arXiv subjects

Yue Shen

Publications and source records attributed to Yue Shen.

At least 235 records · Page 13Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Very Long Baseline Array Imaging of Type-2 Seyferts with Double-Peaked Narrow Emission Lines: Searches for Sub-kpc Dual AGNs and Jet-Powered Outflows

This paper presents Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations of 13 double-peaked [O III] emission-line type-2 Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) at redshifts 0.06 < z < 0.41 (with a median redshift of z~0.15) identified in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Such double-peaked emission-line objects may result from jets or outflows from the central engine or from a dual AGN. The VLBA provides an angular resolution of <~10 pc at the distance of many of these galaxies, sufficient to resolve the radio emission from extremely close dual AGNs and to contribute to understanding the origin of double-peaked [O III] emission lines. Of the 13 galaxies observed at 3.6 cm (8.4 GHz), we detect six at a 1σ sensitivity level of ~0.15 mJy/beam, two of which show clear jet structures on scales ranging from a few milliarcseconds to tens of milliarcseconds (corresponding to a few pc to tens of pc at a median redshift of 0.15). We suggest that radio-loud double-peaked emission-line type-2 AGNs may be indicative of jet produced structures, but a larger sample of double-peaked [O III] AGNs with high angular resolution radio observations will be required to confirm this suggestion.

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arXiv2018

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: the CIV Blueshift, Its Variability, and Its Dependence Upon Quasar Properties

We use the multi-epoch spectra of 362 quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping project to investigate the dependence of the blueshift of CIV relative to MgII on quasar properties. We confirm that high-blueshift sources tend to have low CIV equivalent widths (EWs), and that the low-EW sources span a range of blueshift. Other high-ionization lines, such as HeII, also show similar blueshift properties. The ratio of the line width (measured as both the full-width at half maximum and the velocity dispersion) of CIV to that of MgII increases with blueshift. Quasar variability might enhance the connection between the CIV blueshift and quasar properties (e.g., EW). The variability of the MgII line center (i.e., the wavelength that bisects the cumulative line flux) increases with blueshift. In contrast, the CIV line center shows weaker variability at the extreme blueshifts. Quasars with the high-blueshift CIV lines tend to have less variable continuum emission, when controlling for EW, luminosity, and redshift. Our results support the scenario that high-blueshift sources tend to have large Eddington ratios.

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arXiv2017

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: Composite Lags at $z\lesssim 1$

We present composite broad-line region (BLR) reverberation-mapping lag measurements for \halpha, \hbeta, \HeII\,$\lambda4686$ and \MgII\ for a sample of 144, $z\lesssim 1$ quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping (SDSS-RM) project. Using only the 32-epoch spectroscopic light curves in the first 6-month season of SDSS-RM observations, we compile correlation-function measurements for individual objects and then coadd them to allow the measurement of the average lags for our sample at mean redshifts of $0.4$ (for \halpha) and $\sim 0.65$ (for the other lines). At similar quasar luminosities and redshifts, the sample-averaged lag decreases in the order of \MgII, \halpha, \hbeta\ and \HeII. This decrease in lags is accompanied by an increase in the mean line width of the four lines, and is roughly consistent with the virialized motion for BLR gas in photoionization equilibrium. These are among the first RM measurements of stratified BLR structure at $z>0.3$. Dividing our sample by luminosity, \halpha\ shows clear evidence of increasing lags with luminosity, consistent with the expectation from the measured BLR size-luminosity relation based on \hbeta. The other three lines do not show a clear luminosity trend in their average lags due to the limited dynamic range of luminosity probed and the poor average correlation signals in the divided samples, a situation that will be improved with the incorporation of additional photometric and spectroscopic data from SDSS-RM. We discuss the utility and caveats of composite-lag measurements for large statistical quasar samples with reverberation-mapping data.

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arXiv2017

The Time-Domain Spectroscopic Survey: Target Selection for Repeat Spectroscopy

As astronomers increasingly exploit the information available in the time domain, spectroscopic variability in particular opens broad new channels of investigation. Here we describe the selection algorithms for all targets intended for repeat spectroscopy in the Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS), part of the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey within the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-IV. Also discussed are the scientific rationale and technical constraints leading to these target selections. The TDSS includes a large "Repeat Quasar Spectroscopy" (RQS) program delivering ~13,000 repeat spectra of confirmed SDSS quasars, and several smaller "Few-Epoch Spectroscopy" (FES) programs targeting specific classes of quasars as well as stars. The RQS program aims to provide a large and diverse quasar data set for studying variations in quasar spectra on timescales of years, a comparison sample for the FES quasar programs, and opportunity for discovering rare, serendipitous events. The FES programs cover a wide variety of phenomena in both quasars and stars. Quasar FES programs target broad absorption line quasars, high signal-to-noise ratio normal broad line quasars, quasars with double-peaked or very asymmetric broad emission line profiles, binary supermassive black hole candidates, and the most photometrically variable quasars. Strongly variable stars are also targeted for repeat spectroscopy, encompassing many types of eclipsing binary systems, and classical pulsators like RR Lyrae. Other stellar FES programs allow spectroscopic variability studies of active ultracool dwarf stars, dwarf carbon stars, and white dwarf/M dwarf spectroscopic binaries. We present example TDSS spectra and describe anticipated sample sizes and results.

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arXiv2017

SDSS-V: Pioneering Panoptic Spectroscopy

SDSS-V will be an all-sky, multi-epoch spectroscopic survey of over six million objects. It is designed to decode the history of the Milky Way, trace the emergence of the chemical elements, reveal the inner workings of stars, and investigate the origin of planets. It will also create an integral-field spectroscopic map of the gas in the Galaxy and the Local Group that is 1,000x larger than the current state of the art and at high enough spatial resolution to reveal the self-regulation mechanisms of galactic ecosystems. SDSS-V will pioneer systematic, spectroscopic monitoring across the whole sky, revealing changes on timescales from 20 minutes to 20 years. The survey will thus track the flickers, flares, and radical transformations of the most luminous persistent objects in the universe: massive black holes growing at the centers of galaxies. The scope and flexibility of SDSS-V will be unique among extant and future spectroscopic surveys: it is all-sky, with matched survey infrastructures in both hemispheres; it provides near-IR and optical multi-object fiber spectroscopy that is rapidly reconfigurable to serve high target densities, targets of opportunity, and time-domain monitoring; and it provides optical, ultra-wide-field integral field spectroscopy. SDSS-V, with its programs anticipated to start in 2020, will be well-timed to multiply the scientific output from major space missions (e.g., TESS, Gaia, eROSITA) and ground-based projects. SDSS-V builds on the 25-year heritage of SDSS's advances in data analysis, collaboration infrastructure, and product deliverables. The project is now refining its science scope, optimizing the survey strategies, and developing new hardware that builds on the SDSS-IV infrastructure. We present here an overview of the current state of these developments as we seek to build our worldwide consortium of institutional and individual members.

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arXiv2017

A Magellan M2FS Spectroscopic Survey of Galaxies at 5.5<z<6.8: Program Overview and a Sample of the Brightest Lyman-alpha Emitters

We present a spectroscopic survey of high-redshift, luminous galaxies over four square degrees on the sky, aiming to build a large and homogeneous sample of Ly$α$ emitters (LAEs) at $z\approx5.7$ and 6.5, and Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) at $5.5<z<6.8$. The fields that we choose to observe are well-studied, such as SXDS and COSMOS. They have deep optical imaging data in a series of broad and narrow bands, allowing efficient selection of galaxy candidates. Spectroscopic observations are being carried out using the multi-object spectrograph M2FS on the Magellan Clay telescope. M2FS is efficient to identify high-redshift galaxies, owing to its 256 optical fibers deployed over a circular field-of-view 30 arcmin in diameter. We have observed $\sim2.5$ square degrees. When the program is completed, we expect to identify more than 400 bright LAEs at $z\approx5.7$ and 6.5, and a substantial number of LBGs at $z\ge6$. This unique sample will be used to study a variety of galaxy properties and to search for large protoclusters. Furthermore, the statistical properties of these galaxies will be used to probe cosmic reionization. We describe the motivation, program design, target selection, and M2FS observations. We also outline our science goals, and present a sample of the brightest LAEs at $z\approx5.7$ and 6.5. This sample contains 32 LAEs with Ly$α$ luminosities higher than 10$^{43}$ erg s$^{-1}$. A few of them reach $\ge3\times10^{43}$ erg s$^{-1}$, comparable to the two most luminous LAEs known at $z\ge6$, `CR7' and `COLA1'. These LAEs provide ideal targets to study extreme galaxies in the distant universe.

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arXiv2017

PHL 6625: A Minor Merger-Associated QSO Behind NGC 247

PHL 6625 is a luminous quasi-stellar object (QSO) at z = 0.3954 located behind the nearby galaxy NGC 247 (z = 0.0005). Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations revealed an arc structure associated with it. We report on spectroscopic observations with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and multiwavelength observations from the radio to the X-ray band for the system, suggesting that PHL 6625 and the arc are a close pair of merging galaxies, instead of a strong gravitational lens system. The QSO host galaxy is estimated to be (4-28) x 10^10 M_sun, and the mass of the companion galaxy of is estimated to be M_* = (6.8 +/- 2.4) x 10^9 M_sun, suggesting that this is a minor merger system. The QSO displays typical broad emission lines, from which a black hole mass of about (2-5) x 10^8 M_sun and an Eddington ratio of about 0.01-0.05 can be inferred. The system represents an interesting and rare case where a QSO is associated with an ongoing minor merger, analogous to Arp 142.

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arXiv2017

Extreme variability quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Dark Energy Survey

We perform a systematic search for long-term extreme variability quasars (EVQs) in the overlapping Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and 3-Year Dark Energy Survey (DES) imaging, which provide light curves spanning more than 15 years. We identified ~1000 EVQs with a maximum g band magnitude change of more than 1 mag over this period, about 10% of all quasars searched. The EVQs have L_bol~10^45-10^47 erg/s and L/L_Edd~0.01-1. Accounting for selection effects, we estimate an intrinsic EVQ fraction of ~30-50% among all g<~22 quasars over a baseline of ~15 years. These EVQs are good candidates for so-called "changing-look quasars", where a spectral transition between the two types of quasars (broad-line and narrow-line) is observed between the dim and bright states. We performed detailed multi-wavelength, spectral and variability analyses for the EVQs and compared to their parent quasar sample. We found that EVQs are distinct from a control sample of quasars matched in redshift and optical luminosity: (1) their UV broad emission lines have larger equivalent widths; (2) their Eddington ratios are systematically lower; and (3) they are more variable on all timescales. The intrinsic difference in quasar properties for EVQs suggest that internal processes associated with accretion are the main driver for the observed extreme long-term variability. However, despite their different properties, EVQs seem to be in the tail of a continuous distribution of quasar properties, rather than standing out as a distinct population. We speculate that EVQs are normal quasars accreting at relatively low accretion rates, where the accretion flow is more likely to experience instabilities that drive the factor of few changes in flux on multi-year timescales.

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arXiv2017

X-ray constraints on the fraction of obscured AGN at high accretion luminosities

The wide-area XMM-XXL X-ray survey is used to explore the fraction of obscured AGN at high accretion luminosities, $L_X (\rm 2-10 \, keV) > 10^{44} \, erg \,s ^{-1}$, and out to redshift $z\approx1.5$. The sample covers an area of about $\rm14\,deg^2$ and provides constraints on the space density of powerful AGN over a wide range of neutral hydrogen column densities extending beyond the Compton-thick limit, $\rm N_H\approx10^{24}\,cm^{-2}$. The fraction of obscured Compton-thin ($\rm N_H=10^{22}-10^{24}\,cm^{-2}$) AGN is estimated to be $\approx0.35$ for luminosities $L_X(\rm 2-10\,keV)>10^{44}\,erg\,s^{-1}$ independent of redshift. For less luminous sources the fraction of obscured Compton-thin AGN increases from $0.45\pm0.10$ at $z=0.25$ to $0.75\pm0.05$ at $z=1.25$. Studies that select AGN in the infrared via template fits to the observed Spectral Energy Distribution of extragalactic sources estimate space densities at high accretion luminosities consistent with the XMM-XXL constraints. There is no evidence for a large population of AGN (e.g. heavily obscured) identified in the infrared and missed at X-ray wavelengths. We further explore the mid-infrared colours of XMM-XXL AGN as a function of accretion luminosity, column density and redshift. The fraction of XMM-XXL sources that lie within the mid-infrared colour wedges defined in the literature to select AGN is primarily a function of redshift. This fraction increases from about 20-30% at z=0.25 to about 50-70% at $z=1.5$.

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arXiv2017

X-ray Insights into the Nature of Quasars with Redshifted Broad Absorption Lines

We present $Chandra$ observations of seven broad absorption line (BAL) quasars at $z=0.863$-2.516 with redshifted BAL troughs (RSBALs). Five of our seven targets were detected by $Chandra$ in 4-13 ks exposures with ACIS-S. The $α_{\rm ox}$ values, $Δα_{\rm ox}$ values, and spectral energy distributions of our targets demonstrate they are all X-ray weak relative to expectations for non-BAL quasars, and the degree of X-ray weakness is consistent with that of appropriately-matched BAL quasars generally. Furthermore, our five detected targets show evidence for hard X-ray spectral shapes with a stacked effective power-law photon index of $Γ_{\rm eff}=0.5^{+0.5}_{-0.4}$. These findings support the presence of heavy X-ray absorption ($N_{\rm H}\approx 2 \times 10^{23}$ cm$^{-2}$) in RSBAL quasars, likely by the shielding gas found to be common in BAL quasars more generally. We use these X-ray measurements to assess models for the nature of RSBAL quasars, finding that a rotationally-dominated outflow model is favored while an infall model also remains plausible with some stipulations. The X-ray data disfavor a binary quasar model for RSBAL quasars in general.

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arXiv2017

The Limited Impact of Outflows: Integral-Field Spectroscopy of 20 Local AGNs

To investigate AGN outflows as a tracer of AGN feedback on star-formation, we perform integral-field spectroscopy of 20 type 2 AGNs at z<0.1, which are luminous AGNs with the [O III] luminosity >10$^{41.5}$ erg/s, and exhibit strong outflow signatures in the [O III] kinematics. By decomposing the emission-line profile, we obtain the maps of the narrow and broad components of [O III] and H$α$ lines, respectively. The broad components in both [O III] and H$α$ represent the non-gravitational kinematics, i.e., gas outflows, while the narrow components, especially in H$α$, represent the gravitational kinematics, i.e., rotational disk. By using the integrated spectra within the flux-weighted size of the narrow-line region, we estimate the energetics of the gas outflows. The ionized gas mass is 1.0-38.5$\times 10^5$ $M_{\odot}$, and the mean mass outflow rate is 4.6$\pm$4.3 $M_{\odot}$/yr, which is a factor of ~260 higher than the mean mass accretion rate 0.02$\pm$0.01 $M_{\odot}$/yr. The mean energy injection rate of the sample is 0.8$\pm$0.6% of the AGN bolometric luminosity, while the momentum flux is (5.4$\pm$3.6)$\times$ $L_{bol}$/c on average, except for two most kinematically energetic AGNs with low $L_{bol}$, which are possibly due to the dynamical timescale of the outflows. The estimated outflow energetics are consistent with the theoretical expectations for energy-conserving outflows from AGNs, yet we find no supporting evidence of instantaneous quenching of star formation due to the outflows.

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arXiv2016

Detection of Time Lags Between Quasar Continuum Emission Bands based on Pan-STARRS Light-curves

We study the time lags between the continuum emission of quasars at different wavelengths, based on more than four years of multi-band ($g$, $r$, $i$, $z$) light-curves in the Pan-STARRS Medium Deep Fields. As photons from different bands emerge from different radial ranges in the accretion disk, the lags constrain the sizes of the accretion disks. We select 240 quasars with redshifts $z \approx 1$ or $z \approx 0.3$ that are relatively emission line free. The light curves are sampled from day to month timescales, which makes it possible to detect lags on the scale of the light crossing time of the accretion disks. With the code JAVELIN, we detect typical lags of several days in the rest frame between the $g$ band and the $riz$ bands. The detected lags are $\sim 2-3$ times larger than the light crossing time estimated from the standard thin disk model, consistent with the recently measured lag in NGC5548 and micro-lensing measurements of quasars. The lags in our sample are found to increase with increasing luminosity. Furthermore, the increase in lags going from $g-r$ to $g-i$ and then to $g-z$ is slower than predicted in the thin disk model, particularly for high luminosity quasars. The radial temperature profile in the disk must be different from what is assumed. We also find evidence that the lags decrease with increasing line ratios between ultraviolet FeII lines and MgII, which may point to changes in the accretion disk structure at higher metallicity.

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arXiv2016

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: Velocity Shifts of Quasar Emission Lines

Quasar emission lines are often shifted from the systemic velocity due to various dynamical and radiative processes in the line-emitting region. The level of these velocity shifts depends both on the line species and on quasar properties. We study velocity shifts for the line peaks of various narrow and broad quasar emission lines relative to systemic using a sample of 849 quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping (SDSS-RM) project. The coadded (from 32 epochs) spectra of individual quasars have sufficient signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) to measure stellar absorption lines to provide reliable systemic velocity estimates, as well as weak narrow emission lines. The sample also covers a large dynamic range in quasar luminosity (~2 dex), allowing us to explore potential luminosity dependence of the velocity shifts. We derive average line peak velocity shifts as a function of quasar luminosity for different lines, and quantify their intrinsic scatter. We further quantify how well the peak velocity can be measured for various lines as a function of continuum SNR, and demonstrate there is no systematic bias in the line peak measurements when the spectral quality is degraded to as low as SNR~3 per SDSS pixel. Based on the observed line shifts, we provide empirical guidelines on redshift estimation from [OII]3728, [OIII]5008, [NeV]3426, MgII, CIII], HeII1640, broad Hbeta, CIV, and SiIV, which are calibrated to provide unbiased systemic redshifts in the mean, but with increasing intrinsic uncertainties of 46, 56, 119, 205, 233, 242, 400, 415, and 477 km/s, in addition to the measurement uncertainties. These more realistic redshift uncertainties are generally much larger than the formal uncertainties reported by the redshift pipelines for spectroscopic quasar surveys, and demonstrate the infeasibility of measuring quasar redshifts to better than ~200 km/s with only broad lines.

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arXiv2016

The Final SDSS High-Redshift Quasar Sample of 52 Quasars at z>5.7

We present the discovery of nine quasars at $z\sim6$ identified in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) imaging data. This completes our survey of $z\sim6$ quasars in the SDSS footprint. Our final sample consists of 52 quasars at $5.7<z\le6.4$, including 29 quasars with $z_{\rm AB}\le20$ mag selected from 11,240 deg$^2$ of the SDSS single-epoch imaging survey (the main survey), 10 quasars with $20\le z_{\rm AB}\le20.5$ selected from 4223 deg$^2$ of the SDSS overlap regions (regions with two or more imaging scans), and 13 quasars down to $z_{\rm AB}\approx22$ mag from the 277 deg$^2$ in Stripe 82. They span a wide luminosity range of $-29.0\le M_{1450}\le-24.5$. This well-defined sample is used to derive the quasar luminosity function (QLF) at $z\sim6$. After combining our SDSS sample with two faint ($M_{1450}\ge-23$ mag) quasars from the literature, we obtain the parameters for a double power-law fit to the QLF. The bright-end slope $β$ of the QLF is well constrained to be $β=-2.8\pm0.2$. Due to the small number of low-luminosity quasars, the faint-end slope $α$ and the characteristic magnitude $M_{1450}^{\ast}$ are less well constrained, with $α=-1.90_{-0.44}^{+0.58}$ and $M^{\ast}=-25.2_{-3.8}^{+1.2}$ mag. The spatial density of luminous quasars, parametrized as $ρ(M_{1450}<-26,z)=ρ(z=6)\,10^{k(z-6)}$, drops rapidly from $z\sim5$ to 6, with $k=-0.72\pm0.11$. Based on our fitted QLF and assuming an IGM clumping factor of $C=3$, we find that the observed quasar population cannot provide enough photons to ionize the $z\sim6$ IGM at $\sim90$\% confidence. Quasars may still provide a significant fraction of the required photons, although much larger samples of faint quasars are needed for more stringent constraints on the quasar contribution to reionization.

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arXiv2016

The Detailed Science Case for the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer: the Composition and Dynamics of the Faint Universe

MSE is an 11.25m aperture observatory with a 1.5 square degree field of view that will be fully dedicated to multi-object spectroscopy. More than 3200 fibres will feed spectrographs operating at low (R ~ 2000 - 3500) and moderate (R ~ 6000) spectral resolution, and approximately 1000 fibers will feed spectrographs operating at high (R ~ 40000) resolution. MSE is designed to enable transformational science in areas as diverse as tomographic mapping of the interstellar and intergalactic media; the in-situ chemical tagging of thick disk and halo stars; connecting galaxies to their large scale structure; measuring the mass functions of cold dark matter sub-halos in galaxy and cluster-scale hosts; reverberation mapping of supermassive black holes in quasars; next generation cosmological surveys using redshift space distortions and peculiar velocities. MSE is an essential follow-up facility to current and next generations of multi-wavelength imaging surveys, including LSST, Gaia, Euclid, WFIRST, PLATO, and the SKA, and is designed to complement and go beyond the science goals of other planned and current spectroscopic capabilities like VISTA/4MOST, WHT/WEAVE, AAT/HERMES and Subaru/PFS. It is an ideal feeder facility for E-ELT, TMT and GMT, and provides the missing link between wide field imaging and small field precision astronomy. MSE is optimized for high throughput, high signal-to-noise observations of the faintest sources in the Universe with high quality calibration and stability being ensured through the dedicated operational mode of the observatory. (abridged)

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arXiv2016

Towards an Understanding of Changing-Look Quasars: An Archival Spectroscopic Search in SDSS

The uncertain origin of the recently-discovered `changing-looking' quasar phenomenon -- in which a luminous quasar dims significantly to a quiescent state in repeat spectroscopy over ~10 year timescales -- may present unexpected challenges to our understanding of quasar accretion. To better understand this phenomenon, we take a first step to building a sample of changing-look quasars with a systematic but simple archival search for these objects in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 12. By leveraging the >10 year baselines for objects with repeat spectroscopy, we uncover two new changing-look quasars, and a third discovered previously. Decomposition of the multi-epoch spectra and analysis of the broad emission lines suggest that the quasar accretion disk emission dims due to rapidly decreasing accretion rates (by factors of >2.5), while disfavoring changes in intrinsic dust extinction for the two objects where these analyses are possible. Broad emission line energetics also support intrinsic dimming of quasar emission as the origin for this phenomenon rather than transient tidal disruption events or supernovae. Although our search criteria included quasars at all redshifts and transitions from either quasar-like to galaxy-like states or the reverse, all of the clear cases of changing-look quasars discovered were at relatively low-redshift (z ~ 0.2 - 0.3) and only exhibit quasar-like to galaxy-like transitions.

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arXiv2016

SDSS J0159+0105: A Radio-Quiet Quasar with a Centi-Parsec Supermassive Black Hole Binary Candidate

We report a candidate centi-parsec supermassive black hole binary (SMBHB) in the radio-quiet quasar SDSS J0159+0105 at z=0.217. With a modified lomb-scargle code GLSdeDRW and the auto-correlation analysis ACF, we detect two significant (at P>99%) periodic signals at ~741 day and ~1500 day from the 8.1-year Catalina V-band light curve of this quasar. The period ratio, which is close to 1:2, is typical of a black-hole binary system with a mass ratio of 0.05<q<0.8 according to recent numerical simulations. SDSS J0159+0105 has two SDSS spectroscopic observations separated by ~10 years. There is a significant change in the broad H-beta profile between the two epochs, which can be explained by a single broad-line region (BLR) around the binary system illuminated by the aforementioned mini-disks, or a stream of gas flowing from the circumbinary disk to one of the SMBHs. From the single BLR assumption and the orbital period t_orb ~1500 day, we estimate the total virial masses of M_SMBHB ~ 1.3x10^8 M_sun, the average distances of BLR of ~0.04pc (~50 light-day, with +/-0.3 dex uncertainty), and a SMBHB separation of d= (0.01pc)M_{8,tot}^{1/3} (T_rest/3.3yr)^{2/3} ~ 0.013 pc (15 light-day). Based on analytical work, the postulated circumbinary disk has an inner radius of 2d = 0.026 pc (30 light-day). SDSS J0159+0105 also displays unusual spectral energy distribution. The unique properties of SDSS J0159+0105 are consistent with it being a centi-parsec SMBHB. The GLSdeDRW code link: http://butler.lab.asu.edu/qso_period/

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arXiv2016

X-ray spectral properties of the AGN sample in the northern XMM-XXL field

In this paper we describe and publicly release a catalogue consisting of 8445 point-like X-ray sources detected in the XMM-XXL north survey. For the 2512 AGN which have reliable spectroscopy, we present the X-ray spectral fitting which has been computed with a Bayesian approach. We have also applied an X-ray spectral stacking method to different sub-samples. We confirm the well-known Iwasawa-Taniguchi effect in our luminosity-redshift sub-samples, and argue that such an effect is due to a decrease in the covering factor of a distant obscuring torus with increasing X-ray luminosity. By comparing the distribution of the reflection fraction, the ratio of the normalization of the reflected component to the direct radiation, we find that the low-luminosity, low-redshift sub-sample had systematically higher reflection fraction values than the high-redshift, high-luminosity one. On the other hand, no significant difference is found between samples having similar luminosity but different redshift, suggesting that the structure of the torus does not evolve strongly with redshift. Contrary to previous works, we do not find evidence for an increasing photon index at high Eddington ratio. This may be an indication that the structure of the accretion disc changes as the Eddington ratio approaches unity. Comparing our X-ray spectral analysis results with the optical spectral classification, we find that $\sim20$ per cent of optical type-1 AGN show an X-ray absorbing column density higher than $10^{21.5}\,\rm{cm^{-2}}$, and about 50 per cent of type-2 AGN have an X-ray absorbing column density less than $10^{21.5}\,\rm{cm^{-2}}$. We suggest that the excess X-ray absorption shown in the high-luminosity optical type-1 AGN can be due to small-scale dust-free gas within (or close to) the broad line region, while in the low-luminosity ones it can be due to a clumpy torus with a large covering factor.

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