RXTE Observations of Active Galactic Nuclei: The Power of Well-Sampled Light Curves

Details RXTE Observations of Active Galactic Nuclei: The Power of Well-Sampled Light Curves RXTE Observations of Active Galactic Nuclei: The Power of Well-Sampled Light Curves

Jan 2012

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2012aas...21921804m&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #219, #218.04

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Scientific paper

The richly detailed X-ray light curves provided by RXTE, in concert with other telescopes, has greatly enhanced our understanding of high-energy phenomena in the relativistic jets and accretion disk/corona systems of active galactic nuclei. The power spectra of the variations in both the X-ray and optical flux of Seyferts and radio galaxies show similarities to those of black-hole X-ray binary systems in their intermediate-soft states, with time-scales proportional to the mass of the black hole. Minima in the the X-ray light curves of the radio galaxies 3C 111 and 3C 120 coincide with ejections of superluminal knots seen in the radio jets, revealing a strong accretion disk-jet connection. A time delay of 2-3 months between an X-ray dip and passage of the associated knot through the bright, stationary feature at the upstream end of the jet on mm-wave VLBA images (the "core") indicates that the core lies 0.5-1 pc from the black hole.
In blazars, comparison of X-ray light curves with those at other wavebands reveals considerable complexity, with times of both strong and weak (or non-existent) correlations. Some flares are essentially simultaneous across wavebands (including GeV gamma rays observed by the Fermi LAT) and others show significant time delays. The X-ray emission, once thought to be either synchrotron radiation or synchrotron self-Compton scattering, often agrees better with the expectations of inverse Compton scattering of photons originating from outside the jet.
The author's research reported in the presentation has been supported by numerous NASA grants, as well as NSF grant AST-0907893.

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