The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: Photometric g and i Light Curves

TL;DR

This paper presents four-year photometric light curves of 849 AGNs from the SDSS-RM project, demonstrating the utility of the Welch-Stetson J-index for variability characterization and AGN selection.

Contribution

It provides detailed data processing methods and variability analysis for AGN light curves, enhancing the tools for AGN variability studies.

Findings

Welch-Stetson J-index effectively characterizes AGN variability

Photometric light curves span over four years for 849 AGNs

Data processing techniques improve variability detection accuracy

Abstract

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping (SDSS-RM) program monitors 849 active galactic nuclei (AGN) both spectroscopically and photometrically. The photometric observations used in this work span over four years and provide an excellent baseline for variability studies of these objects. We present the photometric light curves from 2014 to 2017 obtained by the Steward Observatory's Bok telescope and the CFHT telescope with MegaCam. We provide details on the data acquisition and processing of the data from each telescope, the difference imaging photometry used to produce the light curves, and the calculation of a variability index to quantify each AGN's variability. We find that the Welch-Stetson J-index provides a useful characterization of AGN variability and can be used to select AGNs for further study.