Compiling the largest multiwavelength database of known changing-look AGN: Prospects in the Rubin era
Mariangella Camus, Swayamtrupta Panda
PUCV · NOIRLab
astro-ph.GA, astro-ph.HE
Submitted: 2026-07-28
Comments: 24 pages, 13 figures, 7 tables; submitted to AAS journals. The online database hosting the CL-AGN dataset can be accessed at: https://swayamtrupta.github.io/clagn-catalog-public/
Project page: https://swayamtrupta.github.io/clagn-catalog-public
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
The gist: Changing-look active galactic nuclei (CL-AGN) provide a direct way to study accretion and spectral-state changes on timescales of months to years.
Terminology
Abstract
Changing-look active galactic nuclei (CL-AGN) provide a direct way to study accretion and spectral-state changes on timescales of months to years. Still, the known population remains scattered across heterogeneous literature samples. We present a compilation of a homogenized catalog of known CL-AGN and related candidates, designed as a traceable reference database for time-domain and multiwavelength studies. After coordinate homogenization, duplicate removal, and validation, the optical parent catalog contains 1,438 unique sources, including 987 spectroscopically confirmed CL-AGN and 451 candidate or photometrically selected systems. We augment the catalog with ancillary information from radio/mm, infrared, ultraviolet, X-ray, and gamma-ray data sets using nway and survey-specific quality criteria. The resulting database includes 188 sources in the broad radio layer, 9 RFC/VLBI compact-core matches, 16 sources with ALMA archival coverage, 1,353 infrared counterparts, 918 GALEX ultraviolet matches, and 576 X-ray counterparts. We also identify 9 Fermi-LAT candidate associations. Overall, 1,385 sources have at least one non-optical counterpart, and 75 have coverage across the four main ancillary regimes: radio, infrared, ultraviolet, and X-ray. As a first application, we identify 70 confirmed CL-AGN within the LSST Wide--Fast--Deep footprint and 5 within the Rubin Deep Drilling Fields, and provide the up-to-date, 116-day ugrizy Rubin lightcurve for SDSS J095902.76+021906.3 (z=0.34579) and discuss the early data inferences. This catalog is envisioned to be community-driven and provides a dynamic, expandable resource for target selection, population comparisons, and future Rubin-era CL-AGN studies.
Sources
- SDSS-V: Pioneering Panoptic Spectroscopy
- The Wide-field Spectroscopic Telescope (WST) Science White Paper
- AGN Variability with Rubin Observatory in the 2030s
- A Spectroscopic Road Map for Cosmic Frontier: DESI, DESI-II, Stage-5
- GOATS: The next generation software infrastructure for time-domain astronomy at Gemini/NOIRLab. Application to alerts from Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time
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