Temporal and Spectral Studies of Seyfert Nuclei

The results of the proposal to (1) carry out data analysis of some carefully selected Seyfert sources, and (2) construct physical models for radiation from these objects and carry out comparison with the observed data are reported

Disk-Corona Model of Active Galactic Nuclei with Nonthermal Pairs

As a promising model for the X-ray emission from radio-quiet quasars and Seyfert 1 nuclei, we present a nonthermal disk-corona model, where soft photons from a disk are Comptonized by the nonthermal electron-positron pairs in a coronal region above the disk. Various characteristics of our model are qualitatively similar to the homogeneous, spherical, nonthermal pair models previously studied, but the important difference is that in our disk-corona model gamma-ray depletion is far more efficient, and, moreover, the gamma-ray annihilation line is much less prominent. Consequently, this model naturally satisfies the observed constraints on active galactic nuclei

X-Ray Spectral Variability in NGC 7469

We present analyses of two Ginga observations and two observations from the ROSAT database of NGC 7469, focusing on the spectral variability observed on timescales of days and longer. During the 1988 Ginga observation, the hardness ratio (8-21 keV/3.4-5.7 keV) increased significantly as the total flux decreased by 30%. As the spectrum is well fit by the reflection model and since the spectra variability dominates the higher energy band, this could be explained by either a variation in the power law index or in the effective covering fraction of the reflecting material. This ambiguity is inherent in reflection modeling of Ginga spectra from moderate flux Seyfert 1 galaxies. Assuming that the power law index did not change, we find that the reflected flux is consistent with being constant, suggesting that much of the reflecting material may be located more than 3 light-days from the continuum source with the molecular torus being a plausible site. This scenario is also supported by the report of a narrow rather than broad iron K-alpha line in the ASCA data by Guainazzi et al. NGC 7469 was faint during the 1989 Ginga observation, but variability was observed with doubling timescale of 5 hr, and the spectrum was harder. A reflection component could not be constrained, and the change in the spectrum could be explained by an increase in neutral absorption. The brighter of two ROSAT spectra was significantly softer, and in both spectra there was evidence of spectral complexity, as has been previously reported by Turner, George, & Mushotzky and Brandt et al. The spectrum could be fit by a variety of two-component models, including a warm absorber model, an ionized disk model, and a thermal model with single-component blackbody spectrum, but joint fitting of the 1988 average Ginga spectrum and the nonsimultaneous ROSAT spectra favored thermal models, and other models required an anomalously high reflection ratio. This model is supported by the observation of a soft excess component and the lack of ionized absorption edges in the ASCA spectrum by Guainazzi et al. The long-term spectral variability could be explained by relative variability between the power-law and soft excess component normalizations, perhaps implying that hard X-ray reprocessing in thermal material does not dominate on long timescales

Ambipolar Heating of Magnetars

Magnetars, neutron stars thought to be with ultra-strong magnetic fields of $10^{14 - 15}$ G, are observed to be much hotter than ordinary pulsars with $\sim 10^{12}$ G, and additional heating sources are required. One possibility is heating by the ambipolar diffusion in the stellar core. This scenario is examined by calculating the models using the relativistic thermal evolutionary code without making the isothermal approximation. The results show that this scenario can be consistent with most of the observed magnetar temperature data.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Accepted by the Astrophysical Journal on February 9, 202

Isothermal Shock Formation in Non-Equatorial Accretion Flows around Kerr Black Holes

We explore isothermal shock formation in non-equatorial, adiabatic accretion flows onto a rotating black hole, with possible application to some active galactic nuclei (AGNs). The isothermal shock jump conditions as well as the regularity condition, previously developed for one-dimensional (1D) flows in the equatorial plane, are extended to two-dimensional (2D), non-equatorial flows, to explore possible geometrical effects. The basic hydrodynamic equations with these conditions are self-consistently solved in the context of general relativity to explore the formation of stable isothermal shocks. We find that strong shocks are formed in various locations above the equatorial plane, especially around a rapidly-rotating black hole with the prograde flows (rather than a Schwarzschild black hole). The retrograde flows are generally found to develop weaker shocks. The energy dissipation across the shock in the hot non-equatorial flows above the cooler accretion disk may offer an attractive illuminating source for the reprocessed features, such as the iron fluorescence lines, which are often observed in some AGNs.Comment: 22 pages with 11 figures, presented at 5th international conference on high energy density laboratory astrophysics in Tucson, Arizona. accepted to Ap