The restless nature of AGN: 10 years later

Variability as a probe of the central engine and its surroundings

Scientific rationale

This is the second meeting on AGN variability organized in Naples, ten years after the first edition. It aims to address AGN variability both from the observational and theoretical point of view.

Variability is a defining observational property of AGN: variability studies reveal crucial information on the physical properties and the geometry of the central sources, provide insights on their accretion history and the on the link with their host galaxies.

The conference will present the advances on variability that were obtained in the past decade, for transient events (e.g., tidal disruption events and changing look AGN), multi-wavelength, optical/UV/X-ray monitoring programs of Seyfert galaxies, X-ray variability studies of individual objects, QPEs and studies from wide-field/deep surveys. This is exciting times for AGN variability studies, both due to the wealth of results produced in recent years, but also because of the great advancements expected from the imminent start of operations of the Rubin Observatory. The conference aims to lay out the potential for exciting synergies that could be established between ground based and space observatories, for coordinated variability observations of AGN at all wavelengths.

Scientific organizing committee (SOC)

F. E. Bauer, W. N. Brandt, M. Graham, S. Hönig, L. Ho, D. Ilič, E. Kara, S. Komossa, A. Laor, G. Miniutti, M. Paolillo (co-chair), I. E. Papadakis (co-chair), C. Reynolds, G. T. Richards

Topics

• X-ray variability
• Optical/UV continuum variability
• Variability of radio-loud AGN
• Continuum and line reverberation
• Extreme variability: Tidal Disruption events, Quasi-Periodic Eruptions, Changing look AGN, binary Black Holes
• Variability and Outflows
• Current and future time-domain surveys
• Variability theory
• Techniques for variability detection and characterization

Invited speakers

• Omer Blaes
• Elisa Costantini
• Jane Dai
• Demetra De Cicco
• Pu Du
• Margherita Giustini
• Andreja Gomboc
• Andjelka Kovačević
• Szymon Kozłowski
• Paulina Lira
• Ian McHardy
• Guglielmo Mastroserio
• Missagh Mehdipour
• Andrea Merloni
• Claudia M. Raiteri
• Claudio Ricci
• Weixiang Yu

Local organizing committee (LOC)

V. Allevato, D. De Cicco, T. Di Girolamo, M. Paolillo, V. Petrecca

Sponsored by:

• Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
• Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica