English
Related papers

Related papers: X-ray variability time scales in Active Galactic N…

200 papers

We analyse the ultraviolet variability time scales in a sample of 15 Type 1 Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) observed by IUE. Using a structure function analysis, we demonstrate the existence in most objects of a maximum variability time scale…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-11 P. Favre , T. J. -L. Courvoisier , S. Paltani

A supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the core of an active galactic nucleus (AGN) provides room for the elusive ultra-light scalar particles (ULSP) to be produced through a phenomenon called \textit{superradiance}. This phenomenon produces a…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-02-26 Priyanka Sarmah , Himanshu Verma , Kingman Cheung , Joseph Silk

We analyze X-ray light curves of the blazar Mrk 421 obtained from the Soft X-ray Imaging Telescope and the Large Area X-Ray Proportional Counter instrument onboard the Indian space telescope $AstroSat$ and archival observations from…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2020-04-08 Ritaban Chatterjee , Agniva Roychowdhury , Sunil Chandra , Atreyee Sinha

We present a model for the short timescale spectral variability of accreting black holes. It describes well the time-averaged spectra as well as temporal characteristics such as power-density spectrum, time/phase lags, and coherence…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-10-31 Juri Poutanen , Andrew C. Fabian

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) sources feature supermassive black holes that launch relativistic plasma jets. They are key $\gamma$-ray sources providing a unique laboratory for studying extreme particle acceleration and plasma physics.…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-02-03 Luana Passos-Reis , Elisabete M. de Gouveia Dal Pino , Tarek Hassan , Santiago Pita , Alberto Domínguez

The normalized excess variance is a popular method used by many authors to estimate the variability of active galactic nuclei (AGNs), especially in the X-ray band. We show that this estimator is affected by the cosmological time dilation,…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2016-03-23 Riccardo Middei , Fausto Vagnetti , Marco Antonucci , Roberto Serafinelli

Modeling the spectral energy distribution (SED) of active galactic nuclei (AGN) plays a very important role in constraining modern cosmological simulations of galaxy formation. Here, we utilize an advanced supermassive black hole (SMBH)…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2026-03-23 Tong Su , Qi Guo , Erlin Qiao , Wenxiang Pei , Luis C. Ho , Cedric G. Lacey

Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) exhibit variability in their luminosities with timescales that correlate with the mass of the black hole at the centre of the AGN. Presently, the empirical correlation lacks sufficient precision to confidently…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-12-22 Adrien Hélias , Sarah C. Gallagher , Pauline Barmby

We analyze the broadband photometric light curves of Seyfert 1 galaxies from the Sergeev et al. (2005) sample and find that a) perturbations propagating across the continuum emitting region are a general phenomenon securely detected in most…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-16 Doron Chelouche

Disk continuum reverberation mapping is one of the primary ways we learn about active galactic nuclei (AGN) accretion disks. Reverberation mapping assumes that time-varying X-rays incident on the accretion disk drive variability in…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-01-14 Amy Secunda , Yan-Fei Jiang , Jenny E. Greene

The luminosity function of active galactic nuclei has been measured down to luminosities ~10^{42} erg/s in the soft and hard X-rays. Some fraction of this activity is associated with the accretion of the material liberated by the tidal…

Astrophysics · Physics 2008-11-26 Milos Milosavljevic , David Merritt , Luis C. Ho

Blazars, a type of active galactic nuclei (AGN) with relativistic jets pointed at the observer, exhibit flux variability across the electromagnetic spectrum due to particle acceleration in their jets. Power spectral density (PSD) studies…

It is generally thought that AGN optical variability is produced, at least in part, by reprocessing of central X-rays by a surrounding accretion disc, resulting in wavelength-dependent lags between bands. Any good model of AGN optical…

We investigate the accretion disk geometry in Galactic black hole sources by measuring the time delay between soft and hard X-ray emissions. Similar to the recent discoveries of anti-correlated hard X-ray time lags in Cyg X-3 and GRS…

Astrophysics · Physics 2011-02-11 K. Sriram , V. K. Agrawal , Jayant K. Pendharkar , A. R. Rao

X-ray variability is a well-established characteristic of active galactic nuclei (AGN), known to correlate inversely with both the supermassive black hole mass and luminosity, although the degree of each remains a topic of debate. The…

We are conducting an archival Swift program to measure multiwavelength variability in active galactic nuclei (AGN). This variability information will provide constraints on the geometry, physical conditions and processes of the structures…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-05-21 Jonathan Gelbord , Caryl Gronwall , Dirk Grupe , Dan Vanden Berk , Jian Wu

We develop a new spectral model for the broadband spectral energy distribution (SED) of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). This includes an outer standard disc, an inner warm Comptonising region to produce the soft X-ray excess and a hot corona.…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2018-08-01 Aya Kubota , Chris Done

Identifying Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) through their X-ray emission is efficient, but necessarily biased against X-ray-faint objects. We aim to characterize this bias by comparing X-ray-selected AGNs to the ones identified through…

The black-hole/accretion-disk paradigm for active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is now reasonably secure, but there are still important unresolved issues, some of which will require the capabilities of an 8 to 10-m class UV/optical space-based…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 Bradley M. Peterson

We investigate the effect of active galactic nucleus (AGN) variability on the observed connection between star formation and black hole accretion in extragalactic surveys. Recent studies have reported relatively weak correlations between…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-16 Ryan C. Hickox , James R. Mullaney , David M. Alexander , Chien-Ting J. Chen , Francesca M. Civano , Andy D. Goulding , Kevin N. Hainline