Optical Variability Structure Function of Low-Luminosity AGN using ATLAS Lightcurves

TL;DR

This study analyzes optical variability in 246 low-luminosity AGN using ATLAS lightcurves, revealing correlations with black hole mass and luminosity, and finding no evidence of breaks in the variability structure function.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the optical variability structure function of low-luminosity AGN over decadal timescales, using host-AGN decomposition and a large sample.

Findings

SF slope increases with black hole mass

No breaks observed in the structure function

Amplitude anticorrelates with luminosity

Abstract

The origin of the optical flux variability in active galactic nuclei (AGN) is largely unknown. Previous studies have correlated features of the variability structure function (SF) with AGN properties, though they mostly involved high-luminosity AGN to avoid biases from host galaxy flux. In this work, we characterise optical variability in a sample of 246 low-luminosity AGN at $z < 0.1$ from the Six-degree Field Galaxy Survey (6dFGS) through the ensemble variability SF. We use lightcurves from the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) with a cadence of $\sim$2 days over eight years, and perform host-AGN decomposition on recent spectra to obtain the host fraction. We find that the slope of the SF depends on black hole mass, increasing from $\sim 0.1$ at $\log M_{\mathrm{BH}}/M_\odot \sim 6.5$ to $\sim 0.3$ at $\log M_{\mathrm{BH}}/M_\odot \sim 8$. Contrary to some earlier work, We do not find breaks in the SF, and two-epoch spectra taken 20 years apart suggest that the SF keeps rising into decadal timescales. In addition, we measure an anticorrelation of the amplitude with the luminosity and a positive correlation with the black hole mass. The variability behaviour also suggests that extinction is not the main driver of the variety in Seyfert subtypes.