Spectral Variability in Radio-Loud Quasars

The spectral variability of a sample of 44 Flat-Spectrum Radio Quasars (FSRQs) and 18 Steep-Spectrum Radio Quasars (SSRQs) in SDSS stripe 82 region is investigated. Twenty-five of 44 FSRQs show a bluer-when-brighter trend (BWB), while only one FSRQ shows a redder-when-brighter trend, which is in contrast to our previous results. Eight of 18 SSRQs display a BWB. We found an anticorrelation between the Eddington ratio and the variability amplitude in the r band for SSRQs, which is similar to that in radio-quiet AGNs. This implies that the thermal emission from the accretion disk may be responsible for the variability in SSRQs. The spectral variability from SDSS multi-epoch spectroscopy also shows BWB for several SSRQs, which is consistent with that from photometry.