Discovery of 21 New Changing-look AGNs in Northern Sky

TL;DR

This study reports 21 newly discovered changing-look AGNs, doubling the known sample, and analyzes their variability, transition timescales, and physical mechanisms, challenging existing AGN models.

Contribution

The paper presents a new sample of 21 changing-look AGNs identified through multi-survey data, providing insights into their transition timescales and variability characteristics, which were previously limited.

Findings

Transition timescales range from 0.9 to 13 years.

Optical and mid-infrared brightness increases during type transitions.

Variability not consistent with variable obscuration in most cases.

Abstract

The rare case of changing-look (CL) AGNs, with the appearance or disappearance of broad Balmer emission lines within a few years, challenges our understanding of the AGN unified model. We present a sample of 21 new CL AGNs at $0.08<z<0.58$, which doubles the number of such objects known to date. These new CL AGNs were discovered by several ways, from (1) repeat spectra in the SDSS, (2) repeat spectra in the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) and SDSS, and (3) photometric variability and new spectroscopic observations. We use the photometric data from surveys, including the SDSS imaging survey, the Pan-STARRS1, the DESI Legacy imaging survey, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey, and the Palomar Transient Factory. The estimated upper limits of transition timescale of the CL AGNs in this sample spans from 0.9 to 13 years in the rest frame. The continuum flux in the optical and mid-infrared becomes brighter when the CL AGNs turn on, or vice versa. Variations of more than 0.2 mag in $W1$ band were detected in 15 CL AGNs during the transition. The optical and mid-infrared variability is not consistent with the scenario of variable obscuration in 10 CL AGNs at more than $3\sigma$ confidence level. We confirm a bluer-when-brighter trend in the optical. However, the mid-infrared WISE colors $W1-W2$ become redder when the objects become brighter in the $W1$ band, possibly due to a stronger hot dust contribution in the $W2$ band when the AGN activity becomes stronger. The physical mechanism of type transition is important for understanding the evolution of AGNs.