Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-xxrs7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T13:24:58.736Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Accretion disc variability in AGN

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2013

Patricia Arévalo*
Affiliation:
Universidad Andres Bello, Av. Republica 252, Santiago, Chile email: parevalo@unab.cl
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The central engine of AGN is too compact to be observed directly so its structure has to be inferred through the combination of spectral and variability information. Here we study the connection between optical-emitting accretion disc and X-ray emitting corona of the Seyfert NGC3783. Short light curves are consistent with optical fluctuations arising from X-ray reprocessing, but the long-term fluctuations found over the course of several years prove that at least long-term optical variability is not produced by the X-rays: at time-scales longer than 1 year the variability power in the optical is higher than in the X-rays. This indicates variability originating in the thin accretion disc itself, therefore capable of revealing its characteristics.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2013

References

Shakura, & Sunyaev, 1973, A&A, 24, 377Google Scholar
Churazov, , Gilfanov, , Revnivtsev, 2001, MNRAS, 321, 759Google Scholar
Arévalo, , et al. 2009 MNRAS, 397, 2004Google Scholar
McHardy, , et al. 2006, Nature, 444, 730Google Scholar
Arévalo, , et al. 2012, MNRAS, 426, 1793CrossRefGoogle Scholar