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Caltech WAVE Research Fellowship
X-Ray Bright Versus Faint Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN)
I spent 10 weeks at the California Institute of Technology researching how X-ray bright versus faint supermassive black holes vary in the optical range. We found preliminary evidence for a redshift dependency, which means that X-ray faint supermassive black holes that are farther away might be more variable than closer X-ray faint populations. I used the structure function in python jupyter notebooks to analyze data from the million quasar database and the Zwicky Transient Facility.
Abstract
We refer to supermassive black holes with accreting matter as Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). Accreting matter near the center of the AGN emits shorter wavelength light (e.g. X-rays), while matter farther from the center emits light with longer wavelengths (e.g. visible light, infrared light). The magnitude of this light varies over time at all wavelengths, but the interaction between variability in different wavelengths is not well explored. We measure optical AGN variability using the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF). ZTF searches for exotic transients with high volumetric survey speed. We analyzed and compared data at visible wavelengths from ZTF on X-ray bright and X-ray faint AGN using scale-dependent variability measures, such as the structure function. Using the structure function, we found X-ray bright sources to be more variable than X-ray faint sources at a redshift between 0.5 and 1.
I also presented my research at an online conference. I used the presentation slides below to communicate the direction of my research.
