2026ApJS..282...28C -
Astrophys. J., Suppl. Ser., 282, 28 (2026/February-0)
Changing-look Active Galactic Nuclei from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. V. Dramatic Variability in High-ionization Broad Emission Lines.
CHEN Z.-Q., JIN J.-J., GUO W.-J., SUN S.-X., PAN Z.-W., LIU C.-X., CHENG H.-Q., HU J.-W., SHENG Z.-F., ZOU H., CHEN Z.-B., ZHENG Q. and YUAN Q.-R.
Abstract (from CDS):
We present a systematic search for changing-look (CL) quasars at high redshift z > 0.9 by crossmatching the spectroscopic data sets from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Data Release 1 and Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 18. We identify 97 CL quasars showing significant variability in high-ionization broad emission lines, including 45 turn-on and 52 turn-off events, corresponding to a detection rate of ∼0.042%. The low rate relative to low-ionization CL quasar searches is likely due to selection and physical effects in high-ionization lines. Based on the CL quasar sample, we find that CL quasars generally exhibit lower accretion rates compared to typical quasars, with average Eddington ratios of ${\rm{log}}{\lambda }_{{\rm{Edd}}}$ ∼ -1.14 in the bright state and ∼-1.39 in the dim state, compared to ∼-0.65 for typical quasars. Furthermore, while high-ionization lines in CL quasars follow the Baldwin effect on a population level, some sources can display inverse Baldwin trends. In addition, we find a positive correlation between the variability in high-ionization lines (e.g., Mg II, C III]) and the change in bolometric luminosity. We also estimate a characteristic rest-frame timescale of ∼3 yr for CL transitions, with no significant difference between turn-on and turn-off cases. Taken as a whole, these findings support an accretion-driven origin of the CL phenomenon, and provide new insights into the variability of high-ionization emission lines.
Abstract Copyright:
© 2026. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
Journal keyword(s):
Accretion - Supermassive black holes
Status at CDS
:
Large table(s) will be appraised for possible ingestion in VizieR.
Simbad objects:
2
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