scholarly journals Line Emission from Accretion Disks in Active Galactic Nuclei

1989 ◽  
Vol 134 ◽  
pp. 255-256
Author(s):  
S. Collin-Souffrin ◽  
A.M. Dumont

If accretion disks are present in AGN and extend to large radii they should contribute substantially to the Broad Line emission. The outer regions of the disk are indeed illuminated by a small amount of ionizing radiation. X-rays are emitted by the central inner region near the black hole, and they are either received directly by the outer disk, owing to its “flaring” shape (Cunningham, 1976), or partly reflected towards the disk by a hot Compton thin medium (Begelmann and McKee, 1983). X-ray photons are also produced through the Inverse Compton mechanism in compact radio sources located above the disk(“jet model”).

1983 ◽  
Vol 104 ◽  
pp. 345-346
Author(s):  
M. Kafatos ◽  
Jean A. Eilek

The origin of the high energy (X-ray and gamma-ray) background may be attributed to discrete sources, which are usually thought to be active galactic nuclei (AGN) (cf. Rothschild et al. 1982, Bignami et al. 1979). At X-rays a lot of information has been obtained with HEAO-1 in the spectral range 2–165 keV. At gamma-rays the background has been estimated from the Apollo 15 and 16 (Trombka et al. 1977) and SAS-2 (Bignami et al. 1979) observations. A summary of some of the observations (Rothschild et al. 1982) is shown in Figure 1. The contribution of AGN to the diffuse high energy background is uncertain at X-rays although it is generally estimated to be in the 20–30% range (Rothschild et al. 1982). At gamma-rays, in the range 1–150 MeV, AGN (specifically Seyfert galaxies) could account for all the emission.


1997 ◽  
Vol 163 ◽  
pp. 805-806
Author(s):  
R. Staubert ◽  
T. Dörrer ◽  
C. Müller ◽  
P. Friedrich ◽  
H. Brunner

Soft X-ray spectra of many Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) show structure which suggests excess emission at low energies, mostly below 1 keV. This was confirmed by the ROSAT spectra (0.1–2.4 keV) AGN in our samples which generally have steeper power law spectra than the canonical index of 0.7. The soft excess component may be the high energy tail of the big blue bump which in turn may be due to the integrated emission from an accretion disk around the central black hole.We discuss results of our spectral analysis of two different samples of AGN: 1) QSO/Seyfert-I from the ROSAT All Sky Survey (RASS) and 2) radio-quiet QSO from ROSAT Pointed Observations. The ROSAT data are combined with UV Data from IUE and hard X-ray data from various hard X-ray missions.


Galaxies ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Elena Fedorova ◽  
Bohdan Hnatyk ◽  
Antonino Del Popolo ◽  
Anatoliy Vasylenko ◽  
Vadym Voitsekhovskyi

We consider the sample of 55 blazars and Seyferts cross-correlated from the Planck all-sky survey based on the Early Release Compact Source Catalog (ERCSC) and Swift BAT 105-Month Hard X-ray Survey. The radio Planck spectra vs. X-ray Swift/XRT+BAT spectra of the active galactic nuclei (AGN) sample were fitted with the simple and broken power law (for the X-ray spectra taking into account also the Galactic neutral absorption) to test the dependencies between the photon indices of synchrotron emission (in radio range) and synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) or inverse-Compton emission (in X-rays). We show that for the major part of the AGN in our sample there is a correspondence between synchrotron and SSC photon indices (one of two for broken power-law model) compatible within the error levels. For such objects, this can give a good perspective for the task of distinguishing between the jet base counterpart from that one emitted in the disk-corona AGN “central engine”.


1998 ◽  
Vol 188 ◽  
pp. 455-456
Author(s):  
M. Yokosawa

Active galactic nuclei(AGN) produce many type of active phenomena, powerful X-ray emission, UV hump, narrow beam ejection, gamma-ray emission. Energy of these phenomena is thought to be brought out binding energy between a black hole and surrounding matter. What condition around a black hole produces many type of active phenomena? We investigated dynamical evolution of accretion flow onto a black hole by using a general-relativistic, hydrodynamic code which contains a viscosity based on the alpha-model. We find three types of flow's pattern, depending on thickness of accretion disk. In a case of the thin disk with a thickness less than the radius of the event horizon at the vicinity of a marginally stable orbit, the accreting flow through a surface of the marginally stable orbit becomes thinner due to additional cooling caused by a general-relativistic Roche-lobe overflow and horizontal advection of heat. An accretion disk with a middle thickness, 2rh≤h≤ 3rh, divides into two flows: the upper region of the accreting flow expands into the atmosphere of the black hole, and the inner region of the flow becomes thinner, smoothly accreting onto the black hole. The expansion of the flow generates a dynamically violent structure around the event horizon. The kinetic energy of the violent motion becomes equivalent to the thermal energy of the accreting disk. The shock heating due to violent motion produces a thermally driven wind which flows through the atmosphere above the accretion disk. A very thick disk, 4rh≤h,forms a narrow beam whose energy is largely supplied from hot region generated by shock wave. The accretion flowing through the thick disk,h≥ 2rh, cannot only form a single, laminar flow falling into the black hole, but also produces turbulent-like structure above the event horizon. The middle disk may possibly emit the X-ray radiation observed in active galactic nuclei. The thin disk may produce UV hump of Seyfert galaxy. Thick disk may produce a jet observed in radio galaxy. The thickness of the disk is determined by accretion rate, such ashκ κes/cṁf(r) κ 10rhṁf(r), at the inner region of the disk where the radiation pressure dominates over the gas pressure. Here, Ṁ is the accretion rate and ṁ is the normarized one by the critical-mass flux of the Eddington limit. κesandcare the opacity by electron scattering and the velocity of light.f(r) is a function with a value of unity far from the hole.


1994 ◽  
Vol 159 ◽  
pp. 484-484
Author(s):  
Yuan-Kuen Ko ◽  
Timothy R. Kallman

We investigate the structure of an X-ray heated accretion disk in active galactic nuclei. It is found that X-ray heating can prevent the disk to be disrupted by its self-gravity under sufficient X-ray heating. The disk size can be two orders of magnitute larger than that limited by self-gravity of the disk without X-ray heating. An accretion disk corona will be formed by X-ray heating and can be a site for line emission. We present such emission line spectra which range from optical to hard X-ray energies and compare with the observational data.


1994 ◽  
Vol 159 ◽  
pp. 131-143
Author(s):  
J. Clavel

Because they emit copiously over more than 10 decades in frequency, Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) cannot be understood without the help of multiwavelength observations. On the other hand, variability monitoring has also proven to be invaluable in understanding the continuum and line emission process as well as the geometry of the innermost regions in these objects. Indeed, at the heart of AGN's lies an object which is so compact that the only way to probe its structure is the study of the temporal evolution of its spectrum. The equivalent resolution which can be achieved in this way is of the order of 10 microarcsecs, far beyond the capability of any UV or optical telescope.


2000 ◽  
Vol 195 ◽  
pp. 133-134
Author(s):  
P. C. H. Martens

Fletcher & Martens have successfully modeled solar hard X-ray sources observed at the top and footpoints of flaring magnetic loops with a Fokker-Planck type particle transport code. I show here that there are invariances in the Fokker-Planck equations that make these results applicable to environments with vastly different physical parameters, such as hard X-ray flares in accretion disks in active galactic nuclei, and in RS CVn and ALGOL type binaries.


2019 ◽  
Vol 486 (1) ◽  
pp. 1094-1122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Mackey ◽  
Stefanie Walch ◽  
Daniel Seifried ◽  
Simon C O Glover ◽  
Richard Wünsch ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Sources of X-rays such as active galactic nuclei and X-ray binaries are often variable by orders of magnitude in luminosity over time-scales of years. During and after these flares the surrounding gas is out of chemical and thermal equilibrium. We introduce a new implementation of X-ray radiative transfer coupled to a time-dependent chemical network for use in 3D magnetohydrodynamical simulations. A static fractal molecular cloud is irradiated with X-rays of different intensity, and the chemical and thermal evolution of the cloud are studied. For a simulated $10^5\, \mathrm{M}_\odot$ fractal cloud, an X-ray flux <0.01 erg cm−2 s−1 allows the cloud to remain molecular, whereas most of the CO and H2 are destroyed for a flux of ≥1 erg cm−2 s−1. The effects of an X-ray flare, which suddenly increases the X-ray flux by 105×, are then studied. A cloud exposed to a bright flare has 99 per cent of its CO destroyed in 10–20 yr, whereas it takes >103 yr for 99 per cent of the H2 to be destroyed. CO is primarily destroyed by locally generated far-UV emission from collisions between non-thermal electrons and H2; He+ only becomes an important destruction agent when the CO abundance is already very small. After the flare is over, CO re-forms and approaches its equilibrium abundance after 103–105 yr. This implies that molecular clouds close to Sgr A⋆ in the Galactic Centre may still be out of chemical equilibrium, and we predict the existence of clouds near flaring X-ray sources in which CO has been mostly destroyed but H is fully molecular.


2005 ◽  
Vol 634 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. M. Heckman ◽  
A. Ptak ◽  
A. Hornschemeier ◽  
G. Kauffmann

1983 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 491-498 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.C. Fabian

Recent X-ray observations of active galactic nuclei and Seyfert galaxies in particular are briefly reviewed. The application of the efficiency limit to rapidly varying luminous sources such as NGC 6814 is discussed. It is argued that the variability and probable MeV spectral turnover imply that most of the electrons which radiate the observed flux are only mildly relativistic. A possible link between the steep soft X-ray spectra and featureless optical continua of BL Lac objects is considered.


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