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E. S. Klimek, C. M. Gaskell, C. H. Hedrick (U. Nebraska)
We conducted a broad-band photometric study of the optical variability of six Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 (NLS1) galaxies for 172 epochs. Microvariability was searched for on 33 nights. Strong evidence was found only for our lowest luminosity object, NGC 4051, on one night. Weaker evidence suggests possible microvariability on a few other nights for two other objects. Intranight variability in NLS1s is thus concluded to be rare and of low amplitude. On longer timescales NLS1s as a class are not more variable than non-NLS1s. They could in fact be slightly less variable on average than non-NLS1s, but the absence of a suitable control sample makes a precise comparison difficult. The extreme variability seen in the X-rays was not seen in the optical. This has consequences for models of AGNs in general as well as NLS1s in particular.
This research has been funded in part by the University of Nebraska Research Council, and the National Science Foundation through grant AST 03-07912.
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The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: 00017887@bigred.unl.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35#5
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.