A blurred reflection interpretation for the intermediate flux state in Mrk 335

TL;DR

This study models the intermediate flux state of Mrk 335 using a blurred reflection framework, explaining spectral variability without partial covering and suggesting intrinsic changes in the primary emitter possibly linked to jet activity.

Contribution

It provides a self-consistent blurred reflection interpretation for Mrk 335's flux variability, challenging partial covering models and proposing intrinsic emitter changes.

Findings

Spectral variability driven by primary emitter shape changes.

Constant emissivity profile suggests stable blurring parameters.

Possible jet-related origin for primary emitter changes.

Abstract

As part of a long term monitoring campaign of Mrk 335, deep XMM-Newton observations catch the narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy (NLS1) in a complex, intermediate flux interval as the active galaxy is transiting from low- to high-flux. Other works on these same data examined the general behaviour of the NLS1 (Grupe et al.) and the conditions of its warm absorber (Longinotti et al.). The analysis presented here demonstrates the X-ray continuum and timing properties can be described in a self-consistent manner adopting a blurred reflection model with no need to invoke partial covering. The rapid spectral variability appears to be driven by changes in the shape of the primary emitter that is illuminating the inner accretion disc around a rapidly spinning black hole (a > 0.7). While light bending is certainly prominent, the rather constant emissivity profile and break radius obtained in our spectral fitting suggest that the blurring parameters are not changing as would be expected if the primary source is varying its distance from the disc. Instead changes could be intrinsic to the power law component. One possibility is that material in an unresolved jet above the disc falls to combine with material at the base of the jet producing the changes in the primary emitter (spectral slope and flux) without changing its distance from the disc.