Driving extreme variability: the evolving corona and evidence for jet launching in Markarian 335

Abstract

Variations in the X-ray emission from the narrow line Seyfert 1 galaxy, Markarian 335 (Mrk 335), are studied on both long and short timescales through observations made between 2006 and 2013 with XMM-Newton, Suzaku and NuSTAR. Changes in the geometry and energetics of the corona that give rise to this variability are inferred through measurements of the relativistically blurred reflection seen from the accretion disc. On long timescales, we find that during the high flux epochs the corona has expanded, covering the inner regions of the accretion disc out to a radius of 26 +10 −7 r g . The corona contracts to within 12 r g and 5 r g in the intermediate and low flux epochs, respectively. While the earlier high flux observation made in 2006 is consistent with a corona extending over the inner part of the accretion disc, a later high flux observation that year revealed that the X-ray source had become collimated into a verticallyextended jet-like corona and suggested relativistic motion of material upward. On short timescales, we find that an X-ray flare during a low flux epoch in 2013 corresponded to a reconfiguration from a slightly extended corona to one much more compact, within just 2 ∼ 3 r g of the black hole. There is evidence that during the flare itself, the spectrum softened and the corona became collimated and slightly extended vertically as if a jet-launching event was aborted. Understanding the evolution of the X-ray emitting corona may reveal the underlying mechanism by which the luminous X-ray sources in AGN are powered.

X-Ray and Optical Correlation of Type I Seyfert NGC 3516 Studied With Suzaku and Japanese Ground-Based Telescopes

“…Furthermore, the inner part of the accretion disk can be made rather cool, becauseṀ can be reduced and F irr becomes much smaller than that with the assumption of H X = R. These would make the blackbody flux low enough to be consistent with the observed optical faintness. Such a lamppost-type corona with H X  R was suggested to form at the base of a jet moving away from an SMBH with relativistic speeds (e.g., Lohfink et al 2013;Wilkins & Gallo 2015). However, the value of H X ∼2 lt-day, or ∼500 R s , which is required to explain the present results, is orders of magnitude larger than that invoked in the previous studies.…”

Relativistic reflection: Review and recent developments in modeling

“…These considerations are strengthened by direct measurements of www.an-journal.org the emissivity profile (see Wilkins & Fabian 2012). Note that the shape of the primary source is likely not point-like as assumed in the simple lamp post geometry, but probably extended (see Wilkins & Gallo 2015).…”

Venturing beyond the ISCO: detecting X-ray emission from the plunging regions around black holes

“…The reprocessed spectrum is produced by an incident power law continuum with photon index Γ = 2.5 and the iron abundance is taken to be eight times the Solar value, representative of the AGN in which strong reverberation signatures are seen from the accretion disc (e.g. Fabian et al 2009;Zoghbi et al 2010;Parker et al 2014;Wilkins & Gallo 2015;Jiang et al 2018).…”

“…Many of the AGN in which strong reverberation signatures from the accretion disc have been observed are best fit by a spectrum with average ionisation parameters less than a few 100 erg cm s −1 (Zoghbi et al 2010;Gallo et al 2013;Wilkins & Gallo 2015;Jiang et al 2018), although some exhibit more highly ionised discs (e.g. Kara et al 2017).…”