Radio-Variability in Radio-Quiet Quasars and Low-Luminosity AGN

TL;DR

This study reveals significant radio variability in radio-quiet and low-luminosity AGN, indicating active nuclear jets and their connection to accretion processes, with variability amplitudes exceeding those in radio-loud quasars.

Contribution

It provides the first extensive evidence of radio variability in radio-quiet and low-luminosity AGN, highlighting the role of jets and accretion activity in these sources.

Findings

Radio-quiet quasars show 10-20% variability over months.

Low-luminosity AGN exhibit up to 300% variability over 1.5 years.

Radio variability exceeds that of radio-loud quasar cores, excluding blazars.

Abstract

We report on two surveys of radio-weak AGN to look for radio variability. We find significant variability with an RMS of 10-20% on a timescale of months in radio-quiet and radio-intermediate quasars. This exceeds the variability of radio cores in radio-loud quasars (excluding blazars), which vary only on a few percent level. The variability in radio-quiet quasars confirms that the radio emission in these sources is indeed related to the AGN. The most extremely variable source is the radio-intermediate quasar III Zw 2 which was recently found to contain a relativistic jet. In addition we find large amplitude variabilities (up to 300% peak-to-peak) in a sample of nearby low-luminosity AGN, Liners and dwarf-Seyferts, on a timescale of 1.5 years. The variability could be related to the activity of nuclear jets responding to changing accretion rates. Simultaneous radio/optical/X-ray monitoring also for radio-weak AGN, and not just for blazars, is therefore a potentially powerful tool to study the link between jets and accretion flows.