Optical variability of radio-luminous palomar-green quasars

The goal of this project is to test the shocked jet model for quasar variability at optical wavelengths. The ten quasars with the highest radio core luminosity at 5 GHz in the Palomar Bright Quasar Survey were selected for this monitoring program; Seven out of the ten radio-luminous quasars exhibited signs of short-term variability, and all ten radio-luminous quasars showed signs of long-term variability. We assume our QSO cores have high radio luminosities because they have a jet of relativistic material aligned close to our line-of-sight; we would then expect to see more variability than in a sample of radio-quiet QSOs if the shock in the jet is the cause of variability. There is evidence that our radio-loud QSOs are more likely to have short-term variations compared to samples of radio-quiet QSOs. This finding supports the model of QSO variability being caused by shock waves in the relativistic plasma jet.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MS)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Physics

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Year

1998

Author dc:creator

• Eggers, Diane

Contributors dc:contributor

• Donna Weistrop

Statement dc:rights

• IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Identifier

https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/rtds/923

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:oasis.library.unlv.edu:rtds-1922