Kavli Affiliate: Luis C. Ho
| First 5 Authors: Y. Homayouni, Yuanzhe Jiang, W. N. Brandt, C. J. Grier, Jonathan R. Trump
| Summary:
Multi-year observations from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation
Mapping (SDSS-RM) project have significantly increased the number of quasars
with reliable reverberation-mapping lag measurements. We statistically analyze
target properties, light-curve characteristics, and survey design choices to
identify factors crucial for successful and efficient RM surveys. Analyzing 172
high-confidence ("gold") lag measurements from SDSS-RM for the H$beta$, MgII,
and CIV emission lines, we find that the Durbin-Watson statistic (a statistical
test for residual correlation) is the most significant predictor of light
curves suitable for lag detection. Variability signal-to-noise ratio and
emission-line placement on the detector also correlate with successful lag
measurements. We further investigate the impact of observing cadence on survey
design by analyzing the effect of reducing observations in the first year of
SDSS-RM. Our results demonstrate that a modest reduction in observing cadence
to $sim$1.5 weeks between observations can retain approximately 90% of the lag
measurements compared to twice-weekly observations in the initial year.
Provided similar and uniform sampling in subsequent years, this adjustment has
a minimal effect on the overall recovery of lags across all emission lines.
These results provide valuable inputs for optimizing future RM surveys.
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