Vanderbilt University will receive $297,023 from the National Science Foundation under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) to conduct collaborative research on quasar spectroscopic variability from September 1, 2022 to August 31, 2025.
The research team at Vanderbilt and Penn State Universities will leverage brightness changes in quasars and big data techniques to measure how gas moves around supermassive black holes over timescales of 1-18 years. This will enable searches for exotic phenomena like supermassive black hole binary systems and changing-look quasars. The investigators will also conduct a data mining workshop for students and develop introductory astronomy exercises using the Zooniverse platform.
The work will analyze spectra from approximately 5,000 quasars observed multiple times by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to statistically model regular quasar variability and apply this to searches for supermassive black hole binaries and changing-look quasars. The results will provide new insights into these phenomena and help constrain masses of candidate binary systems.
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