Changing-look Active Galactic Nuclei from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. V. Dramatic Variability in High-Ionization Broad Emission Lines

TL;DR

This study systematically identifies high-redshift changing-look quasars with significant high-ionization line variability, revealing lower accretion rates and a characteristic transition timescale of about 3 years, supporting an accretion-driven variability origin.

Contribution

First systematic search for high-redshift CL quasars using DESI and SDSS data, revealing new insights into high-ionization line variability and accretion properties.

Findings

97 CL quasars identified with significant high-ionization line variability

CL quasars have lower Eddington ratios compared to typical quasars

Characteristic transition timescale of approximately 3 years

Abstract

We present a systematic search for changing-look (CL) quasars at high redshift z > 0.9 by cross-matching the spectroscopic datasets 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 approximately 0.042%. This rate is lower than that found for low-ionization CL quasars, likely due to both selection effects and physical differences 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 log lambda_Edd approximately -1.14 in the bright state and approximately -1.39 in the dim state, compared to approximately -0.65 for typical quasars. While high-ionization lines in CL quasars follow the Baldwin effect on a population level, some individual sources show inverse Baldwin trends. We also find a positive correlation between the variability of high-ionization lines such as Mg II and C III] and the change in bolometric luminosity. In addition, we estimate a characteristic rest-frame timescale of approximately 3 years for CL transitions, with no significant difference between turn-on and turn-off cases. Taken together, these results support an accretion-driven origin for the CL phenomenon and provide new insights into the variability of high-ionization emission lines.