Long-term X-ray variability of quasars in the Lockman Hole field observed with ROSAT

An improved method has been utilized to estimate the X-ray power spectral densities (PSD) and the variation time scales of three quasars in the Lockman Hole field. Five archival ROSAT PSPC data covering a two-year range were analyzed. To estimate PSD from sparse and unevenly-sampled lightcurves, a forward-method approach with extensive Monte Carlo simulations was adopted. A broken power-law type PSD with a constant Poisson noise component was assumed with a break frequency, f_b. Then, assuming the PSD slope, α, to be -2 < α < -1, l/f_b was constrained as ≳ 25 days for one object, while the constraints on the other two objects were very weak. The long-time scale of the one object is consistent with the view that luminous AGNs host massive black holes.