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Related papers: Modeling the UV/optical continuum time-lags in AGN

200 papers

Intensive broadband reverberation mapping campaigns have shown that AGN variability is significantly more complex than expected from disc reverberation of the variable X-ray illumination. The UV/optical variability is highly correlated and…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2024-05-02 Scott Hagen , Chris Done , Rick Edelson

We report the detection of a long-timescale negative lag, where the blue bands lag the red bands, in the nearby Seyfert 1 galaxy Fairall 9. Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) light curves show variability over a wide range of timescales. By…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2023-08-09 Philippe Z. Yao , Amy Secunda , Yan-Fei Jiang , Jenny E. Greene , Ashley Villar

We use the publicly available XMM-Newton archive to select a sample of 20 active galactic nuclei (AGN) known to exhibit reverberation signatures caused by the reflection of X-rays from the corona off the accretion disc that feeds the…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-06-22 Stephen Hancock , Andy Young , Poemwai Chainakun

X-rays illuminating the accretion disc in active galactic nuclei give rise to an iron K line and its associated reflection spectrum which are lagged behind the continuum variability by the light-travel time from the source to the disc. The…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2018-05-16 Misaki Mizumoto , Chris Done , Kouichi Hagino , Ken Ebisawa , Masahiro Tsujimoto , Hirokazu Odaka

Continuum reverberation mapping with high-cadence, long-term UV/optical monitoring of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) enables us to resolve the AGN central engine sizes on different timescales. The frequency-resolved time lags of NGC 5548…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-12-18 Jie Chen , Mouyuan Sun , Zhi-Xiang Zhang

We reexamine the hypothesis that the optical/UV/soft X-ray continuum of Active Galactic Nuclei is thermal emission from an accretion disk. Previous studies have shown that fitting the spectra with the standard, optically thick and…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-10-28 Ewa Szuszkiewicz , Matthew A. Malkan , Marek A. Abramowicz

The X-ray emission from active galactic nuclei (AGN) is highly variable. Measurements of time lags (characterised by lag spectra) between variability in the light curves in energy bands corresponding to directly observed continuum emission…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-06-12 D. R. Wilkins , A. C. Fabian

Over the past decade, a significant amount of effort has been put into investigating the ultraviolet (UV) and optical variability of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Comprehensive studies of intensive multi-wavelength monitoring and surveys…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-09-04 M. Papoutsis , I. E. Papadakis , C. Panagiotou , E. Kammoun , M. Dovciak

Continuum reverberation mapping probes the size scale of the optical continuum-emitting region in active galactic nuclei (AGN). The source of this emission has long been thought to originate from the accretion disk, but recent studies…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-11-11 Jake A. Miller , Edward M. Cackett , Misty C. Bentz , Michael R. Goad , Kirk T. Korista , Ian M. McHardy

We introduce a new model for understanding AGN continuum variability. We start from a Shakura--Sunyaev thin accretion disc with a steady-state radial temperature profile $T(R)$ and assume that the variable flux is due to axisymmetric…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2022-05-19 J. M. M. Neustadt , C. S. Kochanek

High cadence, high quality observations of active galactic nuclei (AGN) clearly show continuum variations with lags, relative to the shortest observed variable UV continuum, that increase with wavelength ("lag spectra"). These have been…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2021-11-17 Hagai Netzer

The central engines of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) are powered by accreting supermassive black holes, and while AGNs are known to play an important role in galaxy evolution, the key physical processes occur on scales that are too small to…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2021-06-10 Edward M. Cackett , Misty C. Bentz , Erin Kara

X-ray reverberation, where light-travel time delays map out the compact geometry around the inner accretion flow in supermassive black holes, has been discovered in several of the brightest, most variable and well-known Seyfert galaxies. In…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2016-10-12 E. Kara , W. N. Alston , A. C. Fabian , E. M. Cackett , P. Uttley , C. S. Reynolds , A. Zoghbi

Accretion disks around supermassive black holes are widely believed to be the dominant source of the optical-ultraviolet continuum in many classes of active galactic nuclei (AGN). We study here the relationship between the continuum colors…

Astrophysics · Physics 2011-02-11 E. W. Bonning , L. Cheng , G. A. Shields , S. Salviander , K. Gebhardt

To address the discrepancy where disk sizes exceed those predicted by standard models, we explore two extensions to disk size estimates within the UV/optical wavelength range: disk winds and color correction. We provide detailed,…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2024-11-15 James Hung-Hsu Chan , Joshua Fagin , Henry Best , Matthew J. O'Dowd

We model the correlated X-ray - UV observations of NGC 7469, for which well sampled data in both these bands have been obtained recently in a multiwavelength monitoring campaign. To this end we derive the transfer function in wavelength \ls…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-10-31 Andrew J. Berkley , Demosthenes Kazanas , Jonathan Ozik

The new multi-wavelength monitoring campaign on NGC 5548 shows clearly that the variability of the UV/optical lightcurves lags by progressively longer times at longer wavelengths, as expected from reprocessing of an optically thick disk,…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2017-10-11 Emma Gardner , Chris Done

We study the half-light radius versus black hole mass as well as the luminosity versus black hole mass relations in active galactic nuclei (AGN) when the disc is illuminated by the X-ray corona. We used KYNSED, a recently developed spectral…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-09-28 I. E. Papadakis , M. Dovciak , E. Kammoun

We present the results of a continuum reverberation mapping study of the radio-quiet Seyfert 1 galaxy IRAS 09149-6206. The analysis was performed using X-ray, UV and optical observations made with the {\em Swift} telescope between January…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-08-11 D. H. González-Buitrago , Ma. T. García-Díaz , F. Pozo Nuñez , Hengxiao Guo

Universal to black hole X-ray binaries, the high-frequency soft lag gets longer during the hard-to-intermediate state transition, evolving from ${\lesssim}1~{\rm ms}$ to ${\sim}10~{\rm ms}$. The soft lag production mechanism is thermal disk…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-12-02 Greg Salvesen