Intranight optical variability of radio-quiet BL Lacertae objects
arXiv:1501.06652 · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201425248
Abstract
Aims: Intranight variation (or microvariation) is a common phenomenon of radio-loud BL Lac objects. However, it is not clear whether the recently found radio-quiet BL Lac objects have the same properties. The occurrence rate of intranight variation is helpful in distinguishing the mechanism of the continuum of radio-quiet BL Lac objects. Methods: We conducted a photometric monitoring of 8 radio-quiet BL Lac objects by the Xinglong 2.16m and Lijiang 2.4m telescopes. The differential light curves are calculated between each target and two comparison stars. To quantify the variation, the significance of variation is examined by a scaled -test. Results: No significant variation is found in the 11 sessions of light curves of 8 radio-quiet BL Lac objects (one galactic source is excluded). The lack of microvariation in radio-quiet BL Lac objects is consistent with the detection rate of microvariation in normal radio-quiet AGNs, but much lower than for radio-loud AGNs. This result indicates that the continua of the radio-quiet BL Lac objects are not dominated by jets that will induce frequent microvariations.
arXiv commentAccepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics; 7 pages, 1 figure, 3 tables
References in corpus (24)
- The USNO-B Catalog
- The PPMXL catalog of positions and proper motions on the ICRS. Combining USNO-B1.0 and 2MASS
- On the Estimation of Confidence Intervals for Binomial Population Proportions in Astronomy: The Simplicity and Superiority of the Bayesian Approach
- A Catalog of Spectroscopically Confirmed White Dwarfs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 4
- SDSS DR7 White Dwarf Catalog
- Pulsating White Dwarf Stars and Precision Asteroseismology
- High-Redshift SDSS Quasars with Weak Emission Lines
- Post-common envelope binaries from SDSS - VII: A catalogue of white dwarf-main sequence binaries
- Optically Selected BL Lacertae Candidates from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release Seven
- Testing tests on AGN microvariability
- Cold Accretion Disks and Lineless Quasars
- X-ray and Multiwavelength Insights into the Nature of Weak Emission-Line Quasars at Low Redshift
- Intra-night Optical Variability of Luminous Radio Quiet QSOs
- Intranight optical variability of radio-quiet and radio lobe dominated quasars
- Weak-Line Quasars at High Redshift: Extremely High Accretion Rates or Anemic Broad-Line Regions?
- SDSS J094533.99+100950.1 - the remarkable weak emission line quasar
- Dusty torus formation by anisotropic radiative pressure feedback of active galactic nuclei
- Improved characterisation of intra-night optical variability of prominent AGN classes
- The nature of the intranight variability of radio-quiet quasars
- Polarimetry of optically selected BL Lac candidates from the SDSS
- The Ultraviolet-to-Mid-Infrared Spectral Energy Distribution of Weak Emission Line Quasars
- Intranight Optical Variability of Radio-Quiet Weak Emission Line Quasars-III
- Intranight Optical Variability of Radio-Quiet Weak Emission Line Quasars
- Intranight Optical Variability of Radio-Quiet Weak Emission Line Quasars-II