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High-Redshift Quasars at z ≥ 3: Radio Variability and MPS/GPS Candidates

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Peer-reviewed

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Abstract

jats:pWe present a study of the radio variability of bright, S1.4≥100 mJy, high-redshift quasars at z≥3 on timescales of up to 30–40 yrs. The study involved simultaneous RATAN-600 measurements at the frequencies of 2.3, 4.7, 8.2, 11.2, and 22.3 GHz in 2017–2020. In addition, data from the literature were used. We have found that the variability index, VS, which quantifies the normalized difference between the maximum and minimum flux density while accounting for measurement uncertainties, ranges from 0.02 to 0.96 for the quasars. Approximately half of the objects in the sample exhibit a variability index within the range from 0.25 to 0.50, which is comparable to that observed in blazars at lower redshifts. The distribution of VS at 22.3 GHz is significantly different from that at 2.3–11.2 GHz, which may be attributed to the fact that a compact AGN core dominates at the source’s rest frame frequencies greater than 45 GHz, leading to higher variability indices obtained at 22.3 GHz (the VS distribution peaks around 0.4) compared to the lower frequencies (the VS distribution at 2.3 and 4.7 GHz peaks around 0.1–0.2). Several source groups with distinctive variability characteristics were found using the cluster analysis of quasars. We propose seven new candidates for gigahertz-peaked spectrum (GPS) sources and five new megahertz-peaked spectrum (MPS) sources based on their spectrum shape and variability features. Only 6 out of the 23 sources previously reported as GPS demonstrate a low variability level typical of classical GPS sources (VS<0.25) at 4.7–22.3 GHz. When excluding the highly variable peaked-spectrum blazars, we expect no more than 20% of the sources in the sample to be GPS candidates and no more than 10% to be MPS candidates.</jats:p>

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Peer reviewed: True


Acknowledgements: The observations were carried out with the RATAN-600 scientific facility. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED), which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; the CATS database, available on the Special Astrophysical Observatory website; the SIMBAD database, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France. This research has made use of the VizieR catalogue access tool, CDS, Strasbourg, France. We thank the anonymous referees for their comments and review of the manuscript.


Publication status: Published

Keywords

5101 Astronomical Sciences, 51 Physical Sciences

Journal Title

Galaxies

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2075-4434
2075-4434

Volume Title

12

Publisher

MDPI AG
Sponsorship
the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (075-15-2024-541)
the National SKA Program of China (2022SKA0120102, 2022SKA0130103)