J/MNRAS/435/1300ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/435/1300doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.74351300CDSGoyal A.Gopal-KrishnaWiita P.J.Stalin C.S.Sagar R.2024-08-06T20:16:53Z2014-10-20T09:23:34ZCDS support team

CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France

cds-question@unistra.fractive-galactic-nucleiphotometryThe incidence of intranight optical variability (INOV) is known to differ significantly among different classes of powerful active galactic nuclei (AGN). A number of statistical methods have been employed in the literature for testing the presence of INOV in the light curves, sometimes leading to discordant results. In this paper, we compare the INOV characteristics of six prominent classes of AGN, as evaluated using three commonly used statistical tests, namely the {chi}^2^-test, the modified C-test and the F-test, which has recently begun to gain popularity. The AGN classes considered are: radio-quiet quasars, radio-intermediate quasars, lobe-dominated quasars, low optical polarization core-dominated quasars, high optical polarization core-dominated quasars and TeV blazars. Our analysis is based on a large body of AGN monitoring data, involving 262 sessions of intranight monitoring of a total 77 AGN, using 1-2m class optical telescopes located in India. In order to compare the usefulness of the statistical tests, we have also subjected them to a 'sanity check' by comparing the number of false positives yielded by each test with the corresponding statistical prediction. The present analysis is intended to serve as a benchmark for future INOV studies of AGN of different classes.2013MNRAS.435.1300Ghttps://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/MNRAS/435/1300CatalogResearchIsServedByTAP VizieR generic serviceIsServedByConesearch servicerelated-toJ/ApJ/723/737 : Catalog of variability selected AGNs in GOODS (Villforth+ 201)J/ApJ/641/78 : CIV variability in 105 SDSS quasars (Wilhite+, 2006)J/A+A/473/105 : Lockman Hole AGN variability with XMM (Mateos+, 2007)J/A+A/487/475 : X-ray variability of AGNs in Lockman Hole (Papadakis+, 2008)J/A+A/488/73 : Variability-selected AGN in Chandra DFS (Trevese+, 2008)J/A+A/497/81 : Variability-selected AGN in CDFS (Boutsia+, 2009)J/A+A/536/A84 : X-ray variability of AGN (Vagnetti+, 2011)J/AJ/142/108 : Radio variability of compact, flat-spectrum AGNs (Koay+, 2011)J/ApJ/731/97 : Variable AGNs in GOODS fields (Sarajedini+, 2011)J/ApJ/748/124 : AGN X-ray variability in the 4Ms catalog (Young+, 2012)J/A+A/555/A2 : J-band variability of AGN (Nesci+, 2013)J/A+A/560/A104 : UV variability of quasars (Meusinger+, 2013)J/A+A/563/A57 : Long-term variability of AGN at hard X-rays (Soldi+, 2014)https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.htmlhttps://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/435/1300https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/435/1300http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/435/1300https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/MNRAS/435/1300https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/MNRAS/435/1300http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/MNRAS/435/1300GETtext/xml+votablehttps://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tapCone search capability for table J/MNRAS/435/1300/sources (List of studied sources)https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/MNRAS/435/1300/sources?https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/MNRAS/435/1300/sources?http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/MNRAS/435/1300/sources?GETtext/xml+votable180.050000true11.44679174.17316670.0055555555555555566/579 2245 2414 4262 4695-4696 4770 4793 4821 5215 5264 5306 5318 5780 5791 5825 6018 6223 6237 6252 6379 6466 6515 6647 7176 7226 7275 7896 8282 8858 9031 9322 9457 9463 9705 9716 9955 10422 10472 10601 10605 10769 11430 13496 17730 17754 18041 18127 18661 18769 19483 19609 19700 19831 20315 20327 21935 22847 23016 23045 23121 26131 26223 26254 26292 26310 26615 27025 27060 27580 28356 28479 28492 28517 28532 28589 31663 44908https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/moc/J/MNRAS/435/1300?format=asciiOpticaldefaultJ/MNRAS/435/1300/sourcesList of studied sourcesrecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintNameSource name (JHHMM+DDMM)meta.id;meta.maincharprimaryRAJ2000Simbad right ascension (J2000)pos.eq.ra;meta.mainDEJ2000Simbad declination (J2000)pos.eq.dec;meta.mainNtNumber of independent INOV observationsmeta.numberintnullableSNameSimbad namemeta.idcharComComments for Simbad identification (from CDS)meta.notecharSimbadSimbad column added by the CDSmeta.ref.urlcharJ/MNRAS/435/1300/table1Summary of the IntraNight Optical Variability (INOV) observations and the derived variability status for the target AGN and the corresponding 'steady' star-star differential light curves (DLCs)recnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintTypeType of source (1)src.classcharNameSource name (JHHMM+DDMM)meta.id;meta.maincharn_Name[d] d: blazar detected at TeV energiesmeta.notecharObsDateDate of observationtime.epochnullableTelTelescope used (2)instr.setupcharFilt[R] Filter usedstat.fit.paramcharDur[1.6/9.2] Duration of monitoringhtime.durationfloatNp[9/123] Number of data points in the DLCmeta.numberintrms[0.1/3.1] rms of the steadiest star-star DLC%stat.stdev;instr.det.noise;arith.ratiofloatpsi[0/26] INOV amplitude ({psi})%src.var.amplitudefloatDmt-s1Mean magnitude difference of t-s1 DLC (3)magphot.mag;arith.difffloatDmt-s2Mean magnitude difference of t-s2 DLC (3)magphot.mag;arith.difffloatDms1-s2Mean magnitude difference of s1-s2 DLC (3)magphot.mag;arith.difffloatX2t-s1{chi}^2^-value obtained for t-s1 DLC (3)stat.fit.chi2doubleSXt-s1chi2t-s1 variability status of the DLC (4)meta.code;src.varcharX2t-s2{chi}^2^-value obtained for t-s2 DLC (3)stat.fit.chi2doubleSXt-s2chi2t-s1 variability status of the DLC (4)meta.code;src.varcharX2s1-s2{chi}^2^-value obtained for s1-s2 DLC (3)stat.fit.chi2doubleSXs1-s2chi2s1-s2 variability status of the DLC (4)meta.code;src.varcharFt-s1F-value obtained for the t-s1 DLC (3)stat.fit.paramfloatSFt-s1Ft-s1 variability status of the DLC (4)meta.code;src.varcharFt-s2F-value obtained for the t-s2 DLC (3)stat.fit.paramfloatSFt-s2Ft-s2 variability status of the DLC (4)meta.code;src.varcharFs1-s2F-value obtained for the s1-s2 DLC (3)stat.fit.paramfloatSFs1-s2Fs1-s2 variability status of the DLC (4)meta.code;src.varcharCt-s1Modified C-value obtained for t-s1 DLC (3)stat.fit.paramfloatSCt-s1Ct-s1 variability status of the DLC (4)meta.code;src.varcharCt-s2Modified C-value obtained for t-s2 DLC (3)stat.fit.paramfloatSCt-s2Ct-s2 variability status of the DLC (4)meta.code;src.varcharCs1-s2Modified C-value obtained for s1-s2 DLC (3)stat.fit.paramfloatSCs1-s2Cs1-s2 variability status of the DLC (4)meta.code;src.varcharRef[a-j] Reference for the INOV data (5)meta.ref;pos.framechar