Discovery of Repeating Transitions in 25 Changing-look Active Galactic Nuclei

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Dong, Qian, Zhang, Zhi-Xiang, Gu, Wei-Min, Sun, Mouyuan, Guo, Wei-Jian, Cai, Zhen-Yi, Wang, Jun-Xian, Zheng, Yong-Gang
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Dong, Qian
Zhang, Zhi-Xiang
Gu, Wei-Min
Sun, Mouyuan
Guo, Wei-Jian
Cai, Zhen-Yi
Wang, Jun-Xian
Zheng, Yong-Gang
author_facet Dong, Qian
Zhang, Zhi-Xiang
Gu, Wei-Min
Sun, Mouyuan
Guo, Wei-Jian
Cai, Zhen-Yi
Wang, Jun-Xian
Zheng, Yong-Gang
contents The repeating changing-look active galactic nuclei (RCL AGNs) exhibit multiple appearances and disappearances of broad emission lines (BELs), whose underlying mechanism remains a puzzle. Expanding the sample of RCL AGNs is valuable for constraining the transition timescale and probing the accretion physics driving CL behaviors. This study aims to identify RCL AGNs using the multi-epoch spectroscopic data of confirmed CL AGNs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope, and Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, supplemented with mid-infrared (MIR) light curves. Through selection criteria and visual inspection, we identify 25 RCL AGNs among 331 CL AGNs, corresponding to an occurrence rate of about $8\%$, indicating that repeated transitions are not rare in CL AGNs. Among the 25 RCL AGNs, 19 are newly identified, which significantly expands the known RCL AGN sample. Based on the spectra and densely sampled MIR light curves, we derive reliable turn-on transition timescales for 19 RCL AGNs, and find no significant correlation between the timescale and the black hole mass.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_18445
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Discovery of Repeating Transitions in 25 Changing-look Active Galactic Nuclei
Dong, Qian
Zhang, Zhi-Xiang
Gu, Wei-Min
Sun, Mouyuan
Guo, Wei-Jian
Cai, Zhen-Yi
Wang, Jun-Xian
Zheng, Yong-Gang
Astrophysics of Galaxies
The repeating changing-look active galactic nuclei (RCL AGNs) exhibit multiple appearances and disappearances of broad emission lines (BELs), whose underlying mechanism remains a puzzle. Expanding the sample of RCL AGNs is valuable for constraining the transition timescale and probing the accretion physics driving CL behaviors. This study aims to identify RCL AGNs using the multi-epoch spectroscopic data of confirmed CL AGNs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope, and Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, supplemented with mid-infrared (MIR) light curves. Through selection criteria and visual inspection, we identify 25 RCL AGNs among 331 CL AGNs, corresponding to an occurrence rate of about $8\%$, indicating that repeated transitions are not rare in CL AGNs. Among the 25 RCL AGNs, 19 are newly identified, which significantly expands the known RCL AGN sample. Based on the spectra and densely sampled MIR light curves, we derive reliable turn-on transition timescales for 19 RCL AGNs, and find no significant correlation between the timescale and the black hole mass.
title Discovery of Repeating Transitions in 25 Changing-look Active Galactic Nuclei
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.18445