Ensemble Variability of Near-Infrared-Selected Active Galactic Nuclei
  We present the properties of the ensemble variability $V$ for nearly 5000
near-infrared (NIR) AGNs selected from the catalog of Quasars and Active
Galactic Nuclei (13th Ed.) and the SDSS-DR7 quasar catalog. From 2MASS, DENIS,
and UKIDSS/LAS point source catalogs, we extract 2MASS-DENIS and 2MASS-UKIDSS
counterparts for cataloged AGNs by catalog cross-identification. We further
select variable AGNs based on an optimal criterion for selecting the variable
sources. The sample objects are divided into subsets according to whether NIR
light originates by optical or NIR emission in the rest frame; and we examine
the correlations of the ensemble variability with the rest-frame wavelength,
redshift, luminosity, and rest-frame time lag. In addition, we also examine the
correlations of variability amplitude with optical variability, radio
intensity, and radio-to-optical flux ratio. The rest-frame optical variability
of our samples shows known negative correlations with luminosity and positive
correlations with rest-frame time lag (i.e., the structure function, SF).
However, no well-known negative correlation exists between the rest wavelength
and optical variability. This inconsistency might be due to a biased sampling
of high-redshift AGNs. NIR variability in the rest frame is anticorrelated with
the rest wavelength, which is consistent with previous suggestions. However,
correlations of NIR variability with luminosity and rest-frame time lag are the
opposite of these correlations of the optical variability; that is, the NIR
variability is positively correlated with luminosity but negatively correlated
with the rest-frame time lag. Because these trends are qualitatively consistent
with the properties of radio-loud quasars reported by some previous studies,
most of our sample objects are probably radio-loud quasars. Finally, we also
discuss the negative correlations seen in the NIR SFs.
