The spectral variability in radio-loud quasars

The spectral variability of a sample of 44 flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) and 18 steep-spectrum radio quasars (SSRQs) in the SDSS stripe 82 region is investigated. Twenty-five of 44 FSRQs show a bluer-when-brighter trend (BWB), while only one FSRQ shows a redder-when-brighter trend, which is in contrast to our previous results. Eight of 18 SSRQs display a BWB. We found an anti-correlation between the Eddington ratio and the variability amplitude in r band for SSRQs, which is similar to that in radio-quiet AGNs. This implies that the thermal emission from the accretion disk may be responsible for the variability in SSRQs. The spectral variability from the SDSS multi-epoch spectroscopy also shows BWB for several SSRQs, consistent with that from photometry.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted to JApA, conference proceeding paper for Variability of Blazars - From Jansky to Fermi (VBJF), Dec. 13-16, 2012, Guangzhou, Chin

On the masses of black-holes in radio-loud quasars

The central black-hole masses of a sample of radio-loud quasars are estimated by using the data of $H_{\beta}$ line-width and the optical continuum luminosity. The vast majority of the quasars in this sample have black-hole masses larger than $10^{8} M_{\odot}$, while a few quasars may contain relatively smaller black-holes. We found a significant anti-correlation between the radio-loudness and the central black-hole mass. It might imply that the jet formation is governed by the black-hole mass.Comment: 5 pages, two figures are added, accepted by MNRAS Letter