Understanding coronal geometry in NGC 4593 using Fourier frequency-resolved covariance and time-lag spectral analysis
Abstract
Understanding disc-corona geometry through X-ray reverberation variability studies in Seyfert galaxies is crucial, yet our knowledge mostly relies on flux-averaged mean spectral analysis. In this study, we investigate the origin of the large X-ray variability of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 4593 using two \xmm{} observations, which are at least 65 ksec long and have a 0.3-10 keV X-ray flux difference by a factor of 2.5. We extracted mean spectra, Fourier-frequency resolved covariance, and time-lag spectra and performed modelling of all spectra in a self-consistent manner. From the best-fit covariance spectra, we have shown that energy-dependent covariance during low flux shows dominances of direct powerlaw continuum over reflection continuum at all Fourier frequencies (2.1 390 10 Hz). However, during high flux, the variabilities are dominated by the reflection components most of the time. Our results are further supported by the Fourier frequency-dependent time-lag (between soft: 0.3-1 keV and hard: 1-5 keV bands) spectral modeling during high and low fluxes. A significant change is observed in the X-ray reverberation delay timescale from 483 135 sec (during high flux) to 96 sec (during low flux), indicating a change in coronal size at least by a factor of 2 (from 3.3 R to 7.2 R) during low to high flux transitions.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2602.11624,
title = {Understanding coronal geometry in NGC 4593 using Fourier frequency-resolved covariance and time-lag spectral analysis},
author = {Shree Suman and Mayukh Pahari and Gulab Dewangan and Ian M McHardy},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.11624},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
21 pages, 9 tables, 12 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS