Driving Extreme Variability - Measuring the evolving coronae and evidence for jet launching in AGN

TL;DR

This paper investigates the evolving structure of the corona near supermassive black holes in AGN, revealing how corona expansion correlates with X-ray luminosity changes and providing evidence for jet-launching activity during flares.

Contribution

It offers new insights into the corona's geometry and its evolution over different timescales, including evidence for jet-launching mechanisms in AGN.

Findings

Corona expands with increased X-ray luminosity.

Flares indicate corona reconfiguration and possible jet ejection.

Short-term variability shows complex corona behavior.

Abstract

Relativistically blurred reflection from the accretion disc provides a powerful probe of the extreme environments close to supermassive black holes; the inner regions of the accretion flow and the corona that produces the intense X-ray continuum. Techniques by which the geometry and extent of the corona can be measured through the observed X-ray spectrum are reviewed along with the evolution in the structure of the corona that is seen to accompany variations in the X-ray luminosity both on long and short timescales. Detailed analyses of the narrow line Seyfert 1 galaxies Markarian 335 and 1H0707-495, over observations with XMM-Newton as well as Suzaku and NuSTAR spanning nearly a decade reveal that increases in the X-ray luminosity coincide with an expansion of the corona to cover a larger area of the inner accretion disc. Underlying this long timescale variability lie more complex patterns of behaviour on short timescales. Flares in the X-ray emission during a low flux state of Mrk 335 observed in 2013 and 2014 are found to mark a reconfiguration of the corona while there is evidence that the flares were caused by a vertical collimation and ejection of coronal material, reminiscent of an aborted jet-launching event. Measurements of the corona and reflecting accretion disc are combined to infer the conditions on the inner disc that lead to the flaring event.