The Variability of Quasars. II. Frequency Dependence

Abstract

The variability of 30 PG quasars has been observed in the red band during 3 years. A rest-frame structure function analysis shows an increase of variability with the time interval up to 0.2 mag rms after 2 years. A comparison with the IUE data available for PG quasars shows that the variability increases with the rest-frame frequency at each time interval. Evidence for this effect is supported by the analysis of the average variability of other published quasar samples. The effect can account completely for the increase of variability with redshift found in other studies.