{
  "abstract": "We report a rapid optical changing-look event in the Seyfert galaxy NGC 3227: the optical continuum faded by more than 70% and broad H-beta emission nearly disappeared within weeks, before recovering within two months. Damped random walk simulations calibrated to the source's normal variability show that such a decline is unlikely for stochastic accretion fluctuations (p = 0.002). Simultaneous Swift monitoring reveals X-ray spectral hardening, pointing to enhanced line-of-sight absorption. During the dim state, reverberation mapping yields a persistent 6-8 day lag between the continuum and broad H-beta, showing that the broad-line region continued to reverberate and placing the obscurer interior to the broad-line region. Photoionization calculations require a fully ionized, Compton-thick column with N_H ~ 1.5 x 10^24 cm^-2 to reproduce the optical continuum suppression. Together, these observations demonstrate that compact, high-column-density obscurers interior to the broad-line region can produce extreme optical changing-look behavior on week timescales.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2610.29137",
  "author_total": 13,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Kaiwen Zhang"
    },
    {
      "name": "Michael S. Brotherton"
    },
    {
      "name": "Pu Du"
    },
    {
      "name": "Dong-Wei Bao"
    },
    {
      "name": "Bi-Xuan Zhao"
    },
    {
      "name": "Feng-na Fang"
    },
    {
      "name": "Yan-Rong Li"
    },
    {
      "name": "Chen Hu"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ming Xiao"
    },
    {
      "name": "Keith Horne"
    },
    {
      "name": "Gerard A. Kriss"
    },
    {
      "name": "Daniel Proga"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jian-Min Wang"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1hswkaka1ba2a.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2610.29137",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "1hswkaka1ba2a",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.29137",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "astro-ph.GA"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "astro-ph.HE"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3103|Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7223234352",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2610.29137",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-21",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1hswkaka1ba2a.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:34:19Z",
      "native_id": "2610.29137",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.29137"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "astronomy",
      "origin": "arxiv:astro-ph.GA",
      "subfield": "galaxies"
    },
    {
      "field": "astronomy",
      "origin": "arxiv:astro-ph.HE",
      "subfield": "high-energy-astrophysics"
    }
  ],
  "title": "NGC 3227 Blinks: An Extreme Changing-Look Event in a Seyfert Galaxy",
  "title_text": "NGC 3227 Blinks: An Extreme Changing-Look Event in a Seyfert Galaxy",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:34:19Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1hswkaka1ba2a",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}