A Black Hole Mass-Variability Time Scale Correlation at Submillimeter Wavelengths

Understand

We analyze the light curves of 413 radio sources at submillimeter wavelengths using data from the Submillimeter Array calibrator database.

• The database includes more than 20,000 observations at 1.3 and 0.8 mm that span 13 years.
• We model the light curves as a damped random walk and determine a characteristic time scale $\tau$ at which the variability amplitude saturates.
• For the vast majority of sources, primarily blazars and BL Lac objects, we find only lower limits on $\tau$.