TY - JOUR
T1 - A Transient “Changing-look” Active Galactic Nucleus Resolved on Month Timescales from First-year Sloan Digital Sky Survey V Data
AU - Zeltyn, Grisha
AU - Trakhtenbrot, Benny
AU - Eracleous, Michael
AU - Runnoe, Jessie
AU - Trump, Jonathan R.
AU - Stern, Jonathan
AU - Shen, Yue
AU - Hernández-García, Lorena
AU - Bauer, Franz E.
AU - Yang, Qian
AU - Dwelly, Tom
AU - Ricci, Claudio
AU - Green, Paul
AU - Anderson, Scott F.
AU - Assef, Roberto J.
AU - Guolo, Muryel
AU - MacLeod, Chelsea
AU - Davis, Megan C.
AU - Fries, Logan
AU - Gezari, Suvi
AU - Grogin, Norman A.
AU - Homan, David
AU - Koekemoer, Anton M.
AU - Krumpe, Mirko
AU - LaMassa, Stephanie
AU - Liu, Xin
AU - Merloni, Andrea
AU - Martínez-Aldama, Mary Loli
AU - Schneider, Donald P.
AU - Temple, Matthew J.
AU - Brownstein, Joel R.
AU - Ibarra-Medel, Hector
AU - Burke, Jamison
AU - Pellegrino, Craig
AU - Kollmeier, Juna A.
N1 - Funding Information:
The ZTF forced-photometry service was funded under the Heising-Simons Foundation grant No. 12540303 (PI: Graham). The Hobby–Eberly Telescope (HET) is a joint project of the University of Texas at Austin, the Pennsylvania State University, Ludwig-Maximillians-Universitaet Muenchen, and Georg-August Universitaet Goettingen. The HET is named in honor of its principal benefactors, William P. Hobby and Robert E. Eberly.
Funding Information:
G.Z. and B.T. acknowledge support from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement 950533) and from the Israel Science Foundation (grant 1849/19). J.R.T. acknowledges support from NSF grants CAREER-1945546, AST-2009539, and AST-2108668. We acknowledge funding from ANID—Millennium Science Initiative Program—ICN12_009 (F.E.B., L.H.G.), CATA-Basal—FB210003 (F.E.B., R.J.A.), and FONDECYT Regular—1190818 (F.E.B.) and 1200495 (F.E.B.). C.R. acknowledges support from the Fondecyt Iniciacion grant 11190831 and ANID BASAL project FB210003. R.J.A. was also supported by FONDECYT grant No. 1191124. D.H. is supported by DLR grant FKZ 50OR2003. M.K. acknowledges support from DFG grant KR 3338/4-1. X.L. acknowledges support by NSF grants AST-2108162 and AST-2206499. M. L. M.-A. acknowledges financial support from Millenium Nucleus NCN19-058 (TITANs). H.I.M. acknowledges a support grant from the Joint Committee ESO-Government of Chile (ORP 028/2020). J.B. is supported by NSF grants AST-1911151 and AST-1911225, as well as by NASA grant 80NSSC19kf1639.
Funding Information:
Funding for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey V has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, and the Participating Institutions. SDSS acknowledges support and resources from the Center for High-Performance Computing at the University of Utah. The SDSS website is www.sdss5.org .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
PY - 2022/11/1
Y1 - 2022/11/1
N2 - We report the discovery of a new “changing-look” active galactic nucleus (CLAGN) event, in the quasar SDSS J162829.17+432948.5 at z = 0.2603, identified through repeat spectroscopy from the fifth Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-V). Optical photometry taken during 2020-2021 shows a dramatic dimming of Δg ≈ 1 mag, followed by a rapid recovery on a timescale of several months, with the ≲2 month period of rebrightening captured in new SDSS-V and Las Cumbres Observatory spectroscopy. This is one of the fastest CLAGN transitions observed to date. Archival observations suggest that the object experienced a much more gradual dimming over the period of 2011-2013. Our spectroscopy shows that the photometric changes were accompanied by dramatic variations in the quasar-like continuum and broad-line emission. The excellent agreement between the pre- and postdip photometric and spectroscopic appearances of the source, as well as the fact that the dimmest spectra can be reproduced by applying a single extinction law to the brighter spectral states, favor a variable line-of-sight obscuration as the driver of the observed transitions. Such an interpretation faces several theoretical challenges, and thus an alternative accretion-driven scenario cannot be excluded. The recent events observed in this quasar highlight the importance of spectroscopic monitoring of large active galactic nucleus samples on weeks-to-months timescales, which the SDSS-V is designed to achieve.
AB - We report the discovery of a new “changing-look” active galactic nucleus (CLAGN) event, in the quasar SDSS J162829.17+432948.5 at z = 0.2603, identified through repeat spectroscopy from the fifth Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-V). Optical photometry taken during 2020-2021 shows a dramatic dimming of Δg ≈ 1 mag, followed by a rapid recovery on a timescale of several months, with the ≲2 month period of rebrightening captured in new SDSS-V and Las Cumbres Observatory spectroscopy. This is one of the fastest CLAGN transitions observed to date. Archival observations suggest that the object experienced a much more gradual dimming over the period of 2011-2013. Our spectroscopy shows that the photometric changes were accompanied by dramatic variations in the quasar-like continuum and broad-line emission. The excellent agreement between the pre- and postdip photometric and spectroscopic appearances of the source, as well as the fact that the dimmest spectra can be reproduced by applying a single extinction law to the brighter spectral states, favor a variable line-of-sight obscuration as the driver of the observed transitions. Such an interpretation faces several theoretical challenges, and thus an alternative accretion-driven scenario cannot be excluded. The recent events observed in this quasar highlight the importance of spectroscopic monitoring of large active galactic nucleus samples on weeks-to-months timescales, which the SDSS-V is designed to achieve.
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U2 - 10.3847/2041-8213/ac9a47
DO - 10.3847/2041-8213/ac9a47
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85141980449
SN - 2041-8205
VL - 939
JO - Astrophysical Journal Letters
JF - Astrophysical Journal Letters
IS - 1
M1 - L16
ER -