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We present a velocity-resolved reverberation mapping analysis of the hypervariable quasar RM160 (SDSS J141041.25+531849.0) at z = 0.359 with 153 spectroscopic epochs of data representing a ten-year baseline (2013-2023). We split the baseline into two regimes based on the 3x flux increase in the light curve: a 'low state' phase during the years 2013-2019 and a 'high state' phase during the years 2022-2023. The velocity-resolved lag profiles (VRLP) indicate that gas with different kinematics dominates the line emission in different states. The H\b{eta} VRLP begins with a signature of inflow onto the BLR in the 'low state', while in the 'high state' it is flatter with less signature of inflow. The H{\alpha} VRLP begins consistent with a virialized BLR in the 'low state', while in the 'high state' shows a signature of inflow. The differences in the kinematics between the Balmer lines and between the 'low state' and the 'high state' suggests complex BLR dynamics. We find that the BLR radius and velocity (both FWHM and {\sigma}) do not obey a constant virial product throughout the monitoring period. We find that BLR lags and continuum luminosity are correlated, consistent with rapid response of the BLR gas to the illuminating continuum. The BLR kinematic profile changes in unpredictable ways that are not related to continuum changes and reverberation lag. Our observations indicate that non-virial kinematics can significantly contribute to observed line profiles, suggesting caution for black-hole mass estimation in luminous and highly varying quasars like RM160., Comment: 23 pages, 17 figures

In recent years, interest in quantum computing has increased due to technological advances in quantum hardware and algorithms. Despite the promises of quantum advantage, the applicability of quantum devices has been limited to few qubits on hardware that experiences decoherence due to noise. One proposed method to get around this challenge is distributed quantum computing (DQC). Like classical distributed computing, DQC aims at increasing compute power by spreading the compute processes across many devices, with the goal to minimize the noise and circuit depth required by quantum devices. In this paper, we cover the fundamental concepts of DQC and provide insight into where the field of DQC stands with respect to the field of chemistry -- a field which can potentially be used to demonstrate quantum advantage on noisy-intermediate scale quantum devices.

We present dynamical modeling of the broad-line region (BLR) for the highly variable AGN SDSS J141041.25+531849.0 ($z = 0.359$) using photometric and spectroscopic monitoring data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping project and the SDSS-V Black Hole Mapper program, spanning from early 2013 to early 2023. We model the geometry and kinematics of the BLR in the H$\beta$, H$\alpha$, and MgII, emission lines for three different time periods to measure the potential change of structure within the BLR across time and line species. We consistently find a moderately edge-on $(i_{\rm full-state} = 53.29^{\circ} \,{}^{+7.29}_{-6.55})$ thick-disk $(\theta_{\rm opn, \; full-state} = 54.86^{\circ} \,{}^{+5.83}_{-4.74})$ geometry for all BLRs, with a joint estimate for the mass of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) for each of three time periods, yielding $\log_{10}(M_{\rm BH} / M_{\odot}) = 7.66^{+0.12}_{-0.13}$ when using the full dataset. The inferred individual virial factor $f$ $\sim 1$ is significantly smaller than the average factor for a local sample of dynamically modeled AGNs. There is strong evidence for non-virial motion, with over $80\%$ of clouds on inflowing/outflowing orbits. We analyze the change in model parameters across emission lines, finding the radii of BLRs for the emission lines are consistent with the following relative sizes $R_{\rm H\beta} \lesssim R_{\rm MgII } \lesssim R_{\rm H\alpha}$. Comparing results across time, we find $R_{\rm low-state} \lesssim R_{\rm high-state}$, with the change in BLR size for H$\beta$, being more significant than for the other two lines. The data also reveal complex, time-evolving, and potentially transient dynamics of the BLR gas over decade-long timescales, encouraging for future dynamical modeling of fine-scale BLR kinematics., Comment: 32 pages, 16 figures, 4 tables. Submitted to ApJ

The Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) is a virtual X-ray astrophysics facility that enables both detailed individual source studies and statistical studies of large samples of X-ray sources detected in ACIS and HRC-I imaging observations obtained by the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The catalog provides carefully-curated, high-quality, and uniformly calibrated and analyzed tabulated positional, spatial, photometric, spectral, and temporal source properties, as well as science-ready X-ray data products. The latter includes multiple types of source- and field-based FITS format products that can be used as a basis for further research, significantly simplifying followup analysis of scientifically meaningful source samples. We discuss in detail the algorithms used for the CSC Release 2 Series, including CSC 2.0, which includes 317,167 unique X-ray sources on the sky identified in observations released publicly through the end of 2014, and CSC 2.1, which adds Chandra data released through the end of 2021 and expands the catalog to 407,806 sources. Besides adding more recent observations, the CSC Release 2 Series includes multiple algorithmic enhancements that provide significant improvements over earlier releases. The compact source sensitivity limit for most observations is ~5 photons over most of the field of view, which is ~2x fainter than Release 1, achieved by co-adding observations and using an optimized source detection approach. A Bayesian X-ray aperture photometry code produces robust fluxes even in crowded fields and for low count sources. The current release, CSC 2.1, is tied to the Gaia-CRF3 astrometric reference frame for the best sky positions for catalog sources., Comment: 66 pages, 17 figures, 16 tables, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series

Over three decades of reverberation mapping (RM) studies on local broad-line active galactic nuclei (AGNs) have measured reliable black-hole (BH) masses for $> 100$ AGNs. These RM measurements reveal a significant correlation between the Balmer broad-line region size and the AGN optical luminosity (the $R-L$ relation). Recent RM studies for AGN samples with more diverse BH accretion parameters (e.g., mass and Eddington ratio) reveal a substantial intrinsic dispersion around the average $R-L$ relation, suggesting variations in the overall spectral energy distribution shape as functions of accretion parameters. Here we perform a detailed photoionization investigation of expected broad-line properties as functions of accretion parameters, using the latest models for the AGN continuum implemented in {\tt qsosed}. We compare theoretical predictions with observations of a sample of 67 $z\lesssim0.5$ reverberation-mapped AGNs with both rest-frame optical and UV spectra in the moderate-accretion regime (Eddington ratio $\lambda_{\rm Edd}\equiv L/L_{\rm Edd}<0.5$). The UV/optical line strengths and their dependences on accretion parameters can be reasonably well reproduced by the locally-optimally-emitting cloud (LOC) photoionization models. We provide quantitative recipes that use optical/UV line flux ratios to infer the ionizing continuum, which is not directly observable. In addition, photoionization models with universal values of ionization parameter ($\log U_{\rm H}=-2$) and hydrogen density ($\log n({\rm H})=12$) can qualitatively reproduce the observed global $R-L$ relation for the current AGN sample. However, such models fail to reproduce the observed trend of decreasing BLR size with $L/L_{\rm Edd}$ at fixed optical luminosity, which may imply that the gas density increases with the accretion rate., Comment: 23 pages, 15 figures. Submitted to ApJ. Comments welcome!

We present the results of the XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observations taken as part of the ongoing, intensive multi-wavelength monitoring program of the Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 817 by the AGN Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping 2 (AGN STORM 2) Project. The campaign revealed an unexpected and transient obscuring outflow, never before seen in this source. Of our four XMM-Newton/NuSTAR epochs, one fortuitously taken during a bright X-ray state has strong narrow absorption lines in the high-resolution grating spectra. From these absorption features, we determine that the obscurer is in fact a multi-phase ionized wind with an outflow velocity of $\sim$5200 km s$^{-1}$, and for the first time find evidence for a lower ionization component with the same velocity observed in absorption features in the contemporaneous HST spectra. This indicates that the UV absorption troughs may be due to dense clumps embedded in diffuse, higher ionization gas responsible for the X-ray absorption lines of the same velocity. We observe variability in the shape of the absorption lines on timescales of hours, placing the variable component at roughly 1000 $R_g$ if attributed to transverse motion along the line of sight. This estimate aligns with independent UV measurements of the distance to the obscurer suggesting an accretion disk wind at the inner broad line region. We estimate that it takes roughly 200 days for the outflow to travel from the disk to our line of sight, consistent with the timescale of the outflow's column density variations throughout the campaign.

We present the results of an investigation of a highly variable CIV broad absorption-line feature in the quasar SBS 1408+544 (z=2.337) that shows a significant shift in velocity over time. This source was observed as a part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project and the SDSS-V Black Hole Mapper Reverberation Mapping Project, and has been included in two previous studies, both of which identified significant variability in a high-velocity CIV broad absorption line (BAL) on timescales of just a few days in the quasar rest frame. Using ~130 spectra acquired over eight years of spectroscopic monitoring with SDSS, we have determined that this BAL is not only varying in strength, but is also systematically shifting to higher velocities. Using cross-correlation methods, we measure the velocity shifts (and corresponding acceleration) of the BAL on a wide range of timescales, measuring an overall velocity shift of delta v = -683 (+89, -84) km s-1 over the 8-year monitoring period. This corresponds to an average rest-frame acceleration of a=1.04 (+0.14, -0.13) cm s-2, though the magnitude of the acceleration on shorter timescales is not constant throughout. We place our measurements in the context of BAL-acceleration models and examine various possible causes of the observed velocity shift., Comment: Published in the Astrophysical Journal

Given many copies of an unknown quantum state $\rho$, we consider the task of learning a classical description of its principal eigenstate. Namely, assuming that $\rho$ has an eigenstate $|\phi\rangle$ with (unknown) eigenvalue $\lambda > 1/2$, the goal is to learn a (classical shadows style) classical description of $|\phi\rangle$ which can later be used to estimate expectation values $\langle \phi |O| \phi \rangle$ for any $O$ in some class of observables. We consider the sample-complexity setting in which generating a copy of $\rho$ is expensive, but joint measurements on many copies of the state are possible. We present a protocol for this task scaling with the principal eigenvalue $\lambda$ and show that it is optimal within a space of natural approaches, e.g., applying quantum state purification followed by a single-copy classical shadows scheme. Furthermore, when $\lambda$ is sufficiently close to $1$, the performance of our algorithm is optimal--matching the sample complexity for pure state classical shadows., Comment: 38 pages

We study the sample complexity of the classical shadows task: what is the fewest number of copies of an unknown state you need to measure to predict expected values with respect to some class of observables? Large joint measurements are likely required in order to minimize sample complexity, but previous joint measurement protocols only work when the unknown state is pure. We present the first joint measurement protocol for classical shadows whose sample complexity scales with the rank of the unknown state. In particular we prove $\mathcal O(\sqrt{rB}/\epsilon^2)$ samples suffice, where $r$ is the rank of the state, $B$ is a bound on the squared Frobenius norm of the observables, and $\epsilon$ is the target accuracy. In the low-rank regime, this is a nearly quadratic advantage over traditional approaches that use single-copy measurements. We present several intermediate results that may be of independent interest: a solution to a new formulation of classical shadows that captures functions of non-identical input states; a generalization of a ``nice'' Schur basis used for optimal qubit purification and quantum majority vote; and a measurement strategy that allows us to use local symmetries in the Schur basis to avoid intractable Weingarten calculations in the analysis.

Particles that scatter waves interact through the waves they scatter. We establish that wave-mediated interactions between dissimilar particles are generically nonreciprocal. This apparent violation of Newton's third law is allowed because the pair of particles does not constitute a closed system; the balance of the system's momentum is carried away by the scattered wave. Nonreciprocal interactions enable collections of scatterers to transduce energy out of a wave and use it to power their own motion. Such wave-matter composites therefore are a form of active matter. Their activity, however, is not an inherent property of the individual particles, nor are the particles simply driven by the wave. Instead, the particles' collective motion is an emergent property of their state of organization. This kind of emergent activity should appear in any context where objects scatter waves. As a concrete example, we combine analysis, experiment and simulation to demonstrate how nonreciprocity and emergent activity arise in collections of acoustically levitated spheres.

We present a novel immersed boundary method that implements acoustic perturbation theory to model an acoustically levitated droplet. Instead of resolving sound waves numerically, our hybrid method solves acoustic scattering semi-analytically and models the corresponding time-averaged acoustic forces on the droplet. This framework allows the droplet to be simulated on inertial timescales of interest, and thereby admit a much larger time resolution than traditional compressible flow solvers. To benchmark this technique and demonstrate its utility, we implement the hybrid IBM for a single droplet in a standing wave. Simulated droplet shape deformations and streaming profile agree with theoretical predictions. Our simulations also yield new insights on the streaming profiles for elliptical droplets, for which a comprehensive analytic solution does not exist., Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures

In-line holographic video microscopy records a wealth of information about the microscopic structure and dynamics of colloidal materials. Powerful analytical techniques are available to retrieve that information when the colloidal particles are well-separated. Large assemblies of close-packed particles create holograms that are substantially more challenging to interpret. We demonstrate that Rayleigh-Sommerfeld back-propagation is useful for analyzing holograms of colloidomer chains, close-packed linear assemblies of micrometer-scale emulsion droplets. Colloidomers are fully flexible chains and undergo three-dimensional configurational changes under the combined influence of random thermal forces and hydrodynamic forces. We demonstrate the ability of holographic reconstruction to track these changes as colloidomers sediment through water in a horizontal slit pore. Comparing holographically measured configurational trajectories with predictions of hydrodynamic models both validates the analytical technique for this valuable class of self-organizing materials and also provides insights into the influence of geometric confinement on colloidomer hydrodynamics., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures

High-quality Extragalactic Legacy-field Monitoring (HELM) is a long-term observing program that photometrically monitors several well-studied extragalactic legacy fields with the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) imager on the CTIO 4m Blanco telescope. Since Feb 2019, HELM has been monitoring regions within COSMOS, XMM-LSS, CDF-S, S-CVZ, ELAIS-S1, and SDSS Stripe 82 with few-day cadences in the $(u)gri(z)$ bands, over a collective sky area of $\sim 38$ deg${\rm ^2}$. The main science goal of HELM is to provide high-quality optical light curves for a large sample of active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and to build decades-long time baselines when combining past and future optical light curves in these legacy fields. These optical images and light curves will facilitate the measurements of AGN reverberation mapping lags, as well as studies of AGN variability and its dependences on accretion properties. In addition, the time-resolved and coadded DECam photometry will enable a broad range of science applications from galaxy evolution to time-domain science. We describe the design and implementation of the program and present the first data release that includes source catalogs and the first $\sim 3.5$ years of light curves during 2019A--2022A., Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, 4 tables, submitted to ApJS. Median source catalogs and light curves of individual objects are publicly available at https://ariel.astro.illinois.edu/helm/

Acoustic trapping uses forces exerted by sound waves to transport small objects along specified trajectories in three dimensions. The structure of the acoustic force landscape is governed by the amplitude and phase profiles of the sound's pressure wave. These profiles can be controlled through deliberate spatial modulation of monochromatic waves, by analogy to holographic optical trapping. Alternatively, spatial and temporal control can be achieved by interfering a small number of sound waves at multiple frequencies to create acoustic holograms based on spectral content. We demonstrate spectral holographic trapping by projecting acoustic conveyor beams that move millimeter-scale objects along prescribed paths, and control the complexity of particle trajectories by tuning the strength of weak reflections. Illustrative spectral superpositions of static and dynamic force landscapes enable us to realize two variations on the theme of a wave-driven oscillator, a deceptively simple dynamical system with surprisingly complex phenomenology., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures

BosonSampling is the leading candidate for demonstrating quantum computational advantage in photonic systems. While we have recently seen many impressive experimental demonstrations, there is still a formidable distance between the complexity-theoretic hardness arguments and current experiments. One of the largest gaps involves the ratio of photons to modes: all current hardness evidence assumes a "high-mode" regime in which the number of linear optical modes scales at least quadratically in the number of photons. By contrast, current experiments operate in a "low-mode" regime with a linear number of modes. In this paper we bridge this gap, bringing the hardness evidence for the low-mode experiments to the same level as had been previously established for the high-mode regime. This involves proving a new worst-to-average-case reduction for computing the Permanent that is robust to large numbers of row repetitions and also to distributions over matrices with correlated entries., Comment: 26 pages, 3 figures, to appear at QIP 2024

We fit the UV/optical lightcurves of the Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 817 to produce maps of the accretion disk temperature fluctuations $\delta T$ resolved in time and radius. The $\delta T$ maps are dominated by coherent radial structures that move slowly ($v \ll c$) inwards and outwards, which conflicts with the idea that disk variability is driven only by reverberation. Instead, these slow-moving temperature fluctuations are likely due to variability intrinsic to the disk. We test how modifying the input lightcurves by smoothing and subtracting them changes the resulting $\delta T$ maps and find that most of the temperature fluctuations exist over relatively long timescales ($\sim$100s of days). We show how detrending AGN lightcurves can be used to separate the flux variations driven by the slow-moving temperature fluctuations from those driven by reverberation. We also simulate contamination of the continuum emission from the disk by continuum emission from the broad line region (BLR), which is expected to have spectral features localized in wavelength, such as the Balmer break contaminating the $U$ band. We find that a disk with a smooth temperature profile cannot produce a signal localized in wavelength and that any BLR contamination should appear as residuals in our model lightcurves. Given the observed residuals, we estimate that only $\sim$20% of the variable flux in the $U$ and $u$ lightcurves can be due to BLR contamination. Finally, we discus how these maps not only describe the data, but can make predictions about other aspects of AGN variability., Comment: 23 pages, 18 figures, submitting to ApJ, comments welcome

This work studies the relationship between accretion-disk size and quasar properties, using a sample of 95 quasars from the SDSS-RM project with measured lags between the $g$ and $i$ photometric bands. Our sample includes disk lags that are both longer and shorter than predicted by the \citet{SS73} model, requiring explanations which satisfy both cases. Although our quasars each have one lag measurement, we explore the wavelength-dependent effects of diffuse broad line region (BLR) contamination through our sample's broad redshift range, $0.1

Acoustic traps use forces exerted by sound waves to confine and transport small objects. The dynamics of an object moving in the force landscape of an acoustic trap can be significantly influenced by the inertia of the surrounding fluid medium. These inertial effects can be observed by setting a trapped object in oscillation and tracking it as it relaxes back to mechanical equilibrium in its trap. Large deviations from Stokesian dynamics during this process can be explained quantitatively by accounting for boundary-layer effects in the fluid. The measured oscillations of a perturbed particle then can be used not only to calibrate the trap but also to characterize the particle., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures

An intensive reverberation mapping campaign on the Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk817 using the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) revealed significant variations in the response of the broad UV emission lines to fluctuations in the continuum emission. The response of the prominent UV emission lines changes over a $\sim$60-day duration, resulting in distinctly different time lags in the various segments of the light curve over the 14 months observing campaign. One-dimensional echo-mapping models fit these variations if a slowly varying background is included for each emission line. These variations are more evident in the CIV light curve, which is the line least affected by intrinsic absorption in Mrk817 and least blended with neighboring emission lines. We identify five temporal windows with distinct emission line response, and measure their corresponding time delays, which range from 2 to 13 days. These temporal windows are plausibly linked to changes in the UV and X-ray obscuration occurring during these same intervals. The shortest time lags occur during periods with diminishing obscuration, whereas the longest lags occur during periods with rising obscuration. We propose that the obscuring outflow shields the ultraviolet broad lines from the ionizing continuum. The resulting change in the spectral energy distribution of the ionizing continuum, as seen by clouds at a range of distances from the nucleus, is responsible for the changes in the line response., Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ

The AGN STORM 2 campaign is a large, multiwavelength reverberation mapping project designed to trace out the structure of Mrk 817 from the inner accretion disk to the broad emission line region and out to the dusty torus. As part of this campaign, Swift performed daily monitoring of Mrk 817 for approximately 15 months, obtaining observations in X-rays and six UV/optical filters. The X-ray monitoring shows that Mrk 817 was in a significantly fainter state than in previous observations, with only a brief flare where it reached prior flux levels. The X-ray spectrum is heavily obscured. The UV/optical light curves show significant variability throughout the campaign and are well correlated with one another, but uncorrelated with the X-rays. Combining the Swift UV/optical light curves with Hubble UV continuum light curves, we measure interband continuum lags, $\tau(\lambda)$, that increase with increasing wavelength roughly following $\tau(\lambda) \propto \lambda^{4/3}$, the dependence expected for a geometrically thin, optically thick, centrally illuminated disk. Modeling of the light curves reveals a period at the beginning of the campaign where the response of the continuum is suppressed compared to later in the light curve - the light curves are not simple shifted and scaled versions of each other. The interval of suppressed response corresponds to a period of high UV line and X-ray absorption, and reduced emission line variability amplitudes. We suggest that this indicates a significant contribution to the continuum from the broad line region gas that sees an absorbed ionizing continuum., Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ

Shear flows cause aspherical colloidal particles to tumble so that their orientations trace out complex trajectories known as Jeffery orbits. The Jeffery orbit of a prolate ellipsoid is predicted to align the particle's principal axis preferentially in the plane transverse to the axis of shear. Holographic microscopy measurements reveal instead that colloidal ellipsoids' trajectories in Poiseuille flows strongly favor an orientation inclined by roughly $\pi/8$ relative to this plane. This anomalous observation is consistent with at least two previous reports of colloidal rods and dimers of colloidal spheres in Poiseuille flow and therefore appears to be a generic, yet unexplained feature of colloidal transport at low Reynolds numbers., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

The exponential computational cost of describing strongly correlated electrons can be mitigated by adopting a reduced density-matrix (RDM)-based description of the electronic structure. While variational two-electron RDM (v2RDM) methods can enable large-scale calculations on such systems, the quality of the solution is limited by the fact that only a subset of known necessary N-representability constraints can be applied to the 2RDM in practical calculations. Here, we demonstrate that violations of partial three-particle (T1 and T2) N-representability conditions, which can be evaluated with knowledge of only the 2RDM, can serve as physics-based features in a machine-learning (ML) protocol for improving energies from v2RDM calculations that consider only two-particle (PQG) conditions. Proof-of principle calculations demonstrate that the model yields substantially improved energies, relative to reference values from configuration-interaction-based calculations.

We present the final data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping (SDSS-RM) project, a precursor to the SDSS-V Black Hole Mapper Reverberation Mapping program. This data set includes 11-year photometric and 7-year spectroscopic light curves for 849 broad-line quasars over a redshift range of 0.1=0.62+-0.07 for the line dispersion measured from the RMS spectrum. The intrinsic scatter of individual virial factors is 0.31+-0.07 dex, indicating a factor of two systematic uncertainty in RM black hole masses. Our lag measurements reveal significant R-L relations for Hbeta and MgII at high redshift, consistent with the latest measurements based on heterogeneous samples. While we are unable to robustly constrain the slope of the R-L relation for CIV given the limited dynamical range in luminosity, we found substantially larger scatter in CIV lags at fixed L1350. Using the SDSS-RM lag sample, we derive improved single-epoch (SE) mass recipes for Hbeta, MgII and CIV, which are consistent with their respective RM masses as well as between the SE recipes from two different lines, over the luminosity range probed by our sample. The new Hbeta and MgII recipes are approximately unbiased estimators at given RM masses, but there are systematic biases in the CIV recipe. The intrinsic scatter of SE masses around RM masses is ~0.45 dex for Hbeta and MgII, increasing to ~0.58 dex for CIV., Comment: Replaced with accepted version (ApJS in press). All measurements remain unchanged from the previous version. 38 pages. Data products available at https://ariel.astro.illinois.edu/sdssrm/final result/ and ftp://quasar.astro.illinois.edu/public/sdssrm/final_result/

The AGN STORM 2 collaboration targeted the Seyfert 1 galaxy Mrk 817 for a year-long multiwavelength, coordinated reverberation mapping campaign including HST, Swift, XMM-Newton, NICER, and ground-based observatories. Early observations with NICER and XMM revealed an X-ray state ten times fainter than historical observations, consistent with the presence of a new dust-free, ionized obscurer. The following analysis of NICER spectra attributes variability in the observed X-ray flux to changes in both the column density of the obscurer by at least one order of magnitude ($N_\mathrm{H}$ ranges from $2.85\substack{+0.48\\ -0.33} \times 10^{22}\text{ cm}^{-2}$ to $25.6\substack{+3.0\\ -3.5} \times 10^{22} \text{ cm}^{-2}$) and the intrinsic continuum brightness (the unobscured flux ranges from $10^{-11.8}$ to $10^{-10.5}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$ ). While the X-ray flux generally remains in a faint state, there is one large flare during which Mrk 817 returns to its historical mean flux. The obscuring gas is still present at lower column density during the flare but it also becomes highly ionized, increasing its transparency. Correlation between the column density of the X-ray obscurer and the strength of UV broad absorption lines suggests that the X-ray and UV continua are both affected by the same obscuration, consistent with a clumpy disk wind launched from the inner broad line region., Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures, Accepted to ApJ

We present reverberation mapping measurements for the prominent ultraviolet broad emission lines of the active galactic nucleus Mrk817 using 165 spectra obtained with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. Our ultraviolet observations are accompanied by X-ray, optical, and near-infrared observations as part of the AGN Space Telescope and Optical Reverberation Mapping Program 2 (AGN STORM 2). Using the cross-correlation lag analysis method, we find significant correlated variations in the continuum and emission-line light curves. We measure rest-frame delayed responses between the far-ultraviolet continuum at 1180 A and Ly$\alpha$ $\lambda1215$ A ($10.4_{-1.4}^{+1.6}$ days), N V $\lambda1240$ A ($15.5_{-4.8}^{+1.0}$days), SiIV + OIV] $\lambda1397$ A ($8.2_{-1.4}^{+1.4}$ days), CIV $\lambda1549$ A ($11.8_{-2.8}^{+3.0}$ days), and HeII $\lambda1640$ A ($9.0_{-1.9}^{+4.5}$ days) using segments of the emission-line profile that are unaffected by absorption and blending, which results in sampling different velocity ranges for each line. However, we find that the emission-line responses to continuum variations are more complex than a simple smoothed, shifted, and scaled version of the continuum light curve. We also measure velocity-resolved lags for the Ly$\alpha$, and CIV emission lines. The lag profile in the blue wing of Ly$\alpha$ is consistent with virial motion, with longer lags dominating at lower velocities, and shorter lags at higher velocities. The CIV lag profile shows the signature of a thick rotating disk, with the shortest lags in the wings, local peaks at $\pm$ 1500 $\rm km\,s^{-1}$, and a local minimum at line center. The other emission lines are dominated by broad absorption lines and blending with adjacent emission lines. These require detailed models, and will be presented in future work., Comment: Submitted to ApJ. 25 pages, 8 figures, and 6 tables

We present a high-cadence multi-epoch analysis of dramatic variability of three broad emission lines (MgII, H$\beta$, and H$\alpha$) in the spectra of the luminous quasar ($\lambda L_{\lambda}$(5100\r{A}) = $4.7 \times 10^{44}$ erg s$^{-1}$) SDSS J141041.25+531849.0 at $z = 0.359$ with 127 spectroscopic epochs over 9 years of monitoring (2013-2022). We observe anti-correlations between the broad emission-line widths and flux in all three emission lines, indicating that all three broad emission lines "breathe" in response to stochastic continuum variations. We also observe dramatic radial velocity shifts in all three broad emission lines, ranging from $\Delta{v}$ $\sim$400 km s$^{-1}$ to $\sim$800 km s$^{-1}$, that vary over the course of the monitoring period. Our preferred explanation for the broad-line variability is complex kinematics in the broad-line region gas. We suggest a model for the broad-line variability that includes a combination of gas inflow with a radial gradient, an azimuthal asymmetry (e.g., a hot spot), superimposed on the stochastic flux-driven changes to the optimal emission region ("line breathing"). Similar instances of line-profile variability due to complex gas kinematics around quasars are likely to represent an important source of false positives in radial velocity searches for binary black holes, which typically lack the kind of high-cadence data we analyze here. The long-duration, wide-field, and many-epoch spectroscopic monitoring of SDSS-V BHM-RM provides an excellent opportunity for identifying and characterizing broad emission-line variability, and the inferred nature of the inner gas environment, of luminous quasars.

The eighteenth data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys (SDSS) is the first one for SDSS-V, the fifth generation of the survey. SDSS-V comprises three primary scientific programs, or "Mappers": Milky Way Mapper (MWM), Black Hole Mapper (BHM), and Local Volume Mapper (LVM). This data release contains extensive targeting information for the two multi-object spectroscopy programs (MWM and BHM), including input catalogs and selection functions for their numerous scientific objectives. We describe the production of the targeting databases and their calibration- and scientifically-focused components. DR18 also includes ~25,000 new SDSS spectra and supplemental information for X-ray sources identified by eROSITA in its eFEDS field. We present updates to some of the SDSS software pipelines and preview changes anticipated for DR19. We also describe three value-added catalogs (VACs) based on SDSS-IV data that have been published since DR17, and one VAC based on the SDSS-V data in the eFEDS field., Comment: Accepted to ApJS

We measure the correlation between black-hole mass $M_{\rm BH}$ and host stellar mass $M_*$ for a sample of 38 broad-line quasars at $0.2\lesssim z\lesssim 0.8$ (median redshift $z_{\rm med}=0.5$). The black-hole masses are derived from a dedicated reverberation mapping program for distant quasars, and the stellar masses are estimated from two-band optical+IR HST imaging. Most of these quasars are well centered within $\lesssim 1$kpc from the host galaxy centroid, with only a few cases in merging/disturbed systems showing larger spatial offsets. Our sample spans two orders of magnitude in stellar mass ($\sim 10^9-10^{11}\,M_\odot$) and black-hole mass ($\sim 10^7-10^9\,M_\odot$), and reveals a significant correlation between the two quantities. We find a best-fit intrinsic (i.e., selection effects corrected) $M_{\rm BH}-M_{\rm *,host}$ relation of $\log (M_{\rm BH}/M_{\rm \odot})=7.01_{-0.33}^{+0.23} + 1.74_{-0.64}^{+0.64}\log (M_{\rm *,host}/10^{10}M_{\rm \odot})$, with an intrinsic scatter of $0.47_{-0.17}^{+0.24}$dex. Decomposing our quasar hosts into bulges and disks, there is a similar $M_{\rm BH}-M_{\rm *,bulge}$ relation with a slightly larger scatter, likely caused by systematic uncertainties in the bulge-disk decomposition. The $M_{\rm BH}-M_{\rm *,host}$ relation at $z_{\rm med}=0.5$ is similar to that in local quiescent galaxies, with negligible evolution over the redshift range probed by our sample. With direct black-hole masses from reverberation mapping and a large dynamical range of the sample, selection biases do not appear to affect our conclusions significantly. Our results, along with other samples in the literature, suggest that the locally-measured black-hole mass$-$host stellar mass relation is already in place at $z\sim 1$., Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures (Fig 9 is the key figure). Submitted to ApJ. The full figure set and ancillary data products can be found at ftp://quasar.astro.illinois.edu/public/sdssrm/paper_data/Li_2023_HST_host

We consider the classical shadows task for pure states in the setting of both joint and independent measurements. The task is to measure few copies of an unknown pure state $\rho$ in order to learn a classical description which suffices to later estimate expectation values of observables. Specifically, the goal is to approximate $\mathrm{Tr}(O \rho)$ for any Hermitian observable $O$ to within additive error $\epsilon$ provided $\mathrm{Tr}(O^2)\leq B$ and $\lVert O \rVert = 1$. Our main result applies to the joint measurement setting, where we show $\tilde{\Theta}(\sqrt{B}\epsilon^{-1} + \epsilon^{-2})$ samples of $\rho$ are necessary and sufficient to succeed with high probability. The upper bound is a quadratic improvement on the previous best sample complexity known for this problem. For the lower bound, we see that the bottleneck is not how fast we can learn the state but rather how much any classical description of $\rho$ can be compressed for observable estimation. In the independent measurement setting, we show that $\mathcal O(\sqrt{Bd} \epsilon^{-1} + \epsilon^{-2})$ samples suffice. Notably, this implies that the random Clifford measurements algorithm of Huang, Kueng, and Preskill, which is sample-optimal for mixed states, is not optimal for pure states. Interestingly, our result also uses the same random Clifford measurements but employs a different estimator., Comment: 34 pages; v2 - journal version