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Related papers: A model for AGN variability on multiple timescales

200 papers

We study the ensemble X-ray variability properties of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) over a large range of timescales (20 ks $\leq T\leq$ 14 yrs), redshift ($0\leq z \lesssim 3$), luminosities ($10^{40}$ erg s$^{-1}\leq L_X\leq 10^{46}$ erg…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-05-10 M. Paolillo , I. E. Papadakis , W. N. Brandt , F. E. Bauer , G. Lanzuisi , V. Allevato , O. Shemmer , X. C. Zheng , D. De Cicco , R. Gilli , B. Luo , M. Thomas , P. Tozzi , F. Vito , Y. Q. Xue

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are believed to be powered by accretion of matter onto a supermassive black hole. A fundamental ingredient in shaping our understanding of AGN is their variability across the entire electromagnetic spectrum.…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-09-08 Maurizio Paolillo , Iossif Papadakis

A long-term variability study spanning a range of black hole mass systems, from microquasars hosting stellar-mass black holes to active galactic nuclei (AGNs) harboring supermassive black holes, provides new insights into the physics of…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-04-20 Yongyun Chen , Qiusheng Gu , Junhui Fan , Dingrong Xiong , Xiaoling Yu , Xiaogu Zhong , Xiaotong Guo

Here we investigate the connection of broad emission line shapes and continuum light curve variability time scales of type-1 Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). We developed a new model to describe optical broad emission lines as an accretion…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2018-05-21 E. Bon , P. Jovanovic , P. Marziani , N. Bon , A. Otasevic

The origin of the optical flux variability in active galactic nuclei (AGN) is largely unknown. Previous studies have correlated features of the variability structure function (SF) with AGN properties, though they mostly involved…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2026-05-06 Ashley Hai Tung Tan , Christian Wolf , Neelesh Amrutha , Christopher A. Onken , John L. Tonry , Rachel Webster

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 statistical distributions of active galactic nuclei (AGN), i.e. accreting supermassive black holes (BHs), in mass, space and time, are controlled by a series of key properties, namely the BH-galaxy scaling relations, Eddington ratio…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2021-09-15 Viola Allevato , Francesco Shankar , Christopher Marsden , Uluk Rasulov , Akke Viitanen , Antonis Georgakakis , Andrea Ferrara , Alexis Finoguenov

X-ray variability in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) is commonly analysed in terms of the Power Spectral Density (PSD). The break observed in the power spectrum can be interpreted as a characteristic X-ray variability time scale. Here we study…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-13 W. Ishibashi , T. J. -L. Courvoisier

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

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 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

AGN, powered by accretion onto SMBHs, are thought to be scaled up versions of Galactic black hole X-ray binaries (BH-XRBs). In the past few years evidence of such correspondence include similarities in the broadband shape of the X-ray…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-06-05 O. Gonzalez-Martin , S. Vaughan

We study the relation between obscuration and supermassive black hole (SMBH) growth using a large sample of hard X-ray selected Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). We find a strong decrease in the fraction of obscured sources above the Eddington…

We present a comprehensive synthesis model for the AGN evolution and the growth of supermassive black holes in the Universe. We solve the continuity equation for SMBH mass function using the locally determined one as a boundary condition,…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-13 Andrea Merloni , Sebastian Heinz

Variability of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) has long been servicing as an essential avenue of exploring the accretion physics of black hole (BH). There are two commonly used methods for analyzing AGN variability. First, the AGN…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2024-07-04 Zhen-Bo Su , Zhen-Yi Cai , Mouyuan Sun , Hengxiao Guo , Wei-Min Gu , Jun-Xian Wang

We investigate the relationship among the jet magnetic field, black hole spin, black hole mass, Eddington ratio, and optical variability timescales in jetted active galactic nuclei (AGNs). By fitting a damped random walk (DRW) model to the…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-10-27 Yongyun Chen , Qiusheng Gu , Junhui Fan , Dingrong Xiong , Xiaoling Yu , Xiaotong Guo , Nan Ding , Ting-Feng Yi

We investigate the evolution of supermassive black holes in the `Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments' (EAGLE) cosmological hydrodynamic simulations. The largest of the EAGLE volumes covers a $(100 \,\rm cMpc)^3$ and…

The relation between the 2-10 keV, long term, excess variance and AGN black hole mass is considered in this work. A significant anti-correlation is found between these two quantities in the sense that the excess variance decreases with…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-10 I. E. Papadakis

Observations have shown that the Eddington ratios (the ratio of the bolometric luminosity to the Eddington luminosity) in QSOs/active galactic nuclei (AGNs) cover a wide range. In this paper we connect the demography of AGNs obtained by the…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-10 Qingjuan Yu , Youjun Lu , Guinevere Kauffmann

On the basis of data from an energy-conserving 3D general relativistic MHD simulation, we predict the statistical character of variability in the coronal luminosity from accreting black holes. When the inner boundary of the corona is…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2009-09-28 Scott C. Noble , Julian H. Krolik