A Search for Breathing of the Broad-Line Region of Quasars

Quasars are the ultra-luminous centers of some galaxies, powered by gas falling onto a supermassive black hole after forming an accretion disk. The glowing portion of fast-moving gas in and around the disk, called the "broad-line region," can change in size with the varying luminosity of the quasar in a phenomenon called "breathing." This project aims to determine the extent to which breathing exists and persists in >500 quasars observed multiple times over a decade.