Galactic classical Cepheids. Due to the long-term monitoring and large number of epochs the selected sample is very pure, generally free from contaminating stars of other types often mimicking Cepheids. Its completeness is high at 90% level for classical Cepheids - tested using recent samples of Galactic Cepheids: ASAS-SN, ATLAS, Gaia DR2 and Wise catalog of variable stars. Our comparisons indicate that the completeness of the two latter datasets, Gaia DR2 and Wise catalog, is very low, at <10% level in the magnitude range of the OGLE GVS survey (10.8<I<19.5 mag). Both these samples are severely contaminated by non-Cepheids (the purity is 67% and 56%, respectively). We also present several interesting objects found in the new OGLE Collection - multi-mode pulsators, first Galactic candidates for eclipsing systems containing Cepheid, a binary Cepheid candidate. New OGLE Collection of Galactic Cepheids is available for the astronomical community from the OGLE Internet Archive in similar form as previous parts of the OGLE Collection of Variable Stars.
Current microlensing surveys are sensitive to free-floating planets down to Earth-mass objects. All published microlensing events attributed to unbound planets were identified based on their short ...timescale (below two days), but lacked an angular Einstein radius measurement (and hence lacked a significant constraint on the lens mass). Here, we present the discovery of a Neptune-mass free-floating planet candidate in the ultrashort (tE = 0.320 0.003 days) microlensing event OGLE-2016-BLG-1540. The event exhibited strong finite-source effects, which allowed us to measure its angular Einstein radius of θE = 9.2 0.5 as. There remains, however, a degeneracy between the lens mass and distance. The combination of the source proper motion and source-lens relative proper motion measurements favors a Neptune-mass lens located in the Galactic disk. However, we cannot rule out that the lens is a Saturn-mass object belonging to the bulge population. We exclude stellar companions up to ∼15 au.
We present the discovery and statistical analysis of 12,660 spotted variable stars toward and inside the Galactic bulge from the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) data that are over two ...decades long. We devise a new method of dereddening of individual stars toward the Galactic bulge where strong and highly nonuniform extinction is present. In effect, 11,812 stars were classified as giants and 848 as dwarfs. Well-defined correlations among the luminosity, variability amplitude, and rotation period were found for the giants. Rapidly rotating dwarfs with periods P ≤ 2 days show I-band amplitudes <0.2 mag, which is substantially less than the amplitudes of up to 0.8 mag observed in giants and slowly rotating dwarfs. We also notice that amplitudes of stars brighter than I0 16 mag do not exceed 0.3-0.4 mag. We divide the stars into three groups characterized by correlation between light and color variations. The positive correlation is characteristic for stars that are cooler when fainter, which results from the variable coverage of the stellar surface with spots similar to the sunspots. The variability of stars that are cooler when brighter (negative correlation) can be characterized by chemical spots with an overabundance of heavy elements inside and a variable line-blanketing effect, which is observed in chemically peculiar stars. The null correlation may result from a very high level of the magnetic activity with rapidly variable magnetic fields. This division is readily visible on the color-magnitude diagram (CMD), which suggests that it may depend on the radius of the stars. We detect 79 flaring objects and discuss briefly their properties. Among others, we find that relative brightening during flares is correlated with brightness amplitude.
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