A new physical interpretation of optical and infrared variability in
  quasars
  Changing-look quasars are a recently identified class of active galaxies in
which the strong UV continuum and/or broad optical hydrogen emission lines
associated with unobscured quasars either appear or disappear on timescales of
months to years. The physical processes responsible for this behaviour are
still debated, but changes in the black hole accretion rate or accretion disk
structure appear more likely than changes in obscuration. Here we report on
four epochs of spectroscopy of SDSS J110057.70-005304.5, a quasar at a redshift
of $z=0.378$ whose UV continuum and broad hydrogen emission lines have faded,
and then returned over the past $\approx$20 years. The change in this quasar
was initially identified in the infrared, and an archival spectrum from 2010
shows an intermediate phase of the transition during which the flux below
rest-frame $\approx$3400\AA\ has decreased by close to an order of magnitude.
This combination is unique compared to previously published examples of
changing-look quasars, and is best explained by dramatic changes in the
innermost regions of the accretion disk. The optical continuum has been rising
since mid-2016, leading to a prediction of a rise in hydrogen emission line
flux in the next year. Increases in the infrared flux are beginning to follow,
delayed by a $\sim$3 year observed timescale. If our model is confirmed, the
physics of changing-look quasars are governed by processes at the innermost
stable circular orbit (ISCO) around the black hole, and the structure of the
innermost disk. The easily identifiable and monitored changing-look quasars
would then provide a new probe and laboratory of the nuclear central engine.
