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Related papers: Toward a Unified AGN Structure

200 papers

The winds of ionized gas driven by Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) can be studied through absorption lines in their X-ray spectra. A recurring feature of these outflows is their broad ionization distribution, including essentially all…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-06-22 Jonathan Stern , Ehud Behar , Ari Laor , Alexei Baskin , Tomer Holczer

Supercritical accretion onto compact objects is expected to drive optically thick winds, resulting in observed X-ray emission as a function of viewing angle. However, their optical emission, either from the outer accretion disk or companion…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-08-13 Xiaohong Tang , Hua Feng

We discuss a model of X-ray variability of active galactic nuclei (AGN). We consider multiple spots which originate on the surface of an accretion disk following intense irradiation by coronal flares. The spots move with the disk around the…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-10 B. Czerny , A. Rozanska , M. Dovciak , V. Karas , A. -M. Dumont

Accreting supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies are the engine of active galactic nuclei (AGN). X-ray light curves of unabsorbed AGN show dramatic random variability on timescales ranging from seconds to years. The power…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-10-29 Mehdy Lefkir , Simon Vaughan , Mike Goad , Daniela Huppenkothen , Phil Uttley

Observation of blue-shifted X-ray absorption lines indicates the presence of wind from the accretion disk in X-ray binaries. Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) driving is one of the possible wind launching mechanisms. Recent theoretical development…

We present the latest determination of the X-ray (2-10 keV) AGN luminosity function accounting for the selection effect due to X-ray absorption. The main results are: 1) the inclusion of obscured AGN confirms the AGN differential luminosity…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 F. Fiore , the HELLAS2XMM collaboration

Feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN) is widely acknowledged to regulate the growth of massive galaxies, though its driving mechanisms are debated. Prevailing theories suggest that AGN-driven outflows are driven either by radiation…

The UV/optical variability of AGN has long been thought to be driven by the X-ray illumination of the accretion disk. However, recent multi-wavelength campaigns of nearby Seyfert galaxies seem to challenge this paradigm, with an apparent…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2022-08-31 Christos Panagiotou , Iossif Papadakis , Erin Kara , Elias Kammoun , Michal Dovčiak

The accretion flow in AGN is not well understood, motivating intensive monitoring campaigns of multiwavelength variability to probe its structure. One of the best of these is the 3 year optical/UV/X-ray approximately daily monitoring…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-11-05 Scott Hagen , Chris Done , Edward M. Cackett , Ethan R. Partington , Rick Edelson , Collin Lewin , Erin Kara , Jonathan Gelbord

The 2-10 keV continuum of AGN is generally well represented by a single power law. However, at smaller energies the continuum displays an excess with respect to the extrapolation of this power law, called the ''soft X-ray excess''. Until…

We present the results of the uniform analysis of 46 XMM-Newton observations of six BAL and seven mini-BAL QSOs belonging to the Palomar-Green Quasar catalogue. Moderate-quality X-ray spectroscopy was performed with the EPIC-pn, and allowed…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2016-05-25 Margherita Giustini

One of the most important features in active galactic nuclei (AGN) is the variability of their emission. Variability has been discovered at X-ray, UV, and radio frequencies on time scales from hours to years. Among the AGN family and…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-06-15 L. Hernández-García , O. González-Martín , I. Márquez , J. Masegosa

Motivated by recent work indicating that the UV continuum in AGN may be produced by reradiation of energy absorbed from X-rays irradiating an accretion disk, we present a calculation of the vertical structures and ultraviolet spectra of…

Astrophysics · Physics 2016-08-30 Mark W. Sincell , Julian H. Krolik

We aim to explore spectral signatures of the predicted multi-ion UFOs in the broadband X-ray spectra of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) by exploiting an accretion disk wind model in the context of a simple magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) framework.…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-11-30 Keigo Fukumura , Mauro Dadina , Gabriele Matzeu , Francesco Tombesi , Chris Shrader , Demosthenes Kazanas

In recent work with high-resolution grating spectrometers (RGS) aboard XMM-Newton Pinto et al. (2016) have discovered that two bright and archetypal ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) have strong relativistic winds in agreement with…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2017-05-03 C. Pinto , W. Alston , R. Soria , M. J. Middleton , D. J. Walton , A. D. Sutton , A. C. Fabian , H. Earnshaw , R. Urquhart , E. Kara , T. P. Roberts

Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are complex phenomena. At the heart of an AGN is a relativistic accretion disk around a spinning supermassive black hole (SMBH) with an X-ray emitting corona and, sometimes, a relativistic jet. On larger scales,…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2016-05-25 Christopher S. Reynolds

We have modeled a small sample of Seyfert galaxies that were previously identified as having simple X-ray spectra with little intrinsic absorption. The sources in this sample all contain moderately broad components of Fe K-shell emission…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2012-06-01 M. M. Tatum , T. J. Turner , S. A. Sim , L. Miller , J. N. Reeves , A. R. Patrick , K. S. Long

The X-ray background (XRB) is due to the aggregate of active galactic nuclei (AGN), which peak in activity at z~1 and is often modeled as the sum of different proportions of unabsorbed, moderately- and heavily-absorbed AGN. We present the…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-06-16 Ranjan V. Vasudevan , Richard F. Mushotzky , Poshak Gandhi

In accordance with the AGN Unified Model, observed polarization can be related to the orientation of the line of sight with respect to the torus. AGN X-ray emission arises from the central region and carries the imprints of the obscuring…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2024-06-25 Miriam Gudiño , Elena Jiménez-Bailón , Anna Lia Longinotti , Matteo Guainazzi , Miguel Cerviño , Aitor Robleto-Orús

Approximately 20% of quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) exhibit broad, blue-shifted absorption lines in their ultraviolet spectra. Such features provide clear evidence for significant outflows from these systems, most likely in the form of…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2013-10-02 N. Higginbottom , C. Knigge , K. S. Long , S. A. Sim , J. H. Matthews