scholarly journals Possible evidence of a universal radio/X-ray correlation in a near-complete sample of hard X-ray selected seyfert galaxies

2021 ◽  
Vol 503 (2) ◽  
pp. 1987-1998
Author(s):  
N Chang ◽  
F G Xie ◽  
X Liu ◽  
L C Ho ◽  
A-J Dong ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Because the disc–jet coupling likely depends on various properties of sources probed, the sample control is always an important but challenging task. In this work, we re-analysed the INTEGRAL hard X-ray-selected sample of Seyfert galaxies. We only consider sources that have measurements in black hole (BH) mass, and luminosities in radio and X-rays. Our final sample includes 64 (out of the original 79) sources, consists of both bright active galactic nucleus and low-luminosity ones. The 2–10 keV X-ray Eddington ratio LX/LEdd locates in the range between ∼10−4.5 and ∼10−0.5. We first find that, because of the similarity in the LHX/LX distribution, the X-ray origin of radio-loud Seyferts may be the same to that of radio-quiet (RQ) ones, where we attribute to the hot accretion flow (or similarly, the corona). We then investigate the connections between luminosities in radio and X-rays. Since our sample suffers a selection bias of a BH mass MBH dependence on LX/LEdd, we focus on the correlation slope ξX between the radio (at 1.4 GHz) and X-ray luminosities in Eddington unit, i.e. $({L_{\rm R}}/{L_{\rm Edd}}) \propto ({L_{\rm X}}/{L_{\rm Edd}})^{\xi _{\rm X}}$. We classify the sources according to various properties, i.e. 1) Seyfert classification, 2) radio loudness, and 3) radio morphology. We find that, despite these differences in classification, all the sources in our sample are consistent with a universal correlation slope ξX (note that the normalization may be different), with ξX = 0.77 ± 0.10. This is unexpected, considering various possible radio emitters in RQ systems. For the jet (either relativistic and well collimated, or sub-relativistic and weakly collimated) interpretation, our result may suggest a common/universal but to be identified jet launching mechanism among all the Seyfert galaxies, while properties like BH spin and magnetic field strength only play secondary roles. We further estimate the jet production efficiency ηjet of Seyfert galaxies, which is $\eta _{\rm jet}\approx 1.9^{+0.9}_{-1.5}\times 10^{-4}$ on average. We also find that ηjet increases as the system goes fainter. Alternative scenarios for the radio emission in RQ systems are also discussed.

1998 ◽  
Vol 188 ◽  
pp. 145-148
Author(s):  
E.J.A. Meurs

Several IRAS galaxies have been detected at X-rays, with a variety of satellite observatories. About half of these are classified optically as Seyfert galaxies. Among those not (convincingly) classified as AGN, many have X-ray luminosities for which stellar evolution products offer convenient explanations. Some non-active IRAS galaxies display anomalously high levels of X-ray emission for which several conceivable origins are investigated: optical misclassification, X-ray misidentification, hidden AGN, incidental activity, starburst, environmental sources. X-ray spectral studies and temporal variations constitute important tools for further investigation, for instance to assess the strength of a starburst or to establish signatures of an active core.


Proceedings ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Ka-Wah Wong ◽  
Rodrigo S. Nemmen ◽  
Jimmy A. Irwin ◽  
Dacheng Lin

The nearby M87 hosts an exceptional relativistic jet. It has been regularly monitored in radio to TeV bands, but little has been done in hard X-rays ≳10 keV. For the first time, we have successfully detected hard X-rays up to 40 keV from its X-ray core with joint Chandra and NuSTAR observations, providing important insights to the X-ray origins: from the unresolved jet or the accretion flow. We found that the hard X-ray emission is significantly lower than that predicted by synchrotron self-Compton models introduced to explain very-high-energy γ -ray emission above a GeV. We discuss recent models to understand these high energy emission processes.


1977 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-125
Author(s):  
F.K. Lamb ◽  
A.C. Fabian ◽  
J.E. Pringle ◽  
D. Q. Lamb

We consider spherically symmetric accretion flow onto a strongly magnetized neutron star. We show that, under certain conditions, the flow is intermittent and that the resultant accretion luminosity (X-rays) from the stellar surface is akin to that observed in the bursting X-ray sources. We investigate the properties of such burst flows under a variety of conditions, in the hopes of providing a basic theoretical framework on which realistic models of the observed bursting sources can be built. This work was supported in part by NSF Grant PHY75-08790.


1994 ◽  
Vol 159 ◽  
pp. 380-380
Author(s):  
G. Matt ◽  
A.C. Fabian ◽  
R.R. Ross

The presence of iron lines and high energy excesses in the X-ray spectra of Seyfert galaxies has been firmly established by Ginga (e.g. Nandra & Pounds 1993 and references therein). These features are generally interpreted as signatures of the reprocessing of the primary X-rays by matter in the neighbourhood of the central black hole, probably distributed in an accretion disc (Lightman & White 1988, George & Fabian 1991, Matt, Perola & Piro 1991).


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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 492 (3) ◽  
pp. 3156-3168
Author(s):  
Wenhao Liu ◽  
Ming Sun ◽  
Paul E J Nulsen ◽  
Diana M Worrall ◽  
Mark Birkinshaw ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We present results from a deep (174 ks) Chandra observation of the FR-II radio galaxy 3C 220.1, the central brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) of a kT ∼ 4 keV cluster at z = 0.61. The temperature of the hot cluster medium drops from ∼5.9 to ∼3.9 keV at ∼35 kpc radius, while the temperature at smaller radii may be substantially lower. The central active galactic nucleus (AGN) outshines the whole cluster in X-rays, with a bolometric luminosity of 2.0 × 1046 erg s−1 (∼10 per cent of the Eddington rate). The system shows a pair of potential X-ray cavities ∼35 kpc east and west of the nucleus. The cavity power is estimated within the range of 1.0 × 1044 and 1.7 × 1045 erg s−1, from different methods. The X-ray enhancements in the radio lobes could be due to inverse Compton emission, with a total 2–10 keV luminosity of ∼8.0 × 1042 erg s−1. We compare 3C 220.1 with other cluster BCGs, including Cygnus A, as there are few BCGs in rich clusters hosting an FR-II galaxy. We also summarize the jet power of FR-II galaxies from different methods. The comparison suggests that the cavity power of FR-II galaxies likely underestimates the jet power. The properties of 3C 220.1 suggest that it is at the transition stage from quasar-mode feedback to radio-mode feedback.


2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (S275) ◽  
pp. 255-259
Author(s):  
M. Coriat ◽  
S. Corbel ◽  
L. Prat ◽  
J. C. A. Miller-Jones ◽  
D. Cseh ◽  
...  

AbstractIn recent years, numerous efforts have been devoted to unravel the connection between accretion flow and jets in accreting compact objects. Here we report new constraints on these issues, through the long term study of the radio and X-ray behaviour of the black hole candidate H 1743–322. This source is known to be one of the “outliers” of the universal radio/X-ray correlation, i.e. a group of stellar mass accreting black holes displaying fainter radio emission for a given X-ray luminosity, than expected from the correlation. In this work we find, at high X-ray luminosity in the hard state, a tight radio/X-ray correlation with an unusual steep slope of b = 1.38 ± 0.03. This correlation then breaks below ~5 × 10−3LEdd (M/10M⊙)−1 in X-rays and becomes shallower. When compared with radio/X-ray data from other black hole X-ray binaries, we see that the deviant points of H 1743–322 join the universal correlation and seem to follow it at low luminosity. Based on these results, we investigate several hypotheses that could explain both the b ~ 1.4 slope and the transition toward the universal correlation.


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.


Author(s):  
D. E. Johnson ◽  
M. Isaacson

Electron microprobe analysis has been used increasingly in, recent years for low Z analysis of thin biological sections. Although this technique has produced useful results, the sensitivity is limited by two main factors. First, the fluorescence yield (wK) decreases rapidly with decreasing Z. Using the value of wK (for carbon for example, only about one out of every 400 K ionizations in carbon results in a carbon x-ray. Second, this poor x-ray production efficiency is coupled with the inherently poor x-ray collection efficiency of most microprobe detectors. In thin sections the x-rays are emitted uniformly over 4TT steradians but the detector subtends only a small solid angle at the specimen. Hall estimates the collection efficiency of most diffracting detectors at 10−4 and, with the qualification of much lower peak to background ratios, he estimates the collection efficiency of solid state nondiffractive detectors as 10−4 to 10−2.


2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (S267) ◽  
pp. 313-318
Author(s):  
Rodrigo S. Nemmen ◽  
Thaisa Storchi-Bergmann ◽  
Michael Eracleous ◽  
Feng Yuan

AbstractLow-luminosity active galactic nuclei (LLAGNs) represent the bulk of the AGN population in the present-day universe and they trace low-level accreting supermassive black holes. The observational properties of LLAGNs suggest that their central engines are intrinsically different from those of more luminous AGNs. It has been suggested that accretion in LLAGNs occurs via an advection-dominated accretion flow (ADAF) associated with strong jets. In order to probe the accretion physics in LLAGNs as a class, we model the multiwavelength spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of 24 LINERs (taken from a recent compilation by Eracleous et al.) with a coupled accretion-jet model. The accretion flow is modeled as an inner ADAF outside of which there is a truncated standard thin disk. These SEDs include radio, near-IR to near-UV HST data, and Chandra X-ray data. We find that the radio emission is severely underpredicted by ADAF models but can be explained by the relativistic jet. The origin of the X-ray radiation in most sources can be explained by three distinct scenarios: the X-rays can be dominated by emission from the ADAF, the jet, or from both components contributing at similar levels. From the model fits, we estimate important parameters of the central engine of LINERs, such as the mass accretion rate — relevant for studies of the feeding of AGNs — and the mass-loss rate in the jet and the jet power — relevant for studies of the kinetic feedback from jets.


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